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How a DIY Adobe Illustrator design landed Rebel Creamery in a $23.8 million fight with Van Leeuwen

How a DIY Adobe Illustrator design landed Rebel Creamery in a $23.8 million fight with Van Leeuwen

Rebel Creamery’s founders say they designed the company’s logo and ice cream pint packaging themselves in Adobe Illustrator. But that DIY branding design landed them in a nearly $24 million legal dispute.

The Utah-based, low-carb ice cream maker, whose products are sold at Target, Kroger, and Walmart nationwide, filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 14**,** days after appealing a federal judge’s order to pay rival Van Leeuwen Ice Cream millions over a trade-dress dispute.

According to a Chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, the maker of Rebel ice cream listed $13.78 million in assets and $23.85 million in liabilities. The bankruptcy follows a July 16 ruling over allegations Rebel deliberately copied Van Leeuwen’s design. 

The dispute stems from Rebel’s packaging: solid-colored pint containers with a minimalist design and prominent black cursive lettering. Rebel’s founders told the court they designed the company’s logo and trade dress themselves in late 2017 using Adobe Illustrator, and claim not to have retained any drafts or initial records of the design.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/article/how-a-diy-adobe-illustrator-design-landed-rebel-creamery-in-a-24-million-fight-with-van-leeuwen-08-19-2026/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 4 hours ago

Nelson Peltz might take Wendy’s private following six straight quarterly sales declines as customers flee its poor franchise models and bad marketing

Wendy’s, the burger chain that asked “Where’s the beef?” and brought the Baconator to burger lovers worldwide, is getting grilled in its returns. 

The chain, which boasts a market cap of $1.62 billion, is losing customers, closing down stores, and seeing consecutive declining sales—so much so that billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz may be preparing to take Wendy’s private as it struggles to get customers through the door.  

“Traffic is down, our value proposition has slipped, and franchisee economics are under pressure,” Wendy’s CEO Bob Wright told investors on Wendy’s latest earnings call. “We can’t just do what we’ve always done better. We do have to innovate.”

Peltz’s Trian Fund Management has assembled a consortium that could potentially submit an offer to take Wendy’s private in the coming weeks, according to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters. The group is expected to include Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital and Flynn Group, one of the world’s largest restaurant franchise operators and a major Wendy’s franchisee. 

Peltz has been preparing for a potential takeover as early as February, when Trian said in a regulatory filing that it believed Wendy’s stock was “undervalued” and disclosed the fund was reaching out to possible co-investors about strategic options, including taking the company private. Peltz personally owns roughly a 16.24% stake in Wendy’s while Trian holds roughly 7.85%, which, at over 24% combined, make up Wendy’s largest shareholder.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/wendys-nelson-peltz-take-private-customers/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 5 hours ago

Coinbase establishes Abu Dhabi tokenization hub as GCC blockchain market flourishes

Abu Dhabi’s bid to become a global hub for digital assets got a major boost last week when crypto exchange giant, Coinbase, announced it is establishing an international “tokenization hub” in the emirate. 

Based out of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the emirate’s financial centre, Coinbase has been granted a license to arrange investment deals and provide custody for tokenized securities. Custody essentially means safely holding and managing the digital ownership records for assets and is therefore important for giving institutional investors confidence.

Tokenization has been rapidly gaining momentum across traditional finance globally, with major asset managers and banks increasingly bringing funds, bonds, private credit and equities onto blockchain infrastructure.

Abu Dhabi has emerged as a key testing ground for this transition.

ADGM introduced one of the world’s first comprehensive virtual asset regulatory frameworks back in 2018 and has since attracted a steady wave of crypto and tokenization firms looking to establish a regulated base in the region. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/how-uae-has-emerged-leading-light-for-tokenization/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 7 hours ago

Strait of Hormuz chaos has incentivized China to use an alternative trade route: a 3,400 mile frozen Arctic channel dubbed the ‘Ice Silk Road’

The ongoing trade disruptions from the Iran war have enabled China to gain a trade edge, but it requires shipping vessels to brave the Arctic.

On Saturday, the Chinese container shipping company Sea Legend Line  launched its first regular shipping route through the Arctic, traveling a route that’s more than 3,400 miles long along the northern coast of Russia. 

The vessel went from China’s industrial hub Ningbo—located about halfway between Shanghai and Beijing—all the way to the U.K.’s Felixstowe, about 70 miles north of London. Dubbed the “Ice Silk Road,” the route takes about 20 days to complete, which is just half the shipping time of the route that passes south through the Suez Canal.

Countries have scrambled to find alternative trade routes after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz following U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran in February. Additional disruptions caused by continued Houthi threats to the Bab al-Mandab Strait into the Red Sea have subsequently disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

This has caused longer transit times as ships look for alternative routes, driving up fuel and insurance costs, as well as unsettling supply chains. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has even floated the idea of a more permanent global shift away from the Strait of Hormuz as a result of the trade uncertainty that has hiked energy prices and shaken supply chains.

It seems China may have found a way to dodge this. The country first took interest in the northern sea route (NSR) more than a decade ago in 2013, when Yong Shenge, a Chinese cargo ship, became the first Chinese ship to ever reach Europe on the route. However, the route has remained largely inaccessible because of the volume of sea-ice in the area.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/strait-of-hormuz-iran-war-china-trade-route-ice-silk-road/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 7 hours ago
▲ 22 r/China

Unitree, famous for its dancing robots, surges by 460% on its trading debut, lifting valuation to $66 billion, far ahead of U.S. competitors

Shares in Unitree, one of China’s largest manufacturers of humanoid robots, closed their first day of trading by more than 460%, showing strong investor appetite for China’s robotics sector. 

Unitree raised around $900 million in its IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market, the city’s board for technology startups, at a valuation of $9 billion. After today’s surge, Unitree is now worth around $66 billion, ahead of larger Chinese tech firms like Baidu and JD.com. It’s also worth more than the most valuable U.S. robotics company, Figure AI, which got a $39 billion valuation in a September 2025 funding round.

Investors piling into Unitree represents the hype around China’s robotics sector, which is responsible for almost all shipments of humanoid robots in the first half of the year. But analysts views are mixed on how much potential companies like Unitree have: While the startup continues to push what their robots can do—recently, beyond human performance—continued struggles on the software side, as well as a recent U.S. ban on foreign-made robots, could weigh on the company’s future.

Unitree reported 1.7 billion yuan ($252 million) in revenue in 2025, with almost 45% of that coming from overseas sales. It also generated 600 million yuan ($89 million) in profit last year. Most of Unitree’s sales go towards research purposes, though some Chinese tech companies and state-owned enterprises are starting to explore using humanoid robots in their operations.

Unitree has been backed by fellow Hangzhou startup DeepSeek, as well as big tech firms like Alibaba, Ant Group and Tencent, as well as several state-backed investment funds. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/unitree-china-dancing-robots-ipo-trading-surge-valuation/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 7 hours ago

Home Depot’s $730 million tariff refund was largely offset by rising costs

One of the more interesting threads from recent earnings calls: companies are handling tariff refunds very differently, and the amounts involved are substantial.

The refunds stem from a February Supreme Court ruling that forced Customs and Border Protection to start returning duties collected under a since-struck-down law. That money is now showing up on the books of big companies like Home Depot, Amazon, and Walmart, each with its own approach.

The retailer collected $730 million in IEEPA tariff refunds in a single quarter, arriving in a lump sum near the end of June. CFO Richard McPhail said on Tuesday’s Q2 call that $685 million of that related to inventory already sold, cutting cost of goods sold immediately and producing a 145 basis point gross margin benefit. The remaining $45 million is still sitting in inventory and will flow through as that inventory sells.

That 145-basis-point benefit got trimmed by 60 basis points of unplanned cost inflation, leaving 85 basis points. A separate 60-basis-point drag from acquisition-related mix brought the net year-over-year gross margin improvement down to 25 basis points.

Billy Bastek, EVP of merchandising, pointed to resin, metals, fuel and energy costs that weren’t in Home Depot’s original 2026 plan, plus a shifting trade landscape: the prior tariff regime expired in July and was replaced by a new Section 301 regime targeting imports tied to forced labor. Home Depot folded the refund into its reaffirmed outlook and is using it defensively, to absorb cost inflation rather than cut prices.

The retailer beat expectations in Q2 as sales and comparable-store growth picked up, but cautious consumers and rising costs kept the recovery uneven.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/home-depot-730-million-tariff-refund-largely-offset-rising-costs-cfo/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 7 hours ago

Egg prices finally came down. Now nearly 19 million eggs have another problem

Egg prices have finally stopped punishing American shoppers. A dozen averaged $2.19 in July, down nearly 26% from a year earlier as flocks recovered from avian flu. Now nearly 19 million eggs are carrying a different kind of problem—and the sell-by dates on some of them run through today.

The problem began in July, when Midwest Poultry Services voluntarily recalled white shell and brown cage-free eggs over potential salmonella enteritidis contamination.

The eggs were produced at farms in Texas between June 6 and July 3 and carry sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and Aug. 17. They were sold under the Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Cal-Maine Sunups brands.

Then on Aug. 12, the Food and Drug Administration classified the recall under its highest-risk category after the eggs were linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 98 people and hospitalized 26.

The FDA said the Class I designation followed its assessment of the risk to the public and “should not be seen as an expansion or change to a firm’s voluntary public warning.”

Midwest Poultry Services could not immediately be reached for comment. Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, previously stressed that the classification does not represent a new recall. “What you’re seeing in the news today is not a new recall,” she said in a statement provided to the New York Times, adding that the company’s voluntary recall “is already complete.”

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/egg-recall-salmonella-outbreak-fda-midwest-poultry/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 365 r/USNEWS

The ‘manosphere’ is actually a multibillion-dollar industry that sells courses and supplements to insecure Gen Z men, report finds

The term “manosphere” first emerged in 2009, referring to a collection of blogs like The Spearhead and Return of Kings that promoted “men’s rights” and criticized the feminist movement, at times promoting violence against women. 

Over the next 15 years, the term evolved to encompass not just a generation of bloggers, but men no longer hiding behind keyboards and usernames—content creators and influencers attaching real names to their beliefs around what it means to be a man.

It would therefore be inaccurate to call the manosphere just an ideology, when actually it has transformed into its own economy—one exploiting Gen Z men’s anxieties and resentment toward society, according to researchers from digital safety organization Reset Tech and the nonprofit Equimundo.

In a new report titled “The Grift Economy: How Young Men Are Being Sold Fake Belonging and Fake Wealth Online,” they found the “movement” around men’s rights and masculinity masks a multibillion-dollar industry.

“We should be deeply concerned about the opportunists,” the report said. “In the very real moment of confusion–politicians peddling fear, uncertain job prospects, battles over the meaning of manhood–there is an industry of platforms, influencers and advertisers who are making billions off of young men’s insecurities.”

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  
https://fortune.com/2026/08/15/manosphere-multibillion-dollar-industry-adin-ross-looksmaxxing-report/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago

Financial adulthood has moved to the 30s: 'the decade when people come to terms with where they are in life'

For most of American history, financial adulthood arrived with a recognizable set of keys: the house keys, the car keys, the filing cabinet where you kept the insurance paperwork. The timing was fairly predictable—late 20s, early 30s at the outside. Then it took a while longer to get the keys.

A new survey from fintech company Chime, which commissioned a poll of 3,000 U.S. adults as part of its Millennial Money Report, suggests the answer is yes, in a specific and measurable way. Eighty-four percent of millennials say their 30s triggered a fundamental shift in how they think about money: what success means, how to measure it, and whether the old benchmarks still apply. The mindset recalibration that used to accompany the first mortgage and the first kid now arrives on its own schedule, decoupled from the milestones that used to produce it automatically.

“Eighty-four percent of millennials said that their 30s prompted a reevaluation of objectives and goals,” Aaron Terrazas, Chime’s Consumer Economist, who led the survey, told Fortune.

The report spans 2,000 nationally representative millennials, divided into three equally sized cohorts — elder, core and younger — with comparison samples of 500 Gen X and 500 Baby Boomers. Terrazas described the split within the millennial generation itself as one of the sharpest findings. Both ends of the generation are technically the same generation. But on nearly every financial attitude measured, they behave like different ones.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/millennials-financial-adulthood-30s-money-success-housing/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 1.9k r/energy+1 crossposts

U.S. strategic reserves are getting so low it threatens damaging the 60 underground salt caverns storing American oil

Strategic oil inventories have reached a 40-year low, and experts warn their continued depletion could damage the underground caverns where the reserves are stored.

Last week, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) plunged below 300 million barrels for the first time since the 1980s, when the reserves were being filled, according to the Department of Energy. That pool is expected to drain further to 243 million barrels as the U.S. releases 172 million barrels to manage severe supply disruptions and rising energy costs due to the Iran war.

Those reserves are kept in 60 salt caverns across two sites in Texas and two sites in Louisiana, each thousands of feet underground. They have a total storage capacity of 714 million barrels. But as oil is drained from these reserves, the integrity of the caverns may be imperiled.

“I don’t know anyone who believes we can go below 300,” Amos Hochstein, a senior energy advisor for former President Joe Biden, told CNBC on Saturday. “I know plenty of people who think we can’t get near 300 because physically you will damage the caverns where the oil is stored.”

The Department of Energy denied Hochstein’s claim that the changing inventory levels risk harming the caverns.

“The caverns are always full. All that changes is the ratio of oil and water that is filling them,” DOE chief spokesperson Ben Dietderich told Fortune in a statement. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/depleted-us-strategic-oil-reserves-risk-damaging-salt-caverns-iran-war/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 2.1k r/California

California’s billionaires just poured $40 million into blocking a wealth tax that threatens to force them to pay 5% of their net worth

California’s billionaires are going on the defensive, putting millions of dollars behind an effort to defeat a one-time billionaire tax that would collect 5% of their net worth if approved.

A pair of billionaires, along with other wealthy individuals, have recently upped their contributions to Building a Better California, a PAC formed earlier this year to oppose Proposition 40, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on California residents with more than $1 billion in assets to increase healthcare funding in the state.

Venture capitalist John Doerr put in $7.5 million to the group, while the executive chair of blockchain company Ripple, Chris Larsen, contributed an extra $10 million to the group, according to a campaign finance filing from August 14, the Financial Times reported. Doerr is worth about $22.6 billion according to Forbes, while Larsen is worth $11.4 billion.

Some multimillionaires also contributed, including the co-founder of cybersecurity company Lookout, John Hering, and Greenoaks Capital founder Neil Mehta, who contributed $946,000 and $250,000, respectively.

The newest contributions come as Building a Better California boasts an endowment of $110 million as of late June—a sign that wealthy Californians are taking seriously the threat the one-time tax represents for their finances if approved by voters in November.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/california-billionaires-chris-larsen-john-doerr-40-million-fresh-funds-building-a-better-california-proposition-40/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 61 r/energy

Data center gas plants to boost U.S. power emissions by 20%

Data center developers are turning to bespoke natural-gas power plants, a development that promises to dramatically increase carbon emissions and make it harder for US technology companies to meet their lofty climate goals.

Ninety-nine proposed plants tracked by BloombergNEF would emit about 318 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually if run at industry-standard rates, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. The entire US electric power industry emitted about 1,485 million metric tons of carbon last year, according to Energy Information Administration data, meaning one slice of data center infrastructure has the potential to lift US power sector emissions by 20%, and as much as a third should the new plants run flat out.  

The data center building boom has already strained the US electricity system, prompting reliability concerns and moratoriums on new project approvals. With even greenlit facilities facing yearslong delays connecting to regulated electricity grids, data center developers are seeking alternatives. These include so-called behind-the-meter projects that can be permitted and built without the approval of utilities or the independent system operators charged with ensuring grid reliability.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/data-center-gas-plants-to-boost-u-s-power-emissions-by-20/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago

The global ‘freedom of the seas’ is dying in the Strait of Hormuz—and everyone, everywhere, will pay the tolls

Concerns are growing that the de-facto tolling of the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a domino effect for key shipping bottlenecks worldwide, creating more global inflation and effectively killing key components of international maritime law.

As Iran insists on some form of fee structure for traversing the now-infamous strait—and the U.S. increasingly seems unable to prevent it—the rising expectation is that other nations may insist on new fees elsewhere, such as Asia’s Strait of Malacca, Europe’s and Africa’s Strait of Gibraltar, as well as key waterways impacted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“I think that the ‘freedom of the seas’ is dead,” said Michelle Brouhard, head of policy and geopolitical risk for the Kpler energy intelligence firm.

“The way that we’ve known maritime security is moving into a new era, and the rules are still getting rewritten,” Brouhard told Fortune. “It’s going to look different than what we’ve seen before. It’s going to be expensive; it’s going to be inflationary; and it’s also going to create a lot of benefits for people who start onshoring industrialization.”

The so-called freedom of the seas is the centuries-old recognition that maritime transit and commerce should be free and open to all. The “absolute freedom of navigation” was insisted in Woodrow Wilson’s famed “Fourteen Points” statement of peace to end World War I. That legality is carried today through the U.N. Convention on ​the Law of the Seas.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/global-freedom-seas-dying-strait-hormuz-everyone-everywhere-pay-tolls/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 219 r/lakers

The Buss family wants an 'exit gracefully.' Jeanie Buss says no

Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is legally contesting her siblings’ plan to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% minority ownership stake in the team to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, according to a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

ESPN and The Athletic first reported that the siblings had voted to sell the family trust’s remaining interest in the 17-time NBA champion team purchased by their father, Jerry Buss, in 1979. The decision would end Jeanie Buss’ tenure as the Lakers’ governor because that job requires at least 15% ownership of the team.

Jeannie Buss’ attorney, Adam Streisand, wrote to representatives for her five siblings to state that any decision to sell the family trust’s ownership stake could not be “effectuated without approval of the current co-trustees, Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.”
The letter further states that the co-trustees “are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain Controlling Owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise, and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such, would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”

Jeanie Buss has been the Lakers’ governor since Jerry Buss’ death in 2013, and she led the family’s decision to sell a controlling stake in the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter last year at a valuation of $10 billion. Walter, who is under federal investigation for tax issues, abruptly reached a deal earlier this month to flip the Lakers to Kushner and Iger at a valuation of $12.5 billion, another record for a pro sports team.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/buss-family-lakers-stake-jeanie-governor/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 157 r/USNEWS

Meta heads to child safety trial facing financial damages as large as $1.4 trillion

Of the thousands of lawsuits Meta faces over child safety on its platforms, none may be more consequential than one going to trial this week in California.

States are seeking extensive financial damages that could, in theory, total as much as $1.4 trillion, plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram.

The lawsuit accuses the social media giant of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features that get children addicted to its platforms. It also claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains,” the lawsuit says.

Dozens of states filed the lawsuit three years ago. The trial set to begin Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, features four of the states as plaintiffs — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. The other 25 states are expected to have trials later.

Meta said it disputes the allegations, and the trial evidence will show its commitment to supporting young people. “We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the company said in a statement.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/meta-youth-safety-trial-product-remedies/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 125 r/BasiliskEschaton+1 crossposts

Dario Amodei admits AI suffers from a crisis of trust, saying people worry companies or governments are 'cooking up some new way to screw them over'

Anthropic cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei pushed back on the notion that he’s responsible for the public’s overall sense of doom around AI, but acknowledged there are trust issues.

In a lengthy post on X on Saturday, which is unusual as he generally stays away from social media, he first addressed AI regulation, describing a false choice between those who argue it leads to regulatory capture and concentration of power versus those who think widely distributing AI, including via open models, is the best way to keep the technology in check.

Amodei pointed out that institutions like the court system can decentralize power, while noting Anthropic has been in favor of policies that slow down frontier AI companies and also give smaller rivals an advantage.

Still, he conceded that AI is structurally a technology that tends to concentrate power. But that’s not because of regulation. Instead, he attributed it to AI scaling laws, referring to how a model’s performance improves as resources used to build it increase. Open-weight models are a bit better but merely shift the concentration of power to those with the most computing capacity and chips.

“By contrast I think the right ‘rules of the road’ can simultaneously (a) address AI’s cyber/bio/alignment risks, (b) institutionally constrain the power of the frontier AI companies, and (c) leave room for open-weights models while also addressing the specific risks that they bring,” Amodei wrote, adding that he supports creation of a FINRA-like entity and the Trump administration’s stance on AI testing.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/16/dario-amodei-anthropic-ai-trust-crisis-regulation-frontier-open-models-negative-views/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 1 day ago
▲ 34 r/lakers

Owning the Lakers would provide billionaire investor Joshua Kushner with an iconic sports franchise — and a 'powerful tax shield'

Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger stunned the sports world this week with a deal to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $12.5 billion.

If approved, the acquisition would provide the new owners with an iconic NBA franchise that boasts 17 championships as well as ties to legends like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and LeBron James.

But ownership of the Lakers would also provide tax benefits. In fact, sports teams have long been considered great tax shelters for wealthy individuals.

That was not lost on Ram Ahluwalia, founder of Lumida Wealth Management, who said Kushner’s Lakers deal has nothing to do with sports teams as an asset class.

“It’s a powerful tax shield,” he posted on X on Saturday. “My guess is he is preparing to offset a boatload of carried interest income. If you own a sports team, done correctly, you can get a deduction against income. The goal in acquiring a sports team is to setup a ‘non-passive’ deduction.”

Ahluwalia pointed out that Kushner is likely facing big gains from his holdings in SpaceX, OpenAI and Stripe. Meanwhile, tax deduction benefits from owning a team are more favorable than owning real estate.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/16/lakers-deal-joshua-kushner-thrive-capital-spacex-openai-holdings-tax-shield/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 2 days ago
▲ 135 r/economy

Skyrocketing beef prices finally have Americans reaching their spending limit

Aaron Kaufman used to meet his lofty daily protein goals — a gram for each pound he weighs — with ground beef.

Then in the spring the 32-year-old moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan. To offset the higher cost of rent, he has been spending more on groceries instead of eating out. But on his first visit to the local grocery store, he saw that ground beef was $8 a pound, compared with $6 in Brooklyn. He decided to switch proteins, leaning largely on cheaper options such as chicken.

He still prefers the taste of ground beef. “Every once in a while, I’ll treat myself if it’s on sale,” Kaufman said.
He’s not alone. After absorbing nearly two years of surging beef prices, Americans are finally showing signs that they have reached their limit. That marks a notable turn for a market where a shrinking US cattle herd repeatedly pushed prices to records, yet consumers kept buying enough beef to support still-higher prices.

Now, that resilience is beginning to crack — and at a time of year when demand should be strongest. Beef sales volumes in the 13 weeks ending in mid-July, a crucial stretch encompassing both Memorial Day and July Fourth, fell 0.3% from a year earlier, according to research firm Circana. In the same period in each of the previous two years, volumes grew about 5%. Chicken, meanwhile, continues to see consumption rise, with ample supplies keeping prices under pressure.

The shift suggests there may finally be a ceiling on what Americans are willing to pay for beef, one of the biggest drivers of food inflation. Consumers who had responded to rising prices by cooking at home or buying cheaper cuts are increasingly pulling back altogether or shifting to less expensive proteins.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/16/beef-prices-inflation-consumer-spending-limit-cattle-supply/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 2 days ago

‘The great quantum migration’ is coming as more than $2 trillion in digital assets is at risk—nearly the entire value of the overall crypto market

Watch out crypto-bros—it might be time to start moving assets. Researchers are making progress toward quantum computers powerful enough to undermine the mathematical assumptions that currently protect cryptocurrency and other blockchain-based assets.

Because of this, the industry needs to replace its cryptographic infrastructure before the quantum computers arrive.

“The great quantum migration is going to require the entire digital asset industry to participate,” Christopher Smith, co-founder and CEO of Quantus, a quantum-secure blockchain network.
Quantum computing is a fundamentally different approach to processing information. Traditional computers use bits represented as either 0 or 1, and are physically constrained by how tiny transistors can be miniaturized. Quantum computers use subatomic particles and trapped ions to crunch numbers via qubits—allowing the machines to theoretically perform any calculation in a fraction of the time it would take today’s technology.

Until recently, the cryptography that proves ownership of digital assets was considered essentially unbreakable. That’s because today’s classical computers would take too long to feasibly perform the calculations needed for gaining access to a so-called private key that authorizes transactions. 

According to reports, a standard supercomputer would take hundreds of millions of years to break a cryptography code.

But a sufficiently powerful quantum computer can change that, Smith warned. “Over $2 trillion in digital assets is secured by elliptic curve cryptography, which has been known to be quantum-vulnerable for over 30 years,” he said. That’s nearly the entire overall crypto market, which is worth $2.16 trillion.  

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/15/quantum-computing-migration-2-trillion-digital-assets-risk-crypto-market-bitcoin/?utm_source=reddit/

fortune.com
u/fortune — 2 days ago