• Princess Charlotte turned 10 in May.
• As Prince William and Kate Middleton's second child, she's third in line for the British throne.
• Although her life is mostly private, Charlotte shows peeks of her personality at royal engagements.

The roles of "heir" and "spare" have haunted royal siblings for centuries.

The very existence of secondborn children in the British royal family is tied to a crown they'll ideally never hold, as they serve as backups to the direct heirs to the throne.

Still, spares can play a critical role in the monarchy, as was the case for King George VI, who became monarch in 1936 after his brother abdicated. Even as it adapts to the modern world, the heir and spare dynamic continues to shape the monarchy, as evidenced by the title — and contents — of Prince Harry's 2023 memoir.

In the latest generation of royals, Princess Charlotte is the spare to Prince George's heir. However, at just 10, Charlotte is already breaking the mold she was born into, charting a new path for the royals.

Here's everything to know about Princess Charlotte.

Princess Charlotte joins the royal family

In a press release on September 8, 2014, Kensington Palace announced that Kate Middleton was expecting her and Prince William's second child. The statement also said that Kate had hyperemesis gravidarum, as she did with her first pregnancy, and would be missing an engagement in Oxford that day as a result.

Charlotte was born on May 2, 2015, at 8:34 a.m., at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London, just like Prince George, Prince William, and Prince Harry were.

William and Kate debuted their daughter to the world during a photocall on the hospital's steps the same day she was born. Kate posed for photos on the hospital's steps after each of her children's births, following in Princess Diana's footsteps.

Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, and at the time of her birth, her title was Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.

Charlotte is the feminine version of Charles, her grandfather's name. Her middle names nod to her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and her late grandmother, Princess Diana.

At her birth, Charlotte was fourth in the royal line of succession, behind her grandfather, father, and older brother.

Queen Elizabeth II ensured Charlotte's position in the line wouldn't be affected by her gender through the Succession to the Crown Act in 2013. The act changed a long-standing rule that male siblings superseded their female siblings' position in the line to the throne. If it hadn't been passed, Prince Louis' birth in 2018 would have moved Charlotte down the line of succession.

After Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, King Charles III made William the Prince of Wales, so his daughter's title became Princess Charlotte of Wales. Likewise, she moved up to third in line for the throne after her great-grandmother's death.

Princess Charlotte's royal life

According to the royal family's website, the princess was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in July 2015. Prince George was photographed peering into her stroller at the ceremony.

Charlotte has five godparents, including Kate's cousin, Adam Middleton.

Kate and William released a few photos of the princess as a baby, but she didn't join her parents on an overseas tour until she was 16 months old, in September 2016, when she went with her family to Canada.

Charlotte and Kate wore color-coordinating outfits throughout the trip, a tradition they've kept up throughout Charlotte's life.

Charlotte became a big sister in 2018 when Prince Louis was born, completing the Wales family. The princess attended Thomas's Battersea school in London from 2019 to 2021, and she began attending the Lambrook School after the Wales family relocated to Windsor full-time in 2022.

William and Kate have balanced their children's royal roles with their privacy as they've grown up, allowing them to attend only a handful of royal engagements each year and releasing photos of them for special occasions, like birthdays or holidays.

Charlotte appears annually at Trooping the Colour and the royal family's Christmas walk at Sandringham. She has also been present for milestone moments for the royals, like Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September 2022 and King Charles' coronation in May 2023.

Charlotte often appears to be the most comfortable of her siblings at royal engagements, speaking with members of the public and even correcting her brothers on royal protocol.

The young princess has also been spotted attending less formal events from time to time, showing off a more authentic side of the royal family in the process.

Kensington Palace shared photos of Charlotte at the Eras Tour in June 2024, smiling with William, George, and Taylor Swift. She also joined her mother at Wimbledon in July 2024, accompanying Kate to the first solo engagement she attended after announcing her cancer diagnosis.

Charlotte's comfort in the spotlight, even compared to her older brother, differentiates her from royal "spares" of the past, who are often relegated to the role of wild child in comparison to the heir's steadiness. She seems calm and competent at public events, and she may already be taking after her great-aunt Princess Anne, whose steadfastness is an asset to King Charles.

At only 10, it's clear Princess Charlotte's future in the royal family is bright.

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

Good morning! President Donald Trump officially accepted a gifted Boeing 747-8 from Qatar. The plane has been controversial over the potential conflict of interest it poses. But what's it like inside? Look at what's set to be the new Air Force One.

In today's big story, talk is swirling that private equity's recruiting cycle is ramping up, and recent grads are on edge.

What's on deck

Markets: A US recession could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tech: Internal memos from one of Microsoft's AI leaders show how he plans to transform the tech giant.

Business: Things are not going great for Target.

But first, may the odds be ever in your favor.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Ready, set, PE

While most recent college graduates are getting ready for their new jobs, a select group is considering their next one.

Some private-equity firms are setting up informal, introductory meetings with soon-to-be junior investment bankers before their caps even hit the ground. These so-called "coffee chats" are the precursor to interviews for jobs that won't start for another two years. The process kicking off so early has hopeful financiers on edge, BI's Emmalyse Brownstein, Reed Alexander, and Alex Nicoll write.

Welcome to Wall Street's "Hunger Games."

If the above sounds confusing, I don't blame you. PE's recruiting cycle doesn't make much sense. Before you start working at your first job (investment banking analyst), you're already interviewing for your second job (private-equity associate).

Take a minute to read the last sentence again if you need to.

Still, that's how things often work on Wall Street: always thinking two steps ahead.

The summer internship that leads to the junior-banker job offer is often secured well over a year before it starts. And your best shot at getting one of those is your university's finance club, which you need to start thinking about the second you get on campus.

Speaking of college, you'd better plan on getting into a target school if … well, you get the idea.

PE firms might eventually find themselves flying too close to the sun.

The junior-banker-to-PE pipeline has been mutually beneficial.

Banks don't have to worry about competing with PE firms for young talent. PE firms don't have to worry about training associates on the basics of dealmaking.

But the ever-earlier timeline hasn't gone unnoticed, and at least one high-profile banker has called PE firms on it.

Speaking at Georgetown University last fall, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said junior bankers taking PE jobs before starting as analysts was "unethical."

"I don't like it, and I may eliminate it regardless of what the private-equity guys say," he added.

To be fair, some PE headhunters tried slowing things down with an industry pact. It didn't take long for one headhunter to break it.

Banks are in a similar conundrum. If they ban analysts from pursuing PE jobs too early, they risk losing out on talent.

After all, plenty of aspiring Wall Streeters just view banks as a stepping stone to getting a job in PE. If they start actively preventing that, what purpose do they serve them?

3 things in markets

1. Could America be inadvertently pushing itself into a recession? Doug Ramsey, CIO of The Leuthold Group, thinks it might. In a note to clients, Ramsey pointed to a deteriorating consumer sentiment, which poses a major risk to the recession outlook. He's keeping an eye on a handful of sentiment indicators.

2. The bond market is flipping out, but Morgan Stanley isn't fazed. Though US deficit fears triggered a sell-off in the bond market, strategists at the bank warned against hopping on the "Sell America" train. "TINA — 'there is no alternative' — remains a theme for now," they wrote.

3. The stock market is flashing signals that another dip is coming — and investors should buy it, analysts at BoA say. A technical indicator suggests a near-term drop in stock prices is coming, but BoA says the market is still in a broader uptrend.

3 things in tech

1. Meta's performance reviews are about to get harder. Managers are being told to put more employees in their "below expectations" rank — the lowest performer bucket — in the coming midyear performance reviews, per an internal memo seen by BI. The move could set the stage for more performance-based layoffs, despite 4,000 low performers being cut months ago.

2. OpenAI just bagged a $6.5 billion acquisition. Sam Altman's company is buying IO, a hardware startup from former Apple exec Jony Ive — the guy who designed the iPhone. It shows the generative AI competition is now about distribution, not technology, writes BI's Alistair Barr.

3. How Microsoft is bringing its "age of AI agents" to reality. In January, CEO Satya Nadella tapped Jay Parikh, the ex-head of engineering at Facebook, to lead a new unit called CoreAI, which is crucial to Microsoft's AI ambition. Internal memos from Parikh, and viewed by BI, reveal his plan to get Microsoft focused on the macro, CoreAI's early accomplishments, and more.

3 things in business

1. Target reports tumbling sales. In an earnings call, Target said the backlash from reframing its DEI program was one of the many headwinds that had an adverse impact on sales, but the exact amount wasn't quantifiable. Some DEI supporters have claimed partial victory, but many say they're not satisfied — and more protests are coming.

2. Is Musk what Tesla needs right now? BI asked four people who have worked with him, as the CEO steps back from DOGE to focus on Tesla amid falling sales and growing competition. One said Musk was Tesla's "product manager," but questioned whether he's the right person to lead the embattled EV maker.

3. Big Law firms say they're not being bribed by Trump. Nine white-shoe firms doubled down on their deals to provide a collective $940 million in pro- bono work for the Trump administration. In letters to Congress, they flatly rejected allegations that the deals were unethical.

In other news

• Remote workers flocked to jobs overseas. Now they're being ordered home.
• Walmart says it's cutting roles to 'remove layers and complexity.'
• What we know about Trump's secretive private dinner for top holders of his memecoin.
• Goldman Sachs shares 20 'rising star' stocks that a growing number of hedge funds are betting on.
• Tesla is now accepting Cybertruck trade-ins. Two owners showed BI how much their vehicles have depreciated.
• Fortnite is the No. 1 game after Apple let it back on the App Store. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tells BI it's a 'priceless' win.
• Founder of AI tool for cheating in interviews predicts everyone will do it — and technical job interviews are on their way out.
• Disney could get a surprise win from Universal's big bet on Epic Universe.

What's happening today

• Trump hosts a gala for the top 220 holders of his memecoin.
• Immigration court hearing on ICE detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student who led pro-Palestine protests on campus.

• Universal Orlando Resort opens new theme park, Universal Epic Universe.

  ---

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

• I tried beef hot dogs from Nathan's, Sabrett, Applegate, and Ball Park.
• Ball Park had the thickest frank, but I thought Applegate's organic hot dogs packed the most flavor.
• I didn't think Sabrett's less-than-flavorful hot dogs warranted their higher price tag.

Nothing says summer quite like a crispy, cooked hot dog with just the right amount of snap.

The sausage industry recognizes the months between Memorial Day and Labor Day as hot dog season, the time of year when the most hot dogs are consumed.

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council reported that Americans consume roughly 7 billion hot dogs during this time and produce roughly $614 million in hot-dog sales.

Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, I decided to try four different kinds of hot dogs to see which one I would choose for my own cookout.

I opted for beef hot dogs from Applegate, Sabrett, Nathan's, and Ball Park. The Sabrett, Nathan's, and Ball Park packages each included eight beef franks, while the Applegate package included six.

I cooked each type of hot dog the same way. Then I tried each one on a Martin's long potato roll, topped with Heinz ketchup and French's classic yellow mustard.

Here's how all four hot-dog brands ranked, from worst to best.

My least favorite brand that I tried was the Sabrett skinless beef frankfurters.

This was the second-most expensive brand I tried. A pack of eight hot dogs cost $8.49, excluding taxes and fees. Since it's a New York brand — and I live in the city — I half-expected to pay a little less for a local product.

The hot dog was about the same thickness as the Nathan's hot dog, which I ultimately ranked higher.

The Sabrett hot dog fit perfectly inside the potato roll bun without hanging too much off either end.

I felt like the flavor in the Sabrett hot dog was lacking.

The only flavors that came through were from the ketchup and mustard, which is a distinct no-no in my book as far as hot dogs go.

While the texture wasn't overly chewy, I thought it didn't have the distinct snap I often look for in a hot dog. 

While it wasn't bad by any means, I didn't think this brand was worth the higher price tag.

I also tried a New York staple: Nathan's skinless beef franks.

Nathan's is a New York institution famous for its annual Coney Island hot-dog-eating contest on July 4.

I managed to snag an eight-pack of these hot dogs on sale at my local Key Food.

The original price was $9.79, but I managed to get them for just $4.49, excluding tax.

I thought the Nathan's hot dogs were a perfect size.

It looked like a really classic hot dog you would eat on the pier in summertime: crispy on the outside, while still retaining that classic red hot-dog color.

The hot dog from Nathan's tasted slightly saltier than the other varieties.

I needed water after just a few bites of this hot dog, and I definitely couldn't imagine consuming dozens of them to win a contest.

Overall, it was a flavorful hot dog with a slightly snappy texture, but the salty aftertaste made it nothing to call home about.

My second-favorite brand was Ball Park's beef hot dogs.

The Ball Park pack of eight hot dogs cost me $8.69, excluding taxes and fees. It was the most expensive brand I tried.

The Ball Park hot dogs were the thickest and shortest ones on my list.

I also noticed they cooked a lot faster than the other brands. While the other brands retained their red, crispy consistency in the pan, the Ball Park dogs quickly began to char and crisp up after only a minute or two of cooking.

I personally like really well-done, almost charred hot dogs, but it's something to keep in mind if you have different preferences. 

The Ball Park dog was well done on the outside, but the inside was still slightly chewy.

I thought the hot dog had a nice, smoky flavor that was complemented by the bun and condiments. The flavor came through, even though I wasn't crazy about what I thought was a slightly more rubbery texture.

My favorite hot-dog brand was Applegate's organic uncured-beef hot dogs.

The pack of six franks cost me $8.99 at my local Key Food grocery store, excluding taxes and fees.

The pack came with six hot dogs, two fewer than the other packs.

This smaller package count is definitely something to consider if you're planning for a large cookout.

When the Applegate hot dog was done cooking, I noticed it was skinnier than the other brands.

I wondered whether it would be less filling, or how the slightly thinner shape would affect the eating experience. 

Right away, I noticed that the hot dog had a lot of flavor and the frank had a satisfying snap.

The ketchup and mustard definitely came through but didn't overpower the hot dog's distinctly savory, beefy taste. 

Despite being the thinnest dog, it also didn't taste like an unbalanced hot-dog-to-bun ratio. Every ingredient was perfectly complementary. 

In the end, I had to give the win to Applegate.

I was surprised that this brand won. Even though I call New York City home, neither of the local brands, Nathan's or Sabrett, deserved the win in my book. 

I thought Applegate's hot dog, though thinner than the others, had the best flavor and texture. It was also a great value, despite the pack being two dogs short. If I had to choose which hot dog brand to eat at my cookout, it would be Applegate hot dogs all the way.

• I flew with JetBlue from NYC to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in an EvenMore seat.
• JetBlue's EvenMore rows are premium economy seats with extra legroom.
• I booked basic economy and was upgraded for free. I found that the perks went beyond extra space.

When I booked a six-hour JetBlue flight from NYC to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in basic economy, I didn't expect to feel pampered.

I've flown with this budget airline dozens of times to spend as little as possible on airfare, so I know the drill — get my seat assignment at the gate, and board last.

But this time was different. I was lucky enough to get into the EvenMore section, the airline's premium economy seating, for no additional cost.

The perks went beyond having a more spacious seat at the front of the cabin. By the time I landed, I was already planning to dish out more cash to experience the upgrade on another long-haul flight.

I booked a basic economy seat for my international JetBlue flight.

Living in Queens, New York, I usually book JetBlue flights since the airline has a hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

I booked my basic economy ticket 26 days before my trip for about $300. At this point, I had no idea I'd be getting more than I paid for.

A representative from JetBlue couldn't provide a ticket price for an EvenMore seat on my flight, so I used Best Fare Finder to look at prices for the same flight a month from now. Basic economy was about the same price, $310, and the EvenMore ticket cost about $490.

I got to the airport at 2:30 p.m. for my 5:48 p.m. flight to Vancouver on a Monday afternoon.

Since traveling internationally, I arrived three hours before my flight. Thanks to TSA PreCheck, I was through security and at my nearby gate 15 minutes later.

I got my seat assignment at the gate and was surprised to find it was toward the front of the aircraft.

Gate attendants spaced out their calls for passengers who needed seat assignments in the hour before boarding. My name was called in the final group, so I had already made peace with the idea of sitting at the back of the plane.

When I looked at the seat number on my boarding pass, my eyes widened — 9A, it read.

"Wow, that's on the front end," I thought. I'd seen JetBlue's premium economy seating many times on my way to my seat on past flights, and I wondered if nine was a low enough number to be my golden ticket to comfort.

I found out I had a premium economy seat when I boarded.

I flew on JetBlue's A321 Classic with Mint. Mint refers to the business class section — the highest class on this plane — located in rows one through five. The economy cabin had three rows of seats on each side. The first five rows — six through 10 — were EvenMore seats.

The EvenMore seats — part of a January 2025 rebrand of JetBlue's Even More Space section — are the same size as basic economy but with more cushioning and leg room. EvenMore tickets also come with early boarding and priority security privileges at select airports, but since I booked a basic economy seat, I was still in the final boarding group.

Although I was among the last to board, there was still overhead bin space for my carry-on right above my seat. I thought I'd just gotten lucky again, but I later learned that one of the perks of EvenMore seating is having storage space designated for you.

The seat was far more comfortable than a basic economy seat.

When I saw my spacious window seat, I had a feeling I'd never had before while boarding a flight — I was excited to sit down.

The seat cushioning felt thick and supportive, and the headrest felt like a firm pillow. Unlike most long-haul flights I've taken, I didn't experience any neck or back pain in the EvenMore row.

Beneath my seat, there was a power outlet and a USB port. All JetBlue seats have this perk, as well as free WiFi.

I had more than enough leg room.

According to SeatGuru, the basic economy rows on this plane are 33 inches apart, while EvenMore rows are between 37 and 41 inches apart.

At 5-foot-3, I had plenty of space to stretch out with my backpack under the seat.

In front of me was a roughly 10-inch seatback entertainment screen.

The entertainment system seemed a bit outdated to me — the interface wasn't as user-friendly as the screens I've experienced on newer JetBlue planes, but I thought it made sense since the plane fleet came out in 2014.

The system had new movies like "Gladiator II" and "A Complete Unknown," classics like "A League of Their Own," and a few episodes of TV shows like "Blue's Clues" and "Modern Family." The system also had more than 100 DirecTV channels.

We were stuck on the tarmac for over an hour before taking off.

We sat on the tarmac until 7:09 p.m. as the pilot periodically updated us on the situation. They said takeoff was delayed due to airport traffic and low visibility, but assured us we'd arrive around the scheduled time.

We landed at 9:20 p.m. PT — just 15 minutes later than scheduled.

Once in the air, flight attendants came around with an exclusive treat for premium passengers.

After takeoff, a flight attendant announced that EvenMore passengers would be offered a "welcome treat." They handed me a small bag of Tate's chocolate chip cookies — an exclusive snack that isn't provided to basic economy passengers.

The EvenMore rows also got drinks and snacks before the service was announced for basic economy travelers. I wasn't expecting these perks and felt like a VIP guest.

Hungry for more, I took a look at the menu.

There were $10 snack boxes with kosher and gluten-free options, $13 meals from sandwiches to salads, and $10 craft beers and mini liquor bottles — though EvenMore passengers get three complimentary alcoholic beverages.

The menu also had amenities like blankets, earplugs, sleep masks, and wired earbuds for the entertainment system, ranging from $2 to $10. EvenMore passengers get complimentary earbuds.

Instead of splurging on a meal, I hit the complimentary pantry.

All JetBlue passengers can access the "pantry" — a self-service snack and beverage station with water bottles, canned sodas, plantain chips, Goldfish, granola bars, and Biscoff cookies.

There was a pantry between the business class and EvenMore rows, so it was easy to access. We were in the air for five hours, so I appreciated being able to curb my hunger whenever I needed to without spending a dime.

I was glad I didn't have to go to the back of the cabin to use the bathroom.

There was a clean bathroom across from the pantry in front of the EvenMore rows. It had an outlet and was stocked with seat covers, facial tissues, and paper towels.

Five hours after takeoff, we landed in Vancouver.

When we arrived in Canada, it was past midnight for me, so it was surreal to see the sun still setting as we prepared for landing. The sun had set completely by the time we were on the ground.

Since I'm usually seated toward the back of the plane on flights, I typically expect to stay seated for at least 10 minutes before it's my turn to deplane. But in seat 9A, I was out in less than five.

Experiencing premium economy for free was a treat. Having it on an international flight was even sweeter.

While $180 sounds like a lot for an upgrade still in economy seating, the comfort and perks made my international journey much more pleasant than I anticipated.

I wouldn't upgrade to EvenMore for a short, domestic flight, but I would for any journey five hours or longer for a more relaxing ride. Next time I'm traveling far from home, arriving at my destination feeling refreshed and free of back pain will be worth the added price.

• BMW and Mercedes were outsold at the top of China's car market last year by a domestic brand.
• Aito sold 151,000 vehicles, with its M9 SUV proving popular.
• The brand is owned by Seres, which has tripled sales in three years with its pivot to EVs.

A Chinese electric vehicle brand has overtaken longtime market leaders BMW and Mercedes-Benz at the top of the world's biggest auto market.

Aito, an EV brand launched by Seres Group and tech giant Huawei, topped China's high-end car sales last year with 151,000 units delivered — surpassing BMW's 145,000 and Mercedes-Benz's 127,000, according to data from Shanghai-based consultancy ThinkerCar.

Aito's rise is largely due to the success of its flagship M9, a luxury SUV that went on sale in late 2023.

The M9 quickly proved popular with Chinese drivers thanks to its tech-heavy features, including Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system, a triple-screen dashboard, and premium interior options.

Seres, previously known for low-cost minivans under its DFSK Motor brand, repositioned itself with the Aito brand after forming a strategic partnership with Huawei in 2021.

Since then, rapid growth has resulted. Vehicle sales tripled over three years to about 427,000 units last year, and its stock rose by 120% on the Shanghai exchange over the same period.

Aito's success reflects a major shift in China's premium auto segment, which was once dominated by foreign brands. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz was top with 259,000 sales, followed by BMW on 235,000 and Porsche on 79,000, per ThinkerCar data.

By 2024, Chinese EV makers such as Aito and NIO had broken into the rankings, disrupting what ThinkerCar described as a BMW, Benz, and Audi "monopoly."

Sales of Chinese EVs are also rising outside their home market.

BYD outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time in April, according to JATO Dynamics data released on Thursday.

BYD also outsold Tesla globally in the first three months of the year, selling about 416,000 EVs, compared with Tesla's 336,700 EVs.

• A German brigade has started operations in Lithuania, a NATO state that borders part of Russia.
• It's the first time Germany has put troops in another country on a long-term basis since World War II.
• Both countries describe it as a step to protect Europe and NATO.

Germany has stationed troops abroad on a long-term basis for the first time since World War II, with a new brigade starting operations in Lithuania on Thursday.

The inauguration ceremony for Germany's 45th Armoured Brigade "Lithuania" took place in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital. Lithuania's defense ministry said it marked "the official beginning of this military unit's operations in Lithuania."

The move has been framed by both Lithuania and Germany as one intended to protect Europe and NATO at large, particularly against Russia.

Some have warned that Russia might not stop at Ukraine, and could attack elsewhere in Europe.

Dovilė Šakalienė, Lithuania's defense minister, said in a statement on Thursday that Germany's troops "are here to defend freedom as well as the entire alliance."

She also called Germany's deployment of its troops "a historic example of leadership."

Brig. Gen. Christoph Huber, the commander of the 45th Armored Brigade, said in April that it was being created "for the alliance, for Lithuania, for Europe's security."

The move is a notable one for Germany, which has leaned away from heavy defense actions and spending since World War II.

But Germany's defense spending has grown since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this month that his government will provide resources to make its army the "strongest conventional army in Europe."

Lithuania, a NATO member state that borders the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, as well as Russian ally Belarus, has been one of Ukraine's most vocal allies since Russia launched its invasion.

It is also one of NATO's biggest defense spenders as a proportion of its GDP, and one of the countries warning the loudest about future Russian aggression.

Lithuania's defense ministry said on Thursday that there are already around 500 soldiers from Germany in the country, and that the German brigade will now be permanently relocated to Lithuania, including three manoeuvre battalions and all of its combat support and logistics.

The brigade aims to be at full capacity by the end of 2027, which would mean 5,000 German soldiers and civilians operating there.

Šakalienė said that Lithuania "will continue to do everything to create all the infrastructure on time, to provide the necessary host nation support, and to ensure that the German soldiers feel at home."

US troops are also serving in Lithuania, something Šakalienė told BI in February she hoped would continue, even as President Donald Trump distances himself from longtime allies in Europe.

Šakalienė said her country wanted US troops to stay and said she expected the US could see "eye to eye" with countries that pay enough on defense.

Šakalienė also told BI that Europe "needs to up our defense spending very fast and very significantly," and that Europe's defense production needs to increase to match Russia's.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked a flurry of defense agreements between countries, and a boost in military spending and production across Europe.

• Christopher Cuozzo is a custom suit designer based in Boston whose clients include Karoline Leavitt.
• He shared his workwear and formalwear pet peeves, including improper buttoning of suits and tuxedos.
• Cuozzo also said that wearing sneakers with suits is "extremely overdone."

What counts as a fashion faux pas can be subjective, but there are some style choices that suit designer Christopher Cuozzo just can't stand.

Cuozzo, a bespoke menswear and womenswear designer whose clients include White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, told Business Insider that fashion is an art form like any other. Inevitably, people express different tastes and preferences when it comes to their personal style.

"Everybody's going to have their opinion on how something should fit or how something should look, and that's the beauty of it," he said. "Nobody's necessarily right, and nobody's necessarily wrong."

That being said, Cuozzo does have certain pet peeves as a craftsman who cares deeply about how a suit is worn.

Here are five style mistakes he wishes people would stop making.

Mistake #1: Buttoning the bottom of a 2-button jacket

If a jacket has two buttons, Cuozzo says only the top one should ever be buttoned. The bottom one should never be closed in order to maintain the proper fit and style etiquette.

"One of my pet peeves on a two-button jacket is seeing the bottom button buttoned," he told BI. "It's a massive faux pas. I can't stand that."

Mistake #2: Wearing an unbuttoned tuxedo

Tuxedos are about as formal as it gets. Wearing one unbuttoned sends mixed messages, especially at black-tie occasions such as weddings.

Cuozzo urges grooms and others wearing tuxedos at weddings to walk down the aisle with the jacket buttoned to avoid looking too casual.

"It's the most formal day of your life. Please, button your tuxedo jacket," he said.

Mistake #3: Wearing a suit with an untucked shirt

Similar to an unbuttoned tuxedo, an untucked shirt undermines the formality of a suit, Cuozzo says.

"Your dress shirt is untucked, but you're wearing a suit — that's a complete oxymoron," he said. "That would drive me insane."

Mistake #4: Leaving stitching in the vents of a suit

Off-the-rack jackets typically come with the vents, or slits, stitched closed on the back or sides. Those vents are supposed to be opened after purchasing, but not everyone realizes that.

When Cuozzo makes a custom suit, he removes the stitches for the client to help them avoid this style misstep.

"We actually don't give the suit to a client unless it's open," he said. "If you go and you buy a suit off the rack, you'll see people wearing it with the vent still closed, and it just drives me bananas."

Mistake #5: Wearing sneakers with suits

Cuozzo told BI that pairing sneakers — especially high-top shoes like Jordans — with suits is "extremely overdone."

"The pant doesn't even fit the sneaker. The tongue is in the way. That is one of my biggest pet peeves," Cuozzo said of the suits-with-sneakers look. "And then, you'll see guys on the red carpet wearing sneakers with a tuxedo, and I'm just like, 'This has gone way too far.'"

Cuozzo says that there are rare cases where he'd style a suit this way, such as a more casual suit with a drawstring closure worn with a white T-shirt and clean white sneakers. Otherwise, he says formalwear requires formal footwear to match.

"There's just these colliding philosophies where you're wearing a shirt and tie, which tells me you're all business, then I look down at your feet, and you're wearing Jordans. Like, what's going on here?" he said. "Are we going to a meeting, or are we going to a basketball game? You can't do both."

• Tom Cruise returns with death-defying stunts in "Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning."
• In 2023, Cruise told Business Insider that he's "always pushing" to make his films bigger and better.
• Cruise's commitment to his craft, including doing his own stunts, keeps audiences coming back for more.

From climbing the world's tallest building to clinging to the wing of a plane in flight and even jumping on Oprah's couch — there's a reason why Tom Cruise is the last great action star.

It's simple: stunts.

In the 15 years since the release of 2011's "Ghost Protocol," the fourth "Mission: Impossible" film, Cruise has done increasingly hair-raising stunts in each of his new movies.

Earlier in his career, Cruise acted in a greater mix of genres, including the 1994 horror "Interview with the Vampire," the 1996 comedy-drama "Jerry Maguire," and the 1999 erotic thriller "Eyes Wide Shut." In that era, he was considered widely a sex symbol.

Now, he trades in extraordinary feats.

"I'm always pushing," Tom Cruise told Business Insider in 2023 on the red carpet for "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning."

"Every time they say, 'Can you top it? Can you not top it?' We're always pushing. Every film I do, whatever genre it's in, I want to make it as entertaining as possible for that audience. I know I can do things better," he said.

And it's a winning tactic. "Top Gun: Maverick," in which Cruise flew in real fighter jets, raked in $1.5 billion in 2022, while "Dead Reckoning," where he leapt off a mountain on a motorbike, made $567 million.

In "Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning," which is out on Friday, Cruise performs two nerve-shredding stunts: a scuba dive into the wreck of a submarine that rolls down into an ocean trench, and the climactic third act, where his character clings on to a biplane in flight.

It's expected to make $80 million in its opening weekend, The Hollywood Reporter reported, citing the National Research Group.

Cruise's enduring star power can even grab the attention of the most seasoned industry insiders. Rob Mitchell, the director of theatrical insights at film tech company Gower St. Analytics, recalled working as a sales analyst at Paramount in 2011, when employees did a set visit to see Cruise climb the Burj Khalifa.

"Everyone was taking pictures inside the Burj Khalifa, with Tom Cruise outside waving in," he told BI.

These sorts of stunts signal to audiences that Cruise is a bona fide star who is hardworking and takes his craft seriously—all ingredients of a movie more likely to be worth their hard-earned cash.

Referring to "Mission: Impossible," Mitchell said: "There comes a point where people aren't really going for the story as much as they are for the excitement and the thrills."

"In an era dominated by CGI superheroes, Cruise's staying power lies in the 'authenticity' of his performances," Stuart Joy, the course leader of film and TV at Solent University, UK, told BI. "Like Christopher Nolan, he champions analogue filmmaking in a digital age. But while Nolan does so behind the camera through practical effects and large-format film, Cruise embodies it on screen through real stunts and real danger."

Cruise's dedication to filmmaking has taken him around the world. During an interview at the BFI in London in May, he said he would "force" studios to send him to different countries to learn how movies were made there.

He also said encourages younger stars to "spend time in the editing room, produce a movie, study old movies, recognize what the composition is giving you, know what those lenses are, understand the lighting and how to use it for your benefit."

Last year, Cruise's "Top Gun: Maverick" costar Glen Powell told GQ that he was sent to a theater in Los Angeles to watch a six-hour "film-school" movie that Cruise made just for his friends.

"[Cruise] is like: 'Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…' The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go 'OK, this is what a plane is. Here's how things fly. Here's how air pressure works,'" Powell said.

Centering his career around stunts is a smart PR move

As well as being undeniably impressive, stunts help to keep past controversies out of the conversation, Joy said.

"Cruise's transition from character-driven roles to stunt-centered performances seems intentional, not just as a creative decision but as a deliberate attempt to recalibrate public perceptions of his star persona," he said.

"After the mid-2000s controversies (most infamously the Oprah's sofa moment and scrutiny of his ties to Scientology) Cruise has successfully redirected the audience's attention," Joy added, referring to the moment in 2005 when he jumped on Winfrey's sofa while talking about his love for his then-girlfriend, and now ex-wife, Katie Holmes.

"Rather than inviting emotional connection through vulnerability, he now earns our praise and admiration through the spectacle of physical risk," Joy said.

Next, Cruise plans to shoot a movie in space with his "Edge of Tomorrow" and "American Made" collaborator, director Doug Liman.

In 2020, Deadline reported that Universal planned to spend $200 million on the film, and collaborate with Elon Musk's SpaceX to shoot it. Cruise and Liman were originally set to take flight in 2021, but the project is yet to materialize.

If it does get off the ground, audiences will likely flock to see "the ultimate Tom Cruise movie," as Mitchell puts it.

But wherever Cruise's career takes him next, Joy said that one thing is for certain: "He's made himself the guardian of a traditional cinematic spectacle."

• Axle Health just raised $10 million to bring Uber-style logistics to home healthcare.
• Demand for hospital-at-home care is exploding, and clinicians are scrambling to keep up.
• Axle's AI-powered platform matches a provider to the appropriate patient to save time and money.

More hospitals want to bring care into the home, but many are missing the technology to support that shift. Axle Health is building AI that can help.

Before launching Axle Health, CEO Adam Stansell helped launch Uber Eats in the northeastern US, coordinating food-delivery logistics in the new market. He later joined Motive, a logistics software company for trucking fleets.

In 2020, when hospitals were scrambling to enable hospital-at-home care during the pandemic, Stansell, his cofounder Connor Hailey, and some of Stansell's former Uber colleagues set out to create the same intelligence infrastructure for healthcare that the gig economy had built for itself.

Now, Axle Health has raised a $10 million Series A led by F-Prime Capital, Business Insider has learned exclusively. Y Combinator, Pear VC, and Lightbank also participated in the round.

Axle's software uses AI to handle some of the hardest problems in home healthcare: scheduling, routing, and patient engagement. Its logistics engine can coordinate care based on clinical eligibility, patient preferences, clinician license levels, and even cost, all in real time. Its customers now include large health systems, independent home health agencies, mobile phlebotomy providers, and high-acuity dispatch services.

Axle Health originally set out to be a home health provider, powered by its proprietary technology. The company joined Y Combinator's Winter 2021 cohort and quickly scaled to operate in all 50 states, growing to a couple of million dollars in revenue, Stansell said. But in 2023, the startup pivoted to focus on building and licensing its technology for other hospital-at-home providers.

"We realized it's better for us — and better for the industry — if instead of keeping the technology for ourselves, we built tools to empower every home health provider," Stansell said.

Axle Health announced it had raised $4.4 million in funding in February 2024, which Stansell said included seed funding from 2021 and additional funding Axle raised after the business pivoted. In the past year, Stansell said Axle Health has grown its revenue tenfold.

The home health market is growing fast, accelerated by an aging population, clinician shortages, and rising consumer demand for in-home care. Other startups are racing to meet that demand, including by forging ahead with the tech-enabled services model that Axle shelved, like Sprinter Health, which recently landed a $55 million Series B led by General Catalyst to provide at-home preventive care. Later-stage players, acute-care home health provider DispatchHealth and home care tech company Medically Home, merged in March.

Axle wants to differentiate itself both by plugging its tech into the existing home health ecosystem and by building technology that clinicians actually want to use, said Stansell. Axle's AI generates logistics plans that clinicians trust, which is an especially difficult bar to clear. And Axle's team, Stansell said, with its several ex-Uber leads, is a key ingredient in the startup's secret sauce.

Next up, Axle plans to improve its patient engagement capabilities, including rolling out AI-powered voice call features for patients. It's also expanding its integrations with electronic medical record systems and forming more direct connections with other companies contributing to home health operations, like medical equipment suppliers and pharmacies.

"You're not going to have one provider that's going to solve the whole thing," Stansell said. "You need an ecosystem."

Here's the 18-slide pitch deck Axle Health used to raise its $10 million Series A.

• Sergey Brin gave away more than 4 million Alphabet shares worth nearly $700 million.
• The gift is split between Class A and Class C stock, which carry different voting rights.
• Brin has a history of large donations, including one worth $600 million in May 2023.

Sergey Brin just gave away stock worth almost $700 million — but we don't know who to.

The Google cofounder transferred just over 4 million Alphabet shares, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday.

Brin is 10th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $144 billion. He's behind the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, and ahead of Michael Dell and Jensen Huang.

The gift was split between Class A and Class C stock. Each A share carries one vote, while C stock have no voting rights.

A stock closed at $168.56 on Wednesday, and C closed at about $170, bringing the total value to just over $693 million.

Shares in the search giant jumped on Wednesday following Google's I/O developer conference the previous day, where about two dozen new models, features, and updates were unveiled.

It said it would launch AI Mode, which allows US users to chat with Google while browsing the web, resulting in a more conversational search experience.

The recipient of Brin's gift could be a charity, a financial vehicle, or a trust.

He has previously made large gifts, giving away stock about $600 million in May 2023 after the launch of Google's AI search, Bloomberg reported. In May and November 2024, he made gifts of shares worth more than $100 million.

Brin has a personal foundation, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, which disbursed about $250 million in both 2020 and 2021.

He's also donated more than $1 billion to research into Parkinson's disease and funding a nonprofit focused on the climate crisis.

Brin's family office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe's strongest military for Germany.
• Germany's shift in defense policy followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and NATO goals.
• Experts highlighted challenges like underinvestment, recruitment, and political consensus.

Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, vowed last week that the country will build "the strongest conventional army in Europe."

It comes as Germany and others adapt to the drive for European countries to rapidly rearm in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — but contrasts with recent decades when the country has preferred soft power over military strength.

So, how feasible is it for Germany to be the continent's biggest military power?

"For now, the money is there, and Germans have deep pockets," Ulrich Kühn, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Business Insider.

"What is missing is a general cross-party consensus on the issue, including the left wing of the governing Social Democrats, who are more skeptical of projecting military power," he said.

Last month, Germany announced that it was deploying troops to Lithuania on a long-term basis—the first long-term deployment of German soldiers to another country since World War II, another sign of its changing military approach.

Kühn added that the commitment to increase Germany's defense spending "can only be the beginning if the goal is really to position itself as Europe's defense champion."

"What the German arms industry needs are long-term contracts well into the 2030s and state subsidies to rapidly scale up production," he said.

As of May 2024, Germany's army, the Bundeswehr, had 180,215 active-duty personnel.

Jörn Fleck, senior director of the Atlantic Council's Europe Center, told BI that a targeted increase of the German armed forces to 200,000 had been delayed until 2031 "due to lackluster recruitment and an ageing force."

But he said that Germany "has taken important initial steps to rebuild the German military into one of Europe's leading conventional forces."

Fleck cited a €100 billion special fund to modernize the military, announced in 2022, and constitutional changes to partially exempt defense spending from Germany's debt brake, which was imposed after the 2008 financial crisis and limits the deficit to just 0.35% of GDP. By contrast, the US deficit exceeded 6% last year.

But Fleck warned that Germany "will have to overcome two if not three decades of underinvestment in its armed forces."

"The resulting force reductions, readiness problems, capability gaps, and infrastructure challenges will take years to reverse," he added. "They will not be solved by money alone and will require sustained political will and leadership."

One positive for Germany is its thriving defense industry, which includes major players like Rheinmetall and KNDS, along with medium-sized companies and innovative startups.

In 2024, Rheinmetall saw sales related to its defense business increase by 50% year-on-year.

Germany's defense industry strategy, focused on key technologies, greater economies of scale, and the potential of the European market, is a "positive step in the right direction," Fleck said, but he added that the country will "have to fundamentally reform its procurement agency and processes" to boost its defense industry.

He also said that advancing Germany's military capabilities will move the needle across Europe, given the country's political and economic weight on the continent.

This has already been visible when it comes to the REARM initiative that opened the door for countries to spend more on defense, and the proposal for common EU borrowing to fund joint development and procurement.

"If Germany, Europe's reluctant hegemon with its fraught history, can get its act together on defense," Kühn said. "So can others."

• When our first child was born, we decided I would stay home, caring for our baby.
• I had a thriving career, but my pay was low, and childcare was expensive.
• I love being a mom, but staying at home made me miserable.

When I became pregnant with my first child, my husband and I made the difficult yet practical decision for me to stay home.

Even though I had a thriving career in higher ed, my income was low, childcare was expensive, and travel (a requirement of my job) wouldn't be feasible anymore — or at least for years to come.

With a few cuts to our household budget, it just made sense for me to stay home. Besides, motherhood would be the most rewarding experience of my life, right?

I was lonelier than ever

When our first baby was born, I was so in love with him and elated to finally have what I wanted most: to be a mom. In those first weeks, I felt strongly that I would love my new role as a stay-at-home mom and couldn't imagine going back to work. However, after my husband's paternity leave ended and he returned to work, I was home alone with the baby, and reality set in.

I was sleep deprived, exhausted from exclusively nursing, and lonelier than I had ever been. I was jealous of my friends who were still working and could get away to do something other than care for a baby. Desperate for connection, I joined several baby and me classes through my local parks and rec, hoping to make a few friends navigating the same challenges.

The moms I met were kind, but our conversations revolved around our children's sleeping and eating schedules and how we were dealing with our toddlers' tantrums. Somewhere along the way, my interests and identity faded away. I needed more intellectual stimulation, I wanted to do more to connect with the community, and I wanted to use my talents outside of the home.

Staying home wasn't for me

As months turned into years, I felt increasingly isolated. I hired a babysitter once a week in the afternoon so I could escape the monotony of child rearing. One of these afternoons, I remember going to the movies alone and sobbing through "La La Land," not because of the storyline but because it reminded me of what it felt like to be alive and have a sense of self outside motherhood.

When I finally summoned the courage to talk to my stay-at-home-mom friends about my feelings, it felt as if I was violating an unspoken rule. Shouldn't I be grateful for this opportunity to bond with my child without the stress of a career? Wasn't it a privilege to be there for all of my child's milestones?

In fact, I knew how blessed I was to be able to stay home with my children, but I still felt so depressed. Five years of staying home and two babies later, it wasn't until I returned to work with a purpose outside the home that I truly felt like myself again.

I truly love being a mom, but I recognize that staying at home is not my strength. Working outside of the home in the community makes me a better mom, more present, patient, and fulfilled.

Stay-at-home motherhood isn't for everyone, and that's OK. We need to allow mothers to speak honestly about the complexities of raising children, including the very real feelings of isolation, loss of identity, and emotional debility that often come with motherhood.

• BYD sold more electric cars than Tesla in Europe for the first time in April.
• Sales of the Chinese brand jumped as Tesla grapples with backlash over Elon Musk's politics.
• Tesla's European sales have collapsed this year, despite Musk insisting it doesn't have a demand problem.

BYD just scored a major win against Tesla in one of its biggest markets.

The Chinese electric vehicle giant outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time last month, as Elon Musk's automaker saw its sales collapse amid furious backlash over its CEO's politics.

BYD sold 7,230 battery-electric vehicles in April, compared to 7,165 for Tesla, according to JATO Dynamics data.

It's a major milestone for the Chinese brand, and suggests BYD has taken advantage of Tesla's alarming decline in Europe.

ƒNew Tesla registrations dropped nearly 50% in April compared to the same month last year, while BYD sales surged 169% over the same period, per JATO Dynamics data.

BYD outsold Tesla without even taking hybrid sales into account. The Chinese carmaker sold 12,525 vehicles last month, meaning its total sales comfortably outstripped Tesla, which only sells battery-powered EVs.

Tesla has taken a battering this year in Europe, its third-largest market after the US and China. The automaker's European sales were down 30% in the first three months of 2025, according to JATO Dynamics, despite EV sales rising overall.

The automaker has faced a wave of backlash over CEO Musk's role in the Trump administration and endorsement of German far-right party AfD.

In an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, Musk denied Tesla was facing a sales slump. That was despite Tesla reporting its weakest quarter for deliveries since 2022 last month as it retooled factories for the launch of its updated Model Y.

"Europe is our weakest market. We're strong everywhere else. Sales are doing well at this point, we don't anticipate any meaningful sales shortfall," said Musk.

By contrast, BYD is racing to launch new models as it seeks to capitalize on its explosive growth in Europe.

The Chinese brand unveiled the Dolphin Surf, the European version of its cheap Seagull EV, on Wednesday.

The compact hatchback will go on sale in 15 European markets in June, with prices starting at 23,000 euros ($26,000) — about $19,000 less than Tesla's cheapest model.

Having crushed Tesla in China, BYD is eyeing aggressive expansion overseas. The EV giant sold 79,000 vehicles outside China last month, nearly double the total in April 2024.

• The nation's disaster response agency has been hit by staffing cuts and leadership changes.
• The new acting chief, David Richardson, told staffers FEMA is ready for hurricane season.
• Several employees told BI that morale is low, as evidenced by some of the reactions to Richardson's town hall.

A week into his appointment, FEMA's new acting chief, David Richardson, held his first town hall for the agency's employees.

His May 15 remarks outlined a planned overhaul of the nation's disaster response operations dubbed "FEMA 2.0," tried to reassure staff that the agency is "to a great degree ready" for the 2025 "disaster season," and made clear he plans to carry out President Donald Trump's agenda.

His speech and answers to employee questions also included several folksy talking points: He used fruits as an example to describe how the agency's responsibilities are structured, made reference to his girlfriend's big red hair, and said he hadn't realized how big Texas is.

If his presentation, which was livestreamed and played on televisions at the embattled agency's headquarters, was meant to improve morale and boost confidence among the rank and file, it may have fallen short.

Two veteran staffers told Business Insider that they saw at least a dozen employees openly mocking Richardson — laughing while he was talking, jeering at the screen, and later circulating memes about him.

Like other federal employees, FEMA workers have been rattled by the Trump administration's staff cutbacks. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have called for the agency's eventual elimination.

At the beginning of May, FEMA's acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, lost his job after telling Congress that he thought the agency should continue. His departure paved the way for Richardson to bounce over from Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office to run the agency.

An emergency agency in flux

These big changes come during a critical period for FEMA. Tornadoes in Kentucky and Missouri left 28 people dead last week. Hurricane season on the Atlantic coast, a six-month sprint of emergencies for the agency, begins in June.

Several FEMA employees who are tasked with helping states prepare for and respond to emergencies ranging from earthquakes to wildfires and beyond told Business Insider they're worried about whether they'll have the resources and support to provide life-saving aid to states when crisis strikes.

The agency is pushing back on criticism.

"Under Secretary Noem and Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens," a spokesperson for FEMA told Business Insider. "The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades."

Oranges, plantains, and fruit bowl memes

Richardson, a Marine veteran who attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, introduced himself to some of his staff a day after his appointment with bold words, saying he would not tolerate those who resist reforms — a group he estimated would be about 20% of employees based on his past experience.

"Obfuscation, delay, undermining. If you're one of those 20% of people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you," Richardson said at the May 9 meeting, according to Reuters. "Don't get in my way... I know all the tricks."

The town hall for all employees came almost a week later. According to a transcript based on leaked audio published by the independent news outlet Drop Site News, Richardson focused largely on conducting a "mission analysis" of FEMA's operations and aligning with Trump. (Two current FEMA staffers confirmed to Business Insider that the Drop Site News transcription of the meeting was accurate.)

In his introduction, before taking questions from staff, Richardson said that FEMA has between 150 and 175 statutorily obligated tasks to conduct, and each one of those specified tasks "can be binned into categories," he said.

"And by bin them, I mean some of those, some of those tasks will be kind of orange-like tasks — and by orange, I mean the fruit orange, but they might be tangerines, they might be blood oranges, it just might be maybe a little bit of grapefruit," Richardson said. "All those will go in one bin."

A FEMA staff member told Business Insider that some staffers watching the livestream began laughing during the remarks about fruit.

Shortly after the meeting concluded, a meme of Richardson's face, looking surprised, and with a basket of fruit on his head, began circulating among FEMA employees. The meme, shared with Business Insider by a staffer, was styled to look like the "Shrek 2" movie poster, with the title "FEMA 2" in green letters with ogre ears. Another meme seen by Business Insider, which was styled as a bingo card for people listening to Richardson's remarks, included a bowl of fruit as one of its spaces.

'Texas is huge!'

During the Q-and-A part of the session, a staff member asked about the plan for this hurricane season, whether the agency is appropriately staffed for emergency response, and the timeline for training staff to respond. Richardson said the agency is in a "transition period."

The process, he said, is "not going to look entirely different of how we did in 2024, but it's not necessarily going to look like how we're going to do it in 2026."

He added that FEMA would begin creating a road map for states to do the bulk of their own emergency response going forward, sharing as much as 50% of costs with the federal government.

A FEMA spokesperson declined to comment on what costs individual states would be responsible for in an emergency and what support the federal government could be expected to provide.

Richardson said he hoped to model future responses after states with good emergency preparedness, using Texas and Florida as examples.

"Some states are pretty good at this," Richardson said, referring to emergency response. "The other day I was chatting with my girlfriend — she's from Texas, she's got like, huge red hair, like she's from Texas."

He continued: "I said, how come it takes so long to drive 10 hours from Galveston to Amarillo? And she said, 'Well, you know, Texas is bigger than Spain.' I didn't know that. So I looked at the map. Texas is huge! I mean, if you put it in the middle of Europe, it takes up most of Europe up. However, they do disaster recovery very, very well, and so does Florida."

One FEMA employee told Business Insider that by the time Richardson mentioned his girlfriend, more than a dozen members of the livestream audience watching from their office had begun jeering loudly at the screen. Some staff members began walking around the office waving pencils in the air, referencing the way Richardson had fidgeted with a writing utensil while speaking, the employee said.

"I've never seen people so mocking of an agency head," the employee said.

It's unclear exactly how much of FEMA's staff has been cut since Trump took office; the most recent estimates from CNN put the total reduction of force at about 20% of FEMA's permanent full-time staff, or about 1,000 workers.

The US Government Accountability Office reported in 2023 that FEMA had an overall staffing gap of approximately 35%, equating to 6,200 employees, which had "affected its ability to achieve its mission."

A FEMA spokesperson told Business Insider that, "under Secretary Noem's leadership, and the efforts of Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season."

The Trump administration has not made a public statement about a permanent nominee to lead FEMA.

The spokesperson added that "complaints about morale, training, and planning come from the same internal class that resisted accountability for decades. This is just another example of a long line of internal leaks from people who clearly couldn't care less about Americans facing disaster and prefer to manufacture petty drama for their own self-aggrandizement."

In the town hall meeting, Richardson said his plan for the agency is to follow "the president's intent," which he described as limiting FEMA's activities to its "mission essential tasks."

"Those of us still remaining were either too committed to go anywhere, not eligible to take the resignation options, or so committed to the mission we do not care what he does," one FEMA staff member said.

• Target said reactions to its DEI moves adversely impacted first-quarter sales.
• Protesters say they're not satisfied with the company's response so far.
• Additional protests are planned for May 25, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.

Target is having little success in convincing shoppers of its stance on DEI.

CEO Brian Cornell said Wednesday that public response to changes to its DEI programs — now known as "Belonging" — adversely impacted first-quarter sales, although an exact amount was not quantifiable.

"We faced several additional headwinds this quarter, including five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs, and the reaction to the updates we shared on Belonging in January," he said.

The financial results follow weeks of declining foot traffic and sales, punctuated by seasonal holiday bumps during the period. But shifting positions on DEI issues don't appear to doing Target any favors, Global Data retail analyst Neil Saunders said in a note.

"The extent of this should not be overstated as many other factors are driving down Target's sales numbers, but the move has certainly not been helpful," he said.

A Target spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider that the company is "absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyone — our team members, our guests and our supply partners."

"To do that, we're focusing on what we do best: providing the best retail experience for the more than 2,000 communities we're proud to serve," the spokesperson said.

While some supporters of DEI have claimed partial victory in their pressure campaign, leaders including pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant say they're not yet satisfied with the company's response.

Bryant said his church would hold a protest in front of an Atlanta-area Target on Sunday, May 25, to mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Target's hometown of Minneapolis.

"We're gonna do it for nine minutes and 40 seconds as the same amount of time they applied pressure to George Floyd that led to his death," Bryant said in a video inviting other churches to join.

Target expanded several diversity initiatives in the immediate aftermath of Floyd's murder, and CEO Brian Cornell said the incident highlighted that more work was needed.

"It happened only blocks from our headquarters," Cornell told the Economic Club of Chicago a year after Floyd's death. "My first reaction watching on TV was that could have been one of my Target team members."

At the time, Target committed to spending more than $2 billion on Black-owned businesses by 2025 by purchasing goods from more than 500 Black-owned businesses and contracting with Black-owned services from marketing to construction.

"As CEOs we have to be the company's head of diversity and inclusion," Cornell told the Economic Club of Chicago. "We've got to make sure that we represent our company principles, our values, our company purpose on the issues that are important to our teams."

Four years later, Target's message on DEI is less clear.

In January, the company said it was rolling back several diversity initiatives, renaming others, and not renewing the spending and sourcing goals it set in 2021.

(Target's spokesperson told BI the announcement did not affect existing brand or supplier relationships, and that the company still recruits from a range of schools, including HBCUs.)

Target also for the first time donated $1 million to President Donald Trump's inauguration fund, filings showed, even as Trump was gearing up executive orders to strip DEI programs from federal agencies and contractors. Tech giants Google, Meta, and Uber also each donated the same amount.

In addition, the company has drastically shrunk its annual LGBTQ Pride collection in recent years, and now offers a small fraction of what it showcased a two years ago.

In a note to employees earlier this month, Cornell acknowledged that "silence from us has created uncertainty," and the executive has reportedly met with Bryant and Reverend Al Sharpton to discuss a path forward.

Beyond the protests, Saunders said Target continues to face a myriad of other challenges, including still-high tariffs on imports, growing competitive pressures from rivals, and a host of other operational difficulties.

"This year will be another soft one and Target enters it in a relatively weak position," he said.

• Kate Collins has worked on an all-female nonprofit team since starting a new job in 2024.
• In the past, she's worked in male-dominated media workplaces with rigid, then lenient, boundaries.
• Collins says that an all-female team brings both a supportive culture and blurred work-life lines.

When I walked into work last year on my birthday, there was an envelope with my name written in cursive on my desk. I was less than three months into a new job and hadn't announced my birthday. Being an introvert, a slight discomfort rose as I opened the envelope.

The discomfort dissipated as I read the personalized messages written by my colleagues. I was grateful for the simple gesture; this was the first time I received a birthday card at work. A few months later, I returned from my honeymoon to find another thoughtful card and a wedding-decorated desk.

My colleagues' acknowledgment of these milestones is proof that after a midlife pivot, I've landed somewhere good. The all-female leadership and team where I work prioritize the organization's mission by fostering a kind, encouraging atmosphere for clients and employees.

While I see the perks, I've also experienced some downsides to an all-female workplace.

I started my career in offices with boundaries

I entered the workforce during an era when professionalism stressed a clear delineation between work and personal lives. In the offices of the media companies where I worked as a photojournalist and reporter, employees refrained from divulging details of their outside lives. I welcomed these boundaries.

By the mid-2010s, successive rounds of layoffs in my industry resulted in a less diverse workplace. Management became mostly men who I remember using sports analogies, mansplaining, and all-caps emails — controlling tactics that diminished my sense of worth.

A decade later, bias issues forced the last media company I worked for to adopt policies stressing safe, inclusive workplaces. The personal became political, and the movement to normalize almost everything took hold. Before long, a workplace culture emerged where revealing intimate personal information was commonplace.

Yet there still wasn't a shift away from the male-dominated culture. Many of my female colleagues who survived layoffs exited the industry. Before long, I was planning my own exit strategy.

It was difficult to separate myself from a profession I once loved

For a few years, I worked on reinventing myself by expanding my skill set through classes and freelance work. I was eventually offered an environmental communications position. While the job didn't last, it launched me into the nonprofit sector.

I live in a region with many nonprofits. The local nonprofits I'm most familiar with are primarily led and staffed by smart women passionate about helping others. This isn't surprising, as studies concerning the differences in personality traits have found that women are more nurturing, tender-minded, and altruistic more often and to a greater extent than men — traits necessary to do lower-paid, sometimes emotionally taxing work.

When I started nonprofit work, I felt acknowledged and supported

I started my current communications manager position in early 2024. Since transitioning to nonprofit work, I've experienced how an all-female team can promote a kinder, more collaborative workplace. Have an idea for something not in your job title? Share it. Need help with a project? There are always offers to assist, even for projects requiring time outside normal schedules.

There's also the celebration of achievements. Our leader frequently shares our team and individual accomplishments publicly. She gifted us with bright yellow smiley face bells to ring when we complete a difficult project. After years without recognition of my professional achievements, it feels good to have my contributions acknowledged.

The professional respect ingrained in our office culture extends beyond job tasks. If we come in late or leave early for an appointment or emergency, we can do so without advance approval. Leadership even encourages us to take personal days when we're feeling stressed.

This kind, empathic leadership style trickles down. Recently one of my coworkers was out for a few days with the flu. Knowing she lives alone, we reached out with "get well soon" texts and offered to pick up her prescription and deliver it to her home.

There are also challenges

While working in an all-female office has been a positive change, certain aspects can be trying. There's inherent pressure to participate in optional group activities such as weekly team lunches and afternoon walks, which can be stressful for someone who cherishes alone time like me.

Recently, a mandatory retreat escalated into a cold plunge. Voiced statements about not liking cold water were countered with emails about "team building." Days before, a colleague said that she couldn't partake due to a medical issue.

In the end, a few of us watched the cold plunge through the window of a warm house. I was already nervous about an overnight cabin retreat. I wasn't fond of the planned kayaking and swimming, but I also didn't want to hurt the feelings of my colleagues planning it.

The blurring of lines between work and play can also result in unexpected workplace tension. When a new colleague joined our team recently, she misinterpreted the relaxed atmosphere as "any topic goes." While I appreciate an informal office, some of the topics she discussed made me uncomfortable. I eventually spoke up about my new colleague's crudeness, and the issue was addressed.

I question whether the easing of professional manners has veered too far off-track

I wonder if a single-sex environment contributes to this. I wonder if my colleague would've acted differently around male colleagues and if a male would've been terminated for similar behavior around female coworkers.

I'm not looking to leave my job. If I ever return to a workplace with both men and women, I'll bring what I'm learning about collaboration, kindness, and celebrating achievements with me.

Kate Collins is a writer and nonprofit communications professional. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband, stepson, and two foster dogs.

• Private equity reps are asking to meet with college seniors headed for jobs on Wall Street.
• These "coffee chats" often lead to interviews for jobs that won't start for two years.
• The May start has soon-to-be bankers on edge at a time when they should be celebrating.

Graduation season is supposed to be filled with commencement speeches, family dinners, and tearful goodbyes. Newly minted graduates headed to Wall Street, however, are finding themselves trading libations for leveraged buyout models.

Soon-to-be junior bankers told Business Insider that they have been summoned in recent weeks to introductory meetings with buyout firms and headhunters for associate jobs that won't start for two years — when their investment banking analyst programs end.

The communications reviewed by BI were for introductory meetings, often referred to as "coffee chats," and informational webinars. They came from employees and headhunters representing firms like Apollo; Hellman & Friedman; KKR; General Atlantic; Clayton, Dubilier & Rice as well as recruiting firms like Ratio Advisors, Gold Coast, CPI, and Amity. Spokespeople for these firms either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

Students said the coffee chat requests, which often precipitate more formal interviews, are taking place earlier than expected — putting them on edge about the industry's infamous recruiting frenzy, known as on-cycle recruiting.

For some, the feeling that official interviews could kick off at any moment has cast a pall over graduation season. Rather than occupying themselves with photo shoots in their caps and gowns, some finance grads are stressing over when interviews could break out.

"It's constantly monitoring your email," said an incoming first-year investment banker about the recent onslaught of meeting requests. She said she and her friends have their notifications on — "calls, texts, everything" — in order not to miss out.

The student, who hopped off the phone with BI just as her own graduation ceremony was commencing, said coffee chat meetings started hitting her inbox in early May, about four to six weeks earlier than classmates who received similar overtures last year.

"It's awful," said the student, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her future employment. "You never get a break."

On-cycle could kick off sooner than ever

Matt Ting, the founder of Peak Frameworks, which helps students prepare for Wall Street job interviews, said he's seen demand for his courses spike in the last two weeks as students gear up for on-cycle to kick off any day now.

"A lot of college grads go on a grad trip around now, which muddies things," said Ting, adding: "Some are still in school. Many firms had issues last year since it kicked off while many grads were backpacking somewhere in Asia."

The problem with the industry's on-cycle recruiting process is that no one knows when the hurricane will hit. And once it makes landfall, aspiring private-equity dealmakers are expected to drop everything to participate.

A second-year investment banker recalled getting an email around 10 p.m. when he participated in on-cycle recruiting last June. The firm's representatives asked him to interview the next morning at 8 a.m. Fortunately, he was within driving distance of the company's office. Some of his friends weren't so lucky.

"I personally felt it was too rushed, like I was taking the opportunity just because it presented itself, not because I was very calculated about it," he told BI about the experience.

The second-year banker said there is a clear distinction between coffee chats and official interviews that would signify the start of on-cycle. On-cycle recruiting, he said, only starts when a headhunter uses the word "interview" in their communication with candidates.

"The coffee chats are just an interview to get an interview," he said.

The process used to start after investment bankers got some job experience under their belts, but has been moving progressively earlier every year. Last year, the process kicked off on June 24, before many graduates had even started their jobs. The year before, it took place in July, prompting some investment banking analysts to skip out on training.

The sudden rush of coffee chat requests has students bracing for on-cycle to kick off earlier than ever this year. A college student running a college finance club said he'd heard on-cycle could begin after Harvard's graduation on May 29. An industry recruiter predicted that on-cycle recruiting might not get underway till late June, in keeping with 2024's cycle. They asked to remain anonymous to protect their relationships with prospective employers and private-equity clients.

Inside the coffee chat

Coffee chats, the step before PE firms proceed with formal interviews, may sound casual on the surface. In fact, they're a high-stakes way for recruiters to pre-screen candidates for official interviews, students told BI, so a lot is on the line.

"My advice has always been, no matter what, every coffee chat is an interview, implicitly or directly," said the second-year investment banker who participated in last year's on-cycle process.

These jobs, of which there are a coveted few, can vault early-20s professionals into the highest tier of American earners. Many tout comp prospects of more than $300,000, inclusive of salary and bonus, so the pressure for rookie masters of the universe to leave a good impression on recruiters is palpable.

A recent graduate about to start an investment banking job at a bulge bracket firm agreed. "I've had a firm tell me that I'm shortlisted," he said of his coffee chats, adding, "I've had headhunters follow up with me and say, 'Hey, by the way, this firm had great feedback on you. Let's stay close here,'" he added.

He said he moved to New York City immediately after graduation, motivated in part by the sense that he should be in a position for an early on-cycle recruiting process.

"I don't even have a couch," he confessed, so he spent his first few nights in the big city sleeping on a mattress on the floor. "Now I've got a bed frame."

"But if you want one of these jobs, you've got to play the game," he said. "And I'm just playing the game."

• Microsoft hired ex-Facebook global head of engineering Jay Parikh to lead a new AI unit called CoreAI.
• Internal memos Parikh has sent to employees reveal the unit's early ambitions and accomplishments.
• Parikh's initiatives focus on cultural shifts, operational improvements, and customer focus.

Microsoft envisions an "age of AI agents," and CEO Satya Nadella recently tapped one of Mark Zuckerberg's former top lieutenants to bring it to reality.

In January, Nadella put Jay Parikh in charge of a new AI unit called CoreAI, central to Microsoft's ambition to help developers build digital personal assistants capable of taking over tasks from human workers.

Amid Parikh's first Microsoft Build developer conference in this new role, internal memos reveal his goals for the unit, its early accomplishments, and his advice to address what he sees as problems within the company. Microsoft declined to comment.

A fresh perspective for the 'next phase of Microsoft'

Behind the scenes at Microsoft, Nadella prides himself on hiring outside talent from other big technology companies to add fresh perspective and giving them wide latitude to change how things are done, several people close to the CEO told BI.

Those reports include Charlie Bell, who helped build Amazon's cloud from its earliest days before defecting to Microsoft to become its security boss, and AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, an ex-Google executive who joined the company from AI startup Inflection.

Parikh joined their ranks in October after running cloud security company Laceworks, acquired in 2024. He previously was vice president and global head of engineering for Meta. Zuckerberg has publicly credited Parikh for many technological achievements during his 11-year tenure at the company.

When Nadella announced Parikh's hiring in an email to employees, he wrote that the "next phase of Microsoft" would require "adding exceptional talent" from outside the company.

In January, when Microsoft reorganized to create a new organization under Parikh. The group, called CoreAI, combined teams from Parikh's new direct reports like Eric Boyd, a corporate vice president of AI platform; Jason Taylor, a deputy CTO for AI infrastructure; Julia Liuson, president of the developer division; and Tim Bozarth, a corporate vice president of developer infrastructure.

Nadella said at the time that Parikh would also work closely with the cloud-and-AI chief Scott Guthrie; the experiences-and-devices leader Rajesh Jha; Bell, the security boss; Suleyman, Microsoft's AI CEO; and Kevin Scott, the company's CTO.

A copy of Parikh's latest org chart viewed by Business Insider shows he has nearly 10,000 reports, most of whom (about 7,000) are in the developer division under Liuson.

Parikh's 'agent factory' vision

Four months in, Parikh has started to make his mark on Microsoft with a vision to create an AI "agent factory." In the early days of Microsoft, cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen had ambitions to create the world's first "software factory," a company full of programmers who would build everything from applications to operating systems.

Parikh said he met with Gates and discussed his own concept, a production line for AI agents and applications.

"Building our vision demands this type of culture — one where Al is embedded in how we think, design, and deliver," Parikh wrote in an April 14 email to his team. "The Agent Factory reflects this shift — not just in what we build, but in how we build it together. If we want every developer (and everyone) to shape the future, we have to get there first."

The memos reveal some of the developments at CoreAI since Parikh's arrival.

Since January, Foundry — Microsoft's AI platform for developers — has "delivered $337 million of favorable COGS (cost of goods sold) impact year-to-date, with a projected $606 million on an annualized basis," according to one of Parikh's memos.

Microsoft won new customers for its AI programming tool GitHub Copilot, deploying "5,000+ Copilot Business seats" for Fidelity with 5,000 more expected, another memo stated. Copilot Business sells for $19 per user per month, which would make the deal worth as much as $2.28 million annually at full price, though customers often get discounts for large deals. Fidelity declined to comment.

Startup Harvey AI, meanwhile, has agreed to a two-year $150 million commitment to consume Azure cloud services, according to one of Parikh's memos. Harvey AI declined to comment.

Making Microsoft think macro

The memos viewed by BI show how Parikh appears to be taking seriously his mandate to introduce a new perspective to the company and fix procedural problems that Microsoft may not be able to see that it has.

In a May 10 email to his team, Parikh said shifting the company's culture is "essential" to its future, and outlined progress toward priorities like accelerating the pace at which employees work, breaking down siloes to work better as one team, and making products more reliable and secure.

"One of my early observations coming into Microsoft is that we sometimes treat symptoms rather than systems," Parikh wrote in a May 5 email. "We often focus too much on the micro, which results in band-aids and bolt-ons vs taking a broader system view (which may mean thinking beyond what one team directly owns). This often leads to more complexity and operational burden. We'll help each other get better at this."

Parikh's plan to get Microsoft to focus on the macro is to create a "learning loop" with a debrief after every product launch, incident, customer meeting, internal meeting, or decision. He's started new processes to make this happen, according to the memos.

Parikh has an "Ops Review" series, going team by team to make specific improvements but also to "find common patterns of engineering pain that need broader improvements," he wrote. The reviews, he explained, focus on longer-term operational metrics to help with strategy. "We are zooming out and taking a more end-to-end view of a team's operational setup, creating space for an open discussion around what's working and what's not." The reviews began in April with the App Services team.

Also among Parikh's mandates: more customer focus. His organization is required to conduct reviews of major incidents, like outages, that could impact customers, and chart how quickly the teams identified the problem and deployed a fix.

He also started "get well plans" for unhappy customers after he "encountered a couple of fairly unhappy customers" in recent meetings, according to an April 26 email. His solution? Weekly reviews to "understand where we went off track, identify solutions, and execute the recovery plan," tracking progress until the accounts "get well again."

What Parikh thinks Microsoft should change so far

In the May 5 email, Parikh shared "several recurring themes and insights" within Microsoft that he believes the company should seek to change or simplify.

First, he encouraged his organization to engage engineers from outside their direct team because "different perspectives help."

In his view, Microsoft also takes too long and the process is too hard to deprecate, or discourage use of, old versions of software. "Supporting too many versions is unattainable," Parikh wrote. "We are following up with C+Al (the Cloud + AI organization, under Scott Guthrie) to brainstorm how we can modernize and streamline this."

Incident reviews are overloaded with metrics that don't have enough value, Parikh wrote, and Microsoft sends out too many alerts, which creates noise. "It's important to periodically zoom out and audit how your monitoring is running and to simplify if you are overloaded on alerts and metrics. Use Al to help triage complex alerting situations," he urged.

Parikh encouraged his teams to "see the forest for the trees on scalability," and to organize brainstorming sessions when faced with a traffic load they can't support to see what it would take to support five or 10 times as much traffic. "You may be stuck in a local maxima with incremental improvements, and it might be time to brainstorm how you can get a step function more scale," he wrote.

He also recommended employees seek to address classes of problems, not just one-offs. "Quick fixes lead to complexity," Parikh wrote. "Instead of band-aids, we should aim for broader system improvements that solve whole categories of issues and boost long-term efficiency."

"We're building muscle in spotting patterns, not just patching symptoms," Parikh wrote. "And that's a big deal."

Got a tip? Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]). Use a nonwork device.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When asked whether China remained a "priority market" for JPMorgan, given the geopolitical uncertainty, Dimon told Bloomberg the bank was a "long-term investor."

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

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

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

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

A representative for Dimon didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

The innovator in chief

Musk's importance to Tesla is undeniable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scrappiness vs scale

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Difference-maker or distraction?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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