If youve ever considered buying a used EV, now is the time.
According to a new study from the electric vehicle (EV) data analysis firm Recurrent, the used EV industry is seeing increased inventory, stable prices, and demand to rival sales of used gas cars. Recurrent’s report looks at the American used EV market from January to May 2025. The data shows that, since February, used EV inventory has been up 50% year-over-year.
The report comes in the wake of another major update for the EV market: On July 3, Congress approved new spending legislation which will end tax credits on buying new or used EVs beginning on September 30. In light of this change, experts have predicted that EV sales are likely to see a spike pre-September, followed by a decline in the months after. Heres what to know about the current used EV market:
Used EV sales are closing in on used gas cars
Recurrents data showed that, at the end of May, on average, used EVs were rolling out of car lots more quickly than their gas counterparts.
According to Recurrents analysts, some of that demand can be attributed to the impending tax credit deadlinebut there are a few other likely motivators. First, the available selection has broadened within the past few years: There are currently 70 plug-in hybrid EV and battery-powered EV models on the market. Many optionseven when usedare also newer than comparable gas cars, with 72% of used EV listings dating within the past five years. To top it off, EVs are now giving gas cars significant competition in terms of affordability.
Someone on a budget can stretch their dollar farther in the used EV market as compared with a used gas car, Recurrents report notes. 34% of inventory is priced under $25,000, and 55% is under $30,000. For comparison, in the gas car market, nearly half of all used cars were $20,000 or less in 2019. Today, only 11% are.
Despite Elon Musks drag on the brand, used Teslas remain popular
One of Recurrents more surprising findings is that, despite Teslas endless list of brand struggles this year (see its plummeting stock prices, lagging deliveries, and constant political woes), used Teslas have not seen the crash in resale value that many experts predicted. (The sole exception to this trend is Teslas Cybertruck model.)
While used Tesla prices did see a modest 2% dip in April, Recurrents report demonstrates that theyve broadly kept pace with the overall used EV market. More importantly, it adds, inventory didnt sit idle”: April saw a 27% increase in sales volume month-over-month and, by May, used Tesla market share rose to nearly 50%, and days supply fell to just 28 daysthe lowest in the industry.
The interesting thing about our Tesla findings is that they remain very popular options for used car shoppers, says Andrew Garberson, Recurrents head of growth and research. For people who want a high-range, low-mile, affordable used EV, its often a Tesla based on their market share the last 10 years. One car dealer even told us that someone looking for an affordable used EV doesnt care what Elon says or does. They just need a low-cost, reliable vehicle.
With the tax credit deadline looming, now is the time to buy
Since 2008, purchasing a new EV has come with the incentive of a $7,500 federal tax credita policy that was expanded in 2022 under the Biden administration to include a potential federal credit of up to $4,000 on used EVs. With the September 30 tax credit deadline now looming on the horizon, buyers are likely to try to get in on the deal before it’s gone.
While Garberson says it’s a little too early for Recurrent to see a spike in used EV sales resulting from the new spending bill, the team has seen a considerable increase in interest from clients. As of July 9, weekly website traffic to Recurrents used EV resources had doubled week-over-week.
The main takeaway is that now is the time for people considering an affordable used EV, Garberson says. The tax credits are helping to anchor prices to the $25,000 threshold so newer models with modern range and technology can be affordable for a lot of people. Eligible buyers can also apply the $4,000 rebate to the purchase price, even using it as a down payment. Its a deal that cant be beat.
Can the used EV market sustain this level?
So far, most experts have predicted that the end of the tax credit will be detrimental for the American EV market.
Dan Levy, Barclays auto analyst, explained in an interview with Reuters, We believe the bill reiterates the slowdown ahead for EV penetration in the U.S., with both the carrot (i.e. tax credits/incentives) and the stick (i.e. emissions regulations) softened.
Garberson says that, while lease terms indicate that an influx of used EVs is set to hit the market in 2026, its difficult to predict what that might look like without the credit.
The question on everyones mind is what happens between September 30th and the end of the year, Garberson says. I think well see that dealerships will keep inventory low while the market rebalances, which would keep sticker prices relatively stable. Itll be interesting to see how states act to backfill federal incentives. A number of states either currently offer or have proposed rebates to help their residents. But all of those factors make the crystal ball difficult to read.
Of all the social media platforms chasing users and flooding the internet with content, Nextdoor has always been a bit of an oddball. Rather than offering Instagram-style influence or Twitter-style followers or even Facebook-style endless engagement, Nextdoor has been focused on the earnest goal of connecting neighbors with each other.
Since its founding in 2011, Nextdoor’s purpose has been to be the digital window through which people can better interact with their own neighbors and neighborhoods, online and in real life.
Today, Nextdoor is relaunching and unveiling a comprehensive redesign that positions it to actually make that possible.
The new Nextdoor is moving away from its message-board past toward a more informative offering of geographically relevant real-time alerts, local news from vetted publishers, and a more accessible pool of neighborhood knowledge undergirded by artificial intelligence. The type of stuff you may have seen on Nextdoor over the past 14 yearsnotices about lost or found pets, questions about whether or not anyone else’s power is out, that cranky neighbor who posts a bit too oftenwill largely be replaced by a feed of information that prioritizes relevance and utility.
It’s the first major update to the platform since its founding. Internally, Nextdoor executives are calling this a relaunch of both the product and the company as a whole.
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
Founder returns
The relaunch of Nextdoor has been in the works since last fall, a few months after founder Nirav Tolia returned to the role of CEO after five years away from the day-to-day operations of the company. Tolia tells Fast Company that he came back to Nextdoor with a renewed enthusiasm for its mission of connecting neighbors, but also a clearer view of how the platform had struggled to meet its main goal.
“The potential of the Nextdoor idea had not been realized by the existing product,” Tolia says. “And the reason for that is that it’s a very hard problem. Local word of mouth, which is really what Nextdoor is all about, is one of the last things remaining to be digitized.”
That challenge hasn’t stopped Nextdoor from continuing to grow, however. According to the company’s end-of-2024 report, weekly active users of the platform grew 10% year over year, to 46.1 million in the fourth quarter, and the company made $247.3 million in revenue in 2024, up 13% from 2023. Despite these positive numbers, Tolia sees room for improvement. Others see the relaunch as a defining moment for the company . . . and a gamble.
“Our biggest challenge with the existing Nextdoor is that the content is not high-quality enough, it’s not timely enough, and it’s not comprehensive enough,” Tolia says. That’s led the company to move away from solely user-generated content to more of a user-augmented content approach, supported by geotargeted news and alert feeds from credible outside sources. For the relaunch, Nextdoor has partnered with 3,500 news outlets to provide feeds of local news, and the platform will also automatically load real-time alerts from more than 5,000 local public safety, emergency, and utility agencies.
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
It’s also integrating AI into one of the more quintessential parts of the Nextdoor experience, which is neighbors seeking or providing information about local services, businesses, and events. The new AI-backed search feature draws from 14 years’ worth of posts to answer user questions on things like restaurant recommendations, contractors, and family-friendly activities. Rather than just asking a question in the form of a post and hoping for a useful response, users can ask their question in the search field and get instant results.
Speeding up this feedback loop is a key part of making Nextdoor more useful to people, Tolia says. Combining neighborhood knowledge and word-of-mouth recommendations with vetted information about news and local events could make Nextdoor into what Tolia calls a “first-screen app.”
New user experience, new user behavior
A change this big requires users to shift how they interact with Nextdoor. Ahead of the relaunch project getting started, Tolia hired Georg Petschnigg as Nextdoor’s chief design officer. A seasoned user experience designer, Petschnigg is best known for his time as head of product design at The New York Times, where he led a comprehensive redesign of the newspaper’s app. For Nextdoor, he’s bringing a news-centric sensibility and a focus on getting people the information they want as quickly as possible.
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
Given Nextdoor’s focus on neighborhoods, the main entry point for content on the platform is the user’s location, which gets prominent placement in the top-left corner of the new Nextdoor app. “The most important thing we want to signal is that this is about your neighborhood,” Petschnigg says.
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
A tap in that upper-left corner takes users to a neighborhood map, which displays real-time alerts in the area, including extreme weather, fires, power outages, and police activity. If something important is happening that directly affects a user or their location, like a public safety emergency or a power outage, that information will be displayed automatically on a user’s home screen.
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
Other times, the home screen will be a mix of local news and posts from neighbors, all geotargeted for specific relevance in a given location. “Up until now, neighbors had to report on what’s happening, and they will do that,” Petschnigg says. “But being able to bring in these verified information sources really supercharges the dynamic on the platform.”
To spur active engagement, users can comment on the news items in this main feed. To try to avoid the cesspool that user comments sections can become, Nextdoor is using AI to create prompt questions that direct users to add their own reactions or information about the news shown in the feed. “We want to encourage the habit to discuss the news or advance the news,” Petschnigg says.
It’s unusual for a design to put news and user commentary all on the same level, Petschnigg says, but he’s hoping the focus on new stories that are relevant to a given neighborhood will become a starting point for deeper information sharing. “We’re hearing people saying they are interested in the news, but also that the conversation around the news is important,” he adds. “Framing news as information that exists to serve a community is really, really important, and we want to do that right off the bat.”
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
The other parts of the relaunched Nextdoor platform can be accessed by a simple floating navigation area at the bottom of the screenan approach that’s the basis of Apple’s recently announced Liquid Glass user interface. Petschnigg says Nextdoor’s UX was in the works long before Apple made this reveal, but the similarities are validating. “We started understanding that if you want to have a user interface that lets the content breathe, you need to pare back the footprint of your navigational elements,” he says.
[Image: courtesy Nextdoor]
The floating navigation bar makes the home screen and its news feed, the search function, and local recommendations (or “faves”) the three most important parts of the new Nextdoor. This user interface, and the platform’s emphasis on bringing in reliable and vetted information sources, will redirect Nextdoor from being a free-for-all message board into something more deliberately informative.
Focusing on the localthrough alerts, geotargeted news, and an AI-assisted knowledge bankis the way Tolia thinks Nextdoor can stand out from other social media platforms. “There are only about a dozen apps that we rely on every single day. The fact that none of those dozen apps is related to our local life is just kind of mind-boggling to me,” Tolia says. “Given that 30% of Americans are now working from home, where we live is more important than it’s ever been. So I think our opportunity is bigger than it’s ever been as well.”
When I was laid off from my position at Forbes, I felt completely blindsided. I had spent years associating myself with my title of marketing director at such a well-known brand, and then it was gone just like that. Like many people, I found myself staring at my laptop and outdated résumé, wondering: What now?
The job market was (and still is) challenging. I knew simply mass sending résumés out to jobs was not going to work this time. Instead, I needed to show up meaningfully, build real connections, and focus on standing out in more authentic ways online.
For someone who spent years helping brands tell their stories, I suddenly had to figure out my own, and fast. So, I decided to turn to LinkedIn to build my personal brand.
I started by fully updating and optimizing my profile. Then I identified my core content pillars, what I wanted to be known for and what felt authentic to me. I committed to posting two to three times a week, sharing practical marketing tips, personal stories, and relatable career moments. I also made a point to comment consistently and thoughtfully on other people’s content to build visibility and connections.
When I started in July 2024, I had 2,400 followers. Today, Ive grown that community to over 23,000. Growing my following has brought me new clients, brand partnerships, speaking opportunities across the country, and job opportunities.
But to be clear, I dont expect everyone to go out and try to become a LinkedIn influencer. (Unless thats what you want to do!) What I do believe is that an unexpected career change, like a layoff, can be the perfect moment to give your LinkedIn a serious makeover and set yourself up for your next opportunity.
Heres how you can use this time to revamp your LinkedIn profile, tell your story, and stand out to future employers or clients.
Audit your profile with fresh eyes
Your LinkedIn profile isnt just a digital résumé. Its your personal brand headquarters, your landing page, and your first impression. Even if you arent looking to become a content creator, a strong profile builds credibility and opens doors.
Start by looking at your profile like a recruiter or potential hiring manager would. Is it clear what you do and what youre great at? Or does it read like a list of past job titles with no story behind it?
Headline: This isnt just your current or most recent title. Its your hook. Use it to highlight what you do best and what you want to be known for, i.e. Financial services leader turning data into dollars, or I help nonprofit organizations increase community impact through organic social media strategies.
Cover photo: This is prime real estate space you can use to showcase your work, such as awards, recognitions, featured brands you’ve worked with, and more. You can say a lot with the space available right at the top of your profile.
About section: This is where you can truly tell your story and showcase who you are beyond your résumé. Instead of simply listing your skills or turning it into a “word salad” of buzzwords, focus on crafting a clear, compelling narrative that connects with your audience. Share what drives you, what you’re passionate about, and the journey that brought you to where you are today. Highlight your unique value, the problems you love to solve, and what makes you different. Think of it as your personal pitch cover letter and a space to build trust and make people want to learn more, work with you, or support your next move.
Featured section: Use this section to showcase your best work, media mentions, big wins, or thought leadership pieces. If you dont have those yet, consider adding a link to a personal website, a résumé, or a featured post that highlights your perspective or expertise. Anything that backs up your pitch from your About Me section.
Experience: Go beyond listing responsibilities. Highlight measurable results, key projects, and how you made a difference. This isn’t about bullet points or just listing a job description. Tell the reader what you did there and the results you achieved. Use data, metrics, and concrete examples to showcase your impact.
Showing up on the platform
There are different ways you can show up on LinkedIn, depending on your comfort level and goals. And there’s an untapped opportunity here, according to LinkedIn data, only 12% of users post consistently. This means you have a chance to stand out more easily.
If you want to start posting content, you should first decide what you want to talk about, which means defining your content pillars. Think about what you want to be known for, what your audience engages with, and what you can talk about consistently without burning out. For me, my pillars are marketing expertise, personal and career stories, and light, relatable corporate humor. Defining these helped me show up with intention and build trust.
You dont have to post every day or aim for viral content. Start small:
Share a lesson youve learned recently.
Talk about a challenge you overcame.
Offer insights in your area of expertise.
The more you show up, the more youll start to feel seen, and the more likely new opportunities will find you.
If you dont feel comfortable writing content and sharing, thats absolutely fine. There are other ways you can show up on the platform and engage with the community.
Reposting content from people you follow and ideas you support is a great way to share content without having to create it. Adding your thoughts to the post can be an easy way to add to the conversation.
Commenting is also a simple way to utilize LinkedIn. Commenting is like virtual networking: it helps you get noticed, build relationships, and stay top of mind. Comments often lead to profile views, connection requests, and even opportunities like collaborations or job leads. Aim to leave thoughtful, genuine comments that add value, rather than quick reactions. Support others consistently; its one of the simplest but most effective ways to grow your presence and strengthen your network.
A layoff might feel like an ending, but it can be the push you need to finally focus on yourself and your next chapter.
You might not grow your following from 2,400 to 23,000, and you dont have to. But you can turn this moment into a powerful chance to show the world who you are and what youre capable of.
Closed, it looks pretty much like any other laptop manufactured in 1995.
To be sure, its more compact than mostmaking it, in the parlance of the day, a subnotebook. But its still comically thick, standing almost as tall as four MacBook Airs stacked on each other. That height is required to accommodate multiple technologies later rendered obsolete by technological progress, such as a dial-up fax/modem, an infrared port, two PCMCIA expansion card slots, and a bulky connector for an external docking station.
But then you open it up. And as you do, something utterly unique happens.
Thirty-five of the laptops keys glide out to the left in a cluster. Another 49 swivel downward and to the right. By the time youve raised the screen into place, those 84 keys have assembled themselves into a keyboard thats 11.5 wideeven though the laptops case is only 9.7 wide. The result is the holiest of 1990s computing holy grails: comfy, no-compromises typing on a laptop that isagain, by the standards of three decades agohighly portable.
This story is part of 1995 Week, where well revisit some of the most interesting, unexpected, and confounding developments in tech 30 years ago.
I could only be talking about IBMs ThinkPad 701, the most buzzworthy PC of 1995. Its expanding keyboard, officially called the TrackWrite, remains better known by its code-name of Butterfly, referencing the spreading-wing-like effect as it slid into place. (IBMs butterfly keyboard is not to be confused with Apples much later, famously wretched keyboard of the same nickname.)
The ThinkPad 701 was a small computer by 1995 standards, yet its keyboard was as spacious as they got. [Photo courtesy of Lenovo]
Most amazing tech products dont stay amazing forever. Amazingfor its time is generally as good as it gets. But I dont hesitate to describe the ThinkPad 701 as amazing, full stop. Its one of the best things the technology industry has ever done with moving parts.
Though the concept may sound faintly Rube Goldbergian, it worked shockingly well. Lifting the screen set off a system of concealed gears and levers that propelled the two sections of keyboard into position with balletic grace. Once assembled, there was no visible seam between the sections, anddespite the overhang they created on both sides of the computerno droop. Closing the lid neatly reversed the process.
Even the confident sound the keyboard produced as it slid in and outsomewhere between a whirrrr and a whooosh, culminating in a satisfying clickwas pleasing to the ear, as if IBM had paid attention to the acoustic experience in its own right.
Most computers would be hard to sell in a 15-second TV commercial. But all IBM had to do was convey the ThinkPad 701s petite size and then show what happened when you opened it. Mission accomplished, with time to spare.
Long after the ThinkPad 701 left the market, it still felt like magic. David Hill, who became the ThinkPads design chief in 1995 and continued in the role after IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo a decade later, kept one on hand to demonstrate to visitors such as college students. Every time I pulled that thing out and showed it to people, the reaction would be the same, he remembers. There would be this deafening silence. And then someone would say, Do it again!
When the ThinkPad 701 was new, laptop buyers recognized it as the engineering marvel it was. A Businesweek article cited sales of 215,000 units and said it was 1995s best-selling PC laptop. Yet by the time that story appeared in February 1996, the 701 had been discontinued. IBM never made anything like it again. Neither did anyone else.
So how could a laptop widely regarded to have solved one of mobile computings fundamental problems come and go so quickly? Therein lies a tale.
The subnotebook conundrum
If you skim through enough photos of typical laptops of the mid-1990ssuch as the 65-plus models reviewed in an August 1993 PC Magazine cover storytwo things will strike you about their displays. First, theyre truly dinky. Nearly all the ones PC Mag covered measured between 8.5 and 9.5 diagonally. Today, by contrast, most mainstream laptop screens start at 13 and go up from there.
Secondly, most mid-1990s laptop screens are surrounded by overwhelmingly gigantic bezels, as if they were framed, matted photos. From our 21st-century vantage point, they look weird, since computer makers later spent years shrinking the bezels downboth an aesthetic improvement and a way to fit a roomier display in a smaller case. But by supersizing the bezels, ’90s manufacturers gave themselves enough room to equip laptops with desktop-like keyboards. At the time, even more than now, that was an absolutely critical design goal.
The first PC maker that figured out how to design a subnotebook-sized laptop with a desktop-sized keyboard would really have something.
Now, there were buyers who craved portability so much that they were willing to accept a shrunken keyboard. Subnotebooks catered to them. But these miniature laptops were a quirky niche. Reviewing the ThinkPad 500, IBMs first subnotebook, for InfoWorld in 1993, my friend Fredric Paul concluded that touch typing is possible but not exactly fun. A bit more thought about the proper form factor might have allowed more pleasant typing.
Everyone else making subnotebooks faced the same issue. There was a mismatch between the largest-size screen and a full size keyboard, says Hill. If you wanted to mke something that essentially hugged to the sides of the screen, the keyboard had to be significantly compromised in terms of the ability to type on it.
It was obvious that the first PC maker that figured out how to design a subnotebook-sized laptop with a desktop-sized keyboard would really have something. Unless, that is, the whole thing was an impossible dream.
In 1992, design legend Richard Sapper had given the first ThinkPad its squared-off black case and red TrackPoint pointing nubelements that have proven so durable that theyre still with us in new ThinkPads from Lenovo. As IBM contemplated the subnotebook market, Sapper tinkered with methods for getting big keyboards into small laptopsFolding the keyboard on top of itself, with wings that would fold outward, and some other ideas, says Hill. But they made the computer thicker. And that was not something that was popular.
A rare closeup of the ThinkPad 701s keyboard in the process of expanding, revealing the area below the two wedges of keys. [Photo: Harry McCracken]
Impractical though the goal of a keyboard that expanded seemed, it continued to float around within IBM. Among those trying to solve it was John Karidis (1958-2012), an employee at the companys Yorktown Heights, New York, lab whom Hill calls the most gifted mechanical engineer I’ve ever worked with in my entire career. His previous projects at IBM had ranged widely, from high-speed printers to chip testing equipment.
Karidis really enjoyed the cadre of inventors and makers, say his brother, George Karidisan inventor himself, as was their father, a nuclear engineer for Westinghouse. He welcomed that [IBM] was International Business Machines, and he and others made machines. He had a deep concentration at a moment’s notice on any topic. He didn’t have a fear of failure, but just an eagerness to pursue things.
One day, Karidis had the epiphany that made the ThinkPad 701 possible. He was playing with some wooden building blocks with his daughter, and he noticed that if you take two triangular blocks and slide them past each other, it kind of makes a rectangle that changes its aspect ratio, says Hill. By breaking a keyboard into sections that slid, you might be able to increase its width without resorting to a folding design that added to the computers height.
To test that idea out, Karidis ended up photocopying a keyboard and then cutting it out, says his brother George. He saw how it could translate. And he went home and showed it to his wife, and she kind of looked at him funny and said, They pay you to do this?
IBM used robots to verify that the split keyboard was robust enough to withstand 25,000 openings and closings.
In his 2017 book How the ThinkPad Changed the World and is Shaping the Future, Arimasa Naitoh, who led a ThinkPad engineering team in Yamato, Japan, for decades, writes of an IBM executive at the companys Raleigh, North Carolina office. Learning of Karidiss keyboard, he pushed a plan to incorporate it in a laptop. That executive, Naitoh says, was Tim Cookyears before he joined Apple. Cooks IBM responsibilities involved manufacturing and distribution, not product development, and he left the company well before the ThinkPad 701 was released. Thinking of him as one of its fathers may be going way beyond the documented evidence. Still, the mind boggles: The most interesting laptop Apples eventual CEO played a hand in hatching might not have been a MacBook.
Bringing Karidiss brainstorm to market took time. In 1992, the company had formed an analysts council that gave a select group of industry watchers the opportunity to see products under development and provide feedback. Its participants included Creative Strategies analyst (and Fast Company contributor) Tim Bajarin; the group still exists today as part of Lenovos PC business and Bajarin remains a member.
At one meeting, the council got a preview of Karidiss designthough not yet in a working laptop. It wasn’t a true device, but they showed us the concept, showed us how the butterfly keyboard might work, explains Bajarin. And by the way, they did really good mockups. They were not cheapo stuff. To a person, we said, If you can do it, you should do it.
They could do it, and didjust not as rapidly as theyd hoped. Naitoh writes that the ThinkPad 701 was initially supposed to ship by the end of 1994. It missed that deadline, delayed by the demands of engineering and testing such an unprecedented product. For example, IBM used robots to verify that the split keyboard was robust enough to withstand 25,000 openings and closings.
Mr. Bonds laptop
On March 6, 1995, IBM finally announced its new subnotebook. Available in a variety of configurations, its list prices ranged from $3,799$5,649, or about $8,000$11,900 in 2025 dollarsnot cheap, but not absurd at the time. The most economical variant, the ThinkPad 701Cs, had a 10.4 screenroomy at the timebut it was a passive matrix LCD, which tended to leave colors looking a tad washed out. The one you really wanted was the 701C, which sported a vivid active-matrix screen of the same size.
In a story about the 701s arrival, The New York Times Laurie Flynn said that IBM might have trouble keeping up with demand, in part because it had gotten prospective buyers too excited too early. She also noted that the 701 used the older Intel 486 chip rather than the faster Pentiuman artifact of its slow gestation that would come back to bite IBM.
Reviewers, whom IBM had seeded with ThinkPad 701 units before its release, werent impressed by the laptops aging processor and found its battery life iffy. Thanks to the butterfly keyboard, they still hailed the system as a mobile computing landmark. The $5,000 ThinkPad 701C has successfully taken the sub out of subnotebook, wrote PC Magazines Brian Nadel. The Wall Street Journals Walt Mossberg called it a true gem of a computer andmore than 20 years laterpobably the most unusual and, I think, in some ways clever laptop I ever reviewed.
IBM embraced the ThinkPad 701s gadget-like qualities in this magazine ad. [Image via Google Books]
Generally speaking, IBM was a businesslike brand and ThinkPad marketing leaned into practical advantages. With the 701, however, the company wasnt afraid of gadget-y associations. James Bond, as a frequent traveler, will certainly carry this amazing 4.5 lb. ultra portable computer on his next mission, declared one ad, playing up features such as the built-in answering machine and fax capability. That November, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) really did fool around with a 701 in GoldenEyealthough only fleetingly and to the apparent annoyance of Q. (Fittingly, Hill says that Karidis was known as the Q of IBM.) The following year, the computer also showed up briefly in Tom Cruises first Mission Impossible film, which is better known for its Apple product placement.
In this video promo shot at Disney Worlds Epcot Center,an IBM employee walks through the 701s features. We also glimpse the equipment the company used to test the computer and random theme park visitors being impressed by the expanding keyboard.
The ThinkPad 701 garnered some weighty recognition, including 27 design awards. It was even exhibited at New York Citys Museum of Modern Art. But despite the publicity and plaudits, its clock ran out before the year ended. In a Hardware Withdrawal list released on November 21, 1995, IBM announced that it would stop marketing the 701 as of December 21. Units that had already made their way into distribution channels would remain available into 1996, but the 701 was a dead computer walking, less than nine months after its debut.
Multiple factors contributed to IBMs decision to discontinue such a high-profile system. One of them was its Intel 486 chip, which had felt a tad outdated when the 701 was released and grown only more so by late 1995. Updating the design with a Pentium would not have been as simple as plopping in a newer processor. Instead, the decision would have set off a cascading series of engineering challenges relating to keeping the powerful Pentium running cool. Possible, certainlybut also a significant undertaking.
I would have to say that [the ThinkPad 701s] biggest success is the halo that created around ThinkPad and IBM, because it was so wildly creative, says Hill. But it did kind of miss the wave in terms of the announcement relative to the chip. So it was a little bit late.
Bajarin notes that that IBM told members of its analysts council that the TrackWrites keyboard had some reliability issues, since its left and right edges overflowed the case and were unsupported in use. That was especially true among users who mistreated their pricey new laptops: Sometimes they’d throw it in their backpack without getting the keyboard closed completely, he remembers.
The great widening
Ultimately, though, the ThinkPad 701 wasnt done in by its own limitations. As portable computers became more popular, progress in display technology had made it possible for PC makers to use larger screens. Manufacturers were also getting better at fitting a laptops necessary components into less space. These advances let them design a new generation of thin, light laptops that went beyond the limitations of subnotebooks. Once IBM could make a lightweight laptop with a wider screen, the need for an expanding keyboard was no longer essential, says George Karidis. It would have just been a novelty.
In his book, Naitoh writes that the 701 was released amid rivalry between IBMs Raleigh and Yamato teams that was resolved by centralizing ThinkPad development in Yamato. Put in charge of determining the butterfly keyboards future, he reluctantly concluded its time had passed and suspended further work on it.
In 1996, IBM released the ThinkPad 560. Its 12.1 display was considerably roomier than the ThinkPads 701s 10.4-incher. The case was two inches wider than the 701, offering plenty of space for a desktop-like keyboardno butterfly mechanism required. Yet the 560 was also much thinner (1.2) and lighter (4 lb.) than the 701, achieving a form factor that would become known as ultraportable.
A patent drawing showing how the ThinkPad 701s keyboard slid into place. [Image via Google Patents]
The ThinkPad 701 had been a memorable blip. The ThinkPad 560s balance of portability, power, and comfort presaged where the entire industry would focus its energy for years to come. The end result has been laptops such as todays ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13. With a 14 screen, its 53% thinner at its thickest point and 46% lighter than the ThinkPad 560. Lenovo continues to flatten these things to the point that it hardly even needs to be any thinner, says Hill.
Though the 701s butterfly keyboard couldnt survive on coolness alone, There were a couple of attempts to bring it back with other operating systems, like a kind of a smart book kid of device or other things of that nature, but we never could get the the traction, says Hill. In fact, John [Karidis] and I worked on one where only half the keyboard moved. Even now, it may be premature to assume the idea will never resurface in a new device: In 2021, the history site Laptop Retrospective reported that Lenovo had filed a new patent for a magnetic expanding keyboard, possibly for use with tablets.
Interviewed by Cnets John G. Spooner in 2001, Karidis didnt seem haunted by his inventions failure to change computing in any permanent way. The butterfly keyboard was no longer necessary, because people moved to larger displays, especially in this geography, he told Spooner. Where the butterfly approach makes sense is where you want the largest keyboard possible in combination with an 8-inch or 10-inch display. We’ll wait and see whether the market need develops (again) for that. So far, it hasntbut its fun to think it could.
Butterflies are forever
Back in 1995, I didnt even consider buying a ThinkPad 701. Even in its cheapest configuration, it was far, far outside my price range. Both of my parents got ones as work machines, though. I recall Ma and Pa McCracken being very happy with their hers-and-his ThinkPads, although my mother, who mostly used hers on the couch when working from home, discovered that excess cat hair clogged the keyboard mechanism.
While working on this article, I realized I needed to reacquaint myself with the 701 in person. I ended up snagging one off eBay. Its TrackWrite keyboard continues to function perfectly, and it still boots into Windows 95. However, like many 30-year-old laptops, mine has fallen victim to its advanced age. It has a corroded battery, a flaky power switch, and a case whose rubberized black coating has decomposed to a syrupy consistency.
My newly acquired ThinkPad 701C (left) and a scale model version released by IBM Japan in 2001 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ThinkPad line. [Photo: Harry McCracken]
A ThinkPad 701 owner who goes by the online handle of Polymatt hasnt just lovingly restored his own laptop. Hes created Project Butterfly, a website full of step-by-step repair guides: How to sand and repaint its case, 3D-print replacement parts, fabricate a replacement battery, and more. Everything is open source, including files that allow the printing of replacement decals for icons such as the ones indicating the laptops power switch, printer port, headphone jack, and other features.
Like me, Polymatt is a second-generation fan whose father brought a 701 home during its original moment of glory. I was instantly attracted to it, he says. He had some previous ThinkPads, but this thing was just supercool. I have really fond memories of playing video games on it and just being fascinated by what it was. It helped cement my interest in technology. The 701 lingered in his memory. Years later, it resurfaced as an opportunity to contribute something meaningful to the community of vintage computing enthusiasts.
As a thing of wonder, the ThinkPad 701 continues to transcend its wn obsolescence.
Polymatt isnt the only 701 owner whos gone all out to bring the machine into the 21st century. Karl Buchka managed to replace a 701s guts with the motherboard from a modern Framework modular laptop and give it an iPads Retina display. Theoretically, an intrepid modder could do something similar with any old computer. Its just that few mid-90s laptops remain interesting enough to inspire such creativity.
Only a small group of hackers have the patience, passion, and technical chops to acquire a ThinkPad 701Polymatt says hes had 20 or 30 over the yearsand fix it up. But a far larger swath of humanity is still charmed by John Karidiss butterfly keyboard. YouTube is awash in 701-related videos, from an excellent documentary to people simply being entranced by it. As a thing of wonder, it continues to transcend its own obsolescence.
Just by itself, Polymatts YouTube Short of a 701 opening and closing has been viewed more than 600,000 times. The fun thing is, I see the comments coming in from people who think that it’s a modern thing and are excited about it, he says. And then I see people who know it and are like, Oh, they need to bring this back. I get the whole spectrum of reactions.
Yes, some of the YouTube commenters helpfully point out that the advent of wide screens long ago eliminated the need for an expanding keyboard. Even so, its tough to watch the video just once and then click away. After all these years, the most natural response to seeing the ThinkPad 701 in action remains Do it again.
Closed, it looks pretty much like any other laptop manufactured in 1995.
To be sure, its more compact than mostmaking it, in the parlance of the day, a subnotebook. But its still comically thick, standing almost as tall as four MacBook Airs stacked on each other. That height is required to accommodate multiple technologies later rendered obsolete by technological progress, such as a dial-up fax/modem, an infrared port, two PCMCIA expansion card slots, and a bulky connector for an external docking station.
But then you open it up. And as you do, something utterly unique happens.
Thirty-five of the laptops keys glide out to the left in a cluster. Another 49 swivel downward and to the right. By the time youve raised the screen into place, those 84 keys have assembled themselves into a keyboard thats 11.5 wideeven though the laptops case is only 9.7 wide. The result is the holiest of 1990s computing holy grails: comfy, no-compromises typing on a laptop that isagain, by the standards of three decades agohighly portable.
This story is part of 1995 Week, where well revisit some of the most interesting, unexpected, and confounding developments in tech 30 years ago.
I could only be talking about IBMs ThinkPad 701, the most buzzworthy PC of 1995. Its expanding keyboard, officially called the TrackWrite, remains better known by its code-name of Butterfly, referencing the spreading-wing-like effect as it slid into place. (IBMs butterfly keyboard is not to be confused with Apples much later, famously wretched keyboard of the same nickname.)
The ThinkPad 701 was a small computer by 1995 standards, yet its keyboard was as spacious as they got. [Photo courtesy of Lenovo]
Most amazing tech products dont stay amazing forever. Amazingfor its time is generally as good as it gets. But I dont hesitate to describe the ThinkPad 701 as amazing, full stop. Its one of the best things the technology industry has ever done with moving parts.
Though the concept may sound faintly Rube Goldbergian, it worked shockingly well. Lifting the screen set off a system of concealed gears and levers that propelled the two sections of keyboard into position with balletic grace. Once assembled, there was no visible seam between the sections, anddespite the overhang they created on both sides of the computerno droop. Closing the lid neatly reversed the process.
Even the confident sound the keyboard produced as it slid in and outsomewhere between a whirrrr and a whooosh, culminating in a satisfying clickwas pleasing to the ear, as if IBM had paid attention to the acoustic experience in its own right.
Most computers would be hard to sell in a 15-second TV commercial. But all IBM had to do was convey the ThinkPad 701s petite size and then show what happened when you opened it. Mission accomplished, with time to spare.
Long after the ThinkPad 701 left the market, it still felt like magic. David Hill, who became the ThinkPads design chief in 1995 and continued in the role after IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo a decade later, kept one on hand to demonstrate to visitors such as college students. Every time I pulled that thing out and showed it to people, the reaction would be the same, he remembers. There would be this deafening silence. And then someone would say, Do it again!
When the ThinkPad 701 was new, laptop buyers recognized it as the engineering marvel it was. A Businesweek article cited sales of 215,000 units and said it was 1995s best-selling PC laptop. Yet by the time that story appeared in February 1996, the 701 had been discontinued. IBM never made anything like it again. Neither did anyone else.
So how could a laptop widely regarded to have solved one of mobile computings fundamental problems come and go so quickly? Therein lies a tale.
The subnotebook conundrum
If you skim through enough photos of typical laptops of the mid-1990ssuch as the 65-plus models reviewed in an August 1993 PC Magazine cover storytwo things will strike you about their displays. First, theyre truly dinky. Nearly all the ones PC Mag covered measured between 8.5 and 9.5 diagonally. Today, by contrast, most mainstream laptop screens start at 13 and go up from there.
Secondly, most mid-1990s laptop screens are surrounded by overwhelmingly gigantic bezels, as if they were framed, matted photos. From our 21st-century vantage point, they look weird, since computer makers later spent years shrinking the bezels downboth an aesthetic improvement and a way to fit a roomier display in a smaller case. But by supersizing the bezels, ’90s manufacturers gave themselves enough room to equip laptops with desktop-like keyboards. At the time, even more than now, that was an absolutely critical design goal.
The first PC maker that figured out how to design a subnotebook-sized laptop with a desktop-sized keyboard would really have something.
Now, there were buyers who craved portability so much that they were willing to accept a shrunken keyboard. Subnotebooks catered to them. But these miniature laptops were a quirky niche. Reviewing the ThinkPad 500, IBMs first subnotebook, for InfoWorld in 1993, my friend Fredric Paul concluded that touch typing is possible but not exactly fun. A bit more thought about the proper form factor might have allowed more pleasant typing.
Everyone else making subnotebooks faced the same issue. There was a mismatch between the largest-size screen and a full size keyboard, says Hill. If you wanted to mke something that essentially hugged to the sides of the screen, the keyboard had to be significantly compromised in terms of the ability to type on it.
It was obvious that the first PC maker that figured out how to design a subnotebook-sized laptop with a desktop-sized keyboard would really have something. Unless, that is, the whole thing was an impossible dream.
In 1992, design legend Richard Sapper had given the first ThinkPad its squared-off black case and red TrackPoint pointing nubelements that have proven so durable that theyre still with us in new ThinkPads from Lenovo. As IBM contemplated the subnotebook market, Sapper tinkered with methods for getting big keyboards into small laptopsFolding the keyboard on top of itself, with wings that would fold outward, and some other ideas, says Hill. But they made the computer thicker. And that was not something that was popular.
A rare closeup of the ThinkPad 701s keyboard in the process of expanding, revealing the area below the two wedges of keys. [Photo: Harry McCracken]
Impractical though the goal of a keyboard that expanded seemed, it continued to float around within IBM. Among those trying to solve it was John Karidis (1958-2012), an employee at the companys Yorktown Heights, New York, lab whom Hill calls the most gifted mechanical engineer I’ve ever worked with in my entire career. His previous projects at IBM had ranged widely, from high-speed printers to chip testing equipment.
Karidis really enjoyed the cadre of inventors and makers, say his brother, George Karidisan inventor himself, as was their father, a nuclear engineer for Westinghouse. He welcomed that [IBM] was International Business Machines, and he and others made machines. He had a deep concentration at a moment’s notice on any topic. He didn’t have a fear of failure, but just an eagerness to pursue things.
One day, Karidis had the epiphany that made the ThinkPad 701 possible. He was playing with some wooden building blocks with his daughter, and he noticed that if you take two triangular blocks and slide them past each other, it kind of makes a rectangle that changes its aspect ratio, says Hill. By breaking a keyboard into sections that slid, you might be able to increase its width without resorting to a folding design that added to the computers height.
To test that idea out, Karidis ended up photocopying a keyboard and then cutting it out, says his brother George. He saw how it could translate. And he went home and showed it to his wife, and she kind of looked at him funny and said, They pay you to do this?
IBM used robots to verify that the split keyboard was robust enough to withstand 25,000 openings and closings.
In his 2017 book How the ThinkPad Changed the World and is Shaping the Future, Arimasa Naitoh, who led a ThinkPad engineering team in Yamato, Japan, for decades, writes of an IBM executive at the companys Raleigh, North Carolina office. Learning of Karidiss keyboard, he pushed a plan to incorporate it in a laptop. That executive, Naitoh says, was Tim Cookyears before he joined Apple. Cooks IBM responsibilities involved manufacturing and distribution, not product development, and he left the company well before the ThinkPad 701 was released. Thinking of him as one of its fathers may be going way beyond the documented evidence. Still, the mind boggles: The most interesting laptop Apples eventual CEO played a hand in hatching might not have been a MacBook.
Bringing Karidiss brainstorm to market took time. In 1992, the company had formed an analysts council that gave a select group of industry watchers the opportunity to see products under development and provide feedback. Its participants included Creative Strategies analyst (and Fast Company contributor) Tim Bajarin; the group still exists today as part of Lenovos PC business and Bajarin remains a member.
At one meeting, the council got a preview of Karidiss designthough not yet in a working laptop. It wasn’t a true device, but they showed us the concept, showed us how the butterfly keyboard might work, explains Bajarin. And by the way, they did really good mockups. They were not cheapo stuff. To a person, we said, If you can do it, you should do it.
They could do it, and didjust not as rapidly as theyd hoped. Naitoh writes that the ThinkPad 701 was initially supposed to ship by the end of 1994. It missed that deadline, delayed by the demands of engineering and testing such an unprecedented product. For example, IBM used robots to verify that the split keyboard was robust enough to withstand 25,000 openings and closings.
Mr. Bonds laptop
On March 6, 1995, IBM finally announced its new subnotebook. Available in a variety of configurations, its list prices ranged from $3,799$5,649, or about $8,000$11,900 in 2025 dollarsnot cheap, but not absurd at the time. The most economical variant, the ThinkPad 701Cs, had a 10.4 screenroomy at the timebut it was a passive matrix LCD, which tended to leave colors looking a tad washed out. The one you really wanted was the 701C, which sported a vivid active-matrix screen of the same size.
In a story about the 701s arrival, The New York Times Laurie Flynn said that IBM might have trouble keeping up with demand, in part because it had gotten prospective buyers too excited too early. She also noted that the 701 used the older Intel 486 chip rather than the faster Pentiuman artifact of its slow gestation that would come back to bite IBM.
Reviewers, whom IBM had seeded with ThinkPad 701 units before its release, werent impressed by the laptops aging processor and found its battery life iffy. Thanks to the butterfly keyboard, they still hailed the system as a mobile computing landmark. The $5,000 ThinkPad 701C has successfully taken the sub out of subnotebook, wrote PC Magazines Brian Nadel. The Wall Street Journals Walt Mossberg called it a true gem of a computer andmore than 20 years laterpobably the most unusual and, I think, in some ways clever laptop I ever reviewed.
IBM embraced the ThinkPad 701s gadget-like qualities in this magazine ad. [Image via Google Books]
Generally speaking, IBM was a businesslike brand and ThinkPad marketing leaned into practical advantages. With the 701, however, the company wasnt afraid of gadget-y associations. James Bond, as a frequent traveler, will certainly carry this amazing 4.5 lb. ultra portable computer on his next mission, declared one ad, playing up features such as the built-in answering machine and fax capability. That November, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) really did fool around with a 701 in GoldenEyealthough only fleetingly and to the apparent annoyance of Q. (Fittingly, Hill says that Karidis was known as the Q of IBM.) The following year, the computer also showed up briefly in Tom Cruises first Mission Impossible film, which is better known for its Apple product placement.
In this video promo shot at Disney Worlds Epcot Center,an IBM employee walks through the 701s features. We also glimpse the equipment the company used to test the computer and random theme park visitors being impressed by the expanding keyboard.
The ThinkPad 701 garnered some weighty recognition, including 27 design awards. It was even exhibited at New York Citys Museum of Modern Art. But despite the publicity and plaudits, its clock ran out before the year ended. In a Hardware Withdrawal list released on November 21, 1995, IBM announced that it would stop marketing the 701 as of December 21. Units that had already made their way into distribution channels would remain available into 1996, but the 701 was a dead computer walking, less than nine months after its debut.
Multiple factors contributed to IBMs decision to discontinue such a high-profile system. One of them was its Intel 486 chip, which had felt a tad outdated when the 701 was released and grown only more so by late 1995. Updating the design with a Pentium would not have been as simple as plopping in a newer processor. Instead, the decision would have set off a cascading series of engineering challenges relating to keeping the powerful Pentium running cool. Possible, certainlybut also a significant undertaking.
I would have to say that [the ThinkPad 701s] biggest success is the halo that created around ThinkPad and IBM, because it was so wildly creative, says Hill. But it did kind of miss the wave in terms of the announcement relative to the chip. So it was a little bit late.
Bajarin notes that that IBM told members of its analysts council that the TrackWrites keyboard had some reliability issues, since its left and right edges overflowed the case and were unsupported in use. That was especially true among users who mistreated their pricey new laptops: Sometimes they’d throw it in their backpack without getting the keyboard closed completely, he remembers.
The great widening
Ultimately, though, the ThinkPad 701 wasnt done in by its own limitations. As portable computers became more popular, progress in display technology had made it possible for PC makers to use larger screens. Manufacturers were also getting better at fitting a laptops necessary components into less space. These advances let them design a new generation of thin, light laptops that went beyond the limitations of subnotebooks. Once IBM could make a lightweight laptop with a wider screen, the need for an expanding keyboard was no longer essential, says George Karidis. It would have just been a novelty.
In his book, Naitoh writes that the 701 was released amid rivalry between IBMs Raleigh and Yamato teams that was resolved by centralizing ThinkPad development in Yamato. Put in charge of determining the butterfly keyboards future, he reluctantly concluded its time had passed and suspended further work on it.
In 1996, IBM released the ThinkPad 560. Its 12.1 display was considerably roomier than the ThinkPads 701s 10.4-incher. The case was two inches wider than the 701, offering plenty of space for a desktop-like keyboardno butterfly mechanism required. Yet the 560 was also much thinner (1.2) and lighter (4 lb.) than the 701, achieving a form factor that would become known as ultraportable.
A patent drawing showing how the ThinkPad 701s keyboard slid into place. [Image via Google Patents]
The ThinkPad 701 had been a memorable blip. The ThinkPad 560s balance of portability, power, and comfort presaged where the entire industry would focus its energy for years to come. The end result has been laptops such as todays ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13. With a 14 screen, its 53% thinner at its thickest point and 46% lighter than the ThinkPad 560. Lenovo continues to flatten these things to the point that it hardly even needs to be any thinner, says Hill.
Though the 701s butterfly keyboard couldnt survive on coolness alone, There were a couple of attempts to bring it back with other operating systems, like a kind of a smart book kid of device or other things of that nature, but we never could get the the traction, says Hill. In fact, John [Karidis] and I worked on one where only half the keyboard moved. Even now, it may be premature to assume the idea will never resurface in a new device: In 2021, the history site Laptop Retrospective reported that Lenovo had filed a new patent for a magnetic expanding keyboard, possibly for use with tablets.
Interviewed by Cnets John G. Spooner in 2001, Karidis didnt seem haunted by his inventions failure to change computing in any permanent way. The butterfly keyboard was no longer necessary, because people moved to larger displays, especially in this geography, he told Spooner. Where the butterfly approach makes sense is where you want the largest keyboard possible in combination with an 8-inch or 10-inch display. We’ll wait and see whether the market need develops (again) for that. So far, it hasntbut its fun to think it could.
Butterflies are forever
Back in 1995, I didnt even consider buying a ThinkPad 701. Even in its cheapest configuration, it was far, far outside my price range. Both of my parents got ones as work machines, though. I recall Ma and Pa McCracken being very happy with their hers-and-his ThinkPads, although my mother, who mostly used hers on the couch when working from home, discovered that excess cat hair clogged the keyboard mechanism.
While working on this article, I realized I needed to reacquaint myself with the 701 in person. I ended up snagging one off eBay. Its TrackWrite keyboard continues to function perfectly, and it still boots into Windows 95. However, like many 30-year-old laptops, mine has fallen victim to its advanced age. It has a corroded battery, a flaky power switch, and a case whose rubberized black coating has decomposed to a syrupy consistency.
My newly acquired ThinkPad 701C (left) and a scale model version released by IBM Japan in 2001 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ThinkPad line. [Photo: Harry McCracken]
A ThinkPad 701 owner who goes by the online handle of Polymatt hasnt just lovingly restored his own laptop. Hes created Project Butterfly, a website full of step-by-step repair guides: How to sand and repaint its case, 3D-print replacement parts, fabricate a replacement battery, and more. Everything is open source, including files that allow the printing of replacement decals for icons such as the ones indicating the laptops power switch, printer port, headphone jack, and other features.
Like me, Polymatt is a second-generation fan whose father brought a 701 home during its original moment of glory. I was instantly attracted to it, he says. He had some previous ThinkPads, but this thing was just supercool. I have really fond memories of playing video games on it and just being fascinated by what it was. It helped cement my interest in technology. The 701 lingered in his memory. Years later, it resurfaced as an opportunity to contribute something meaningful to the community of vintage computing enthusiasts.
As a thing of wonder, the ThinkPad 701 continues to transcend its own obsolescence.
Polymatt isnt the only 701 owner whos gone all out to bring the machine into the 21st century. Karl Buchka managed to replace a 701s guts with the motherboard from a modern Framework modular laptop and give it an iPads Retina display. Theoretically, an intrepid modder could do something similar with any old computer. Its just that few mid-90s laptops remain interesting enough to inspire such creativity.
Only a small group of hackers have the patience, passion, and technical chops to acquire a ThinkPad 701Polymatt says hes had 20 or 30 over the yearsand fix it up. But a far larger swath of humanity is still charmed by John Karidiss butterfly keyboard. YouTube is awash in 701-related videos, from an excellent documentary to people simply being entranced by it. As a thing of wonder, it continues to transcend its own obsolescence.
Just by itself, Polymatts YouTube Short of a 701 opening and closing has been viewed more than 600,000 times. The fun thing is, I see the comments coming in from people who think that it’s a modern thing and are excited about it, he says. And then I see people who know it and are like, Oh, they need to bring this back. I get the whole spectrum of reactions.
Yes, some of the YouTube commenters helpfully point out that the advent of wide screens long ago eliminated the need for an expanding keyboard. Even so, its tough to watch the video just once and then click away. After all these years, the most natural response to seeing the ThinkPad 701 in action remains Do it again.
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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed his partys reconciliation/tax overhaul bill.
With reconciliation/taxes now in the rearview mirror, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae conservatorship could move up the docket. After all, back in May, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be on the agenda after taxes and trade deals.
It [privatization of Fannie and Freddie] is a goal for this administration,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in May. “Again, we’re doing peace deals, tax deals, and trade deals. As we land some of those deals then we will focus on that [privatization of Fannie and Freddie]. But what I can tell you is that we are doing a great deal of studying at Treasury because the one requirement for this privatization is that they are privatized in such a way that mortgage spreads do not widen.
One reason housing stakeholders should pay attention to the fate of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is the long standing concern that ending conservatorship could put upward pressure on mortgage rates. See, once released, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could need to hold more capital to absorb losses. To build and maintain that capital, they may need to increase guarantee fees charged to lenders. In addition, upon release, unless there’s an explicit guarantee or backstop from Congress, investors may demand higher returns to account for increased risk.
Those concerns are real enough that this spring, both Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte said that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae conservatorship changes wouldnt be made if doing so put upward pressure on mortgage rates/mortgage spreads.
The priority for a Fannie and Freddie release, the most important metric that Im looking at is any study or hint that mortgage rates would go up. Anything that is done around a safe and sound release [of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] is going to hinge on the effect of long-term mortgage rates, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in February.
While Bessent has suggested theyre looking into “privatization,” Pulte has indicated its not really Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “privatization,” but rather taking them “public.” To be honest, Im not entirely sure what hes getting at. Maybe keeping them in conservatorship but selling off more shares? Im not sure.
At Fannie Mae we have $4.3 trillion on our balance sheet. At Freddie Mac, we have over $3 trillion,” Pulte said in May. I would point you to his [Trumps May] tweet. He explicitly says he wants to take them [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] publiche did not say he wants to privatize them or many of the other things that are out there. I think these businesses have a ton of value. These businesses one day could be worth trillions of dollars. Well see what the president ultimately decides.
While the U.S. Treasury owns the majority of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits through senior preferred stock agreements, the common and preferred shares that existed before conservatorship were never fully wiped out.
Once Wall Street realized Trump had won the 2024 election, the stocks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spiked as the market priced in higher odds that the second Trump administration would attempt to end the current status quo.
Looking at their share prices today, its clear that either Wall Street or retail investors (or both) think something new is still on the horizon for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
As noted above, Pulte made comments in May that seemed to suggest that what theyre considering could just be selling off/releasing some of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae stocks currently held by the government, and maybe not a full release.
To better understand what the Trump administration is planning to do with Freddie Mac and Fannie Maeand how theyre considering concerns that a release could put upward pressure on mortgage rateswe reached out to Pulte to see if hed speak at ResiDay 2025 on Friday, November 7. He said yes.
By the time ResiDay 2025 rolls around, we may already have a much clearer picture of what the administration is planning to door not dowith Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Even then, there will be several other timely topics wed like to ask Pulte about. That could include how they plan to implement any Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae changes; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accepting VantageScore 4.0 for mortgage underwriting; and his public attacks on Jerome Powell.
Heres a quick Q&A if youre looking for a refresher on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Why are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into conservatorship by the FHFA in September 2008 after suffering massive losses during the housing crash, threatening the stability of the U.S. financial system. The U.S. Treasury provided a bailout to keep them afloat, and they have remained under government control ever sincedespite returning to profitability.
What do Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do, and how do they impact the housing market?
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are government-backed enterprises that help keep the U.S. mortgage market running smoothly. They dont issue home loans themselvesinstead, they buy mortgages from lenders, bundle them into mortgage-backed securities, guarantee those securities against default. This process creates a steady flow of capital, elping lenders offer more mortgages and keeping mortgage rates lower.
Because Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae set strict standards for the loans they buy, Freddie and Fannie shape how lenders underwrite mortgages. Their policies also influence who gets access to credit, especially first-time and lower-income buyers. During downturns, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, in theory, help stabilize the housing market by continuing to support lending.
While Fannie and Freddie are not officially backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, they are in federal conservatorship and widely perceived as having “implicit” government support.
Whats the worst case scenario for mortgage rates if conservatorship ends without government backing?
IF Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were fully released without an “implicit” or “explicit” government guarantee, Moodys chief economist Mark Zandi tells ResiClub he thinks it could push up mortgage rate by 60 bps to 90 bps. So for instance, a 60 bps increase, would push the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate today from 6.82% to 7.42%.
Release of the GSEs as SIFIs with no government guarantee, explicit or implicitThis would add an estimated 60-90 basis points to 30-year fixed mortgage rates compared to the current status quo for the typical borrower through the business cycle. Without a government guarantee, the Federal Reserve would not be able to buy the GSEs MBS, and there is the risk that the rating agencies would downgrade the GSEs debt and securities. The GSEs share of the mortgage market would significantly decline, and it would increase for private lenders and the FHA, resulting in greater taxpayer exposure, as taxpayers bear all the risk in FHA loans, Mark Zandi told ResiClub earlier this year.
IF Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are released with an “implicit” or “explicit” government guarantee, Zandi thinks the mortgage rate impact would be much smaller.
Southern small-town drama has made its way to TikTok. If you’re not familiar with antipasto-gate, read on.
The saga began on July 4, 2025, when a woman named Nicole attended a party she had been invited to by her sons friends mom. The event was hosted by a local couple who, according to Nicole, had been informed she would be attending. As a newcomer to the town and appreciative of the invitation, she brought along a homemade antipasto salad.
But when Nicole and her son arrived, she says they were immediately met with hostility. Called a stranger by the hosts mother, she was made to feel so unwelcome that she eventually left in tears. I dont normally post things like this, but I am absolutely humiliated, she says through tears in a video posted to TikTok. This is why you dont make friends in your thirties.
@folkmedicineremedies I am absolutely #humiliated this was such a bad #experience and I felt absolutely like they were just #bullies #hurtmyfeelings #fyp #viral #wtf #mean #rude #july4th #partypooper #aita original sound – folkmedicineremedies
The perfect storm of TikToks appetite for drama, the you cant sit with us relatability, and the wasted salad (It was like, probably a $40 salad, according to Nicole) helped the incident go viral. The original video now has over 35.3 million views.
Id recognize this salad anywhere lol. Ive been so invested in this drama, one user wrote in a dedicated Reddit thread. Memes, comedy sketches, explainer videos, and AI depictions of the scene have since circulated. Theres a Netflix meeting somewhere right now discussing a mini series! one comment read.
Unsurprisingly, the hosts of the party soon found themselves in the crosshairs of TikTok backlash. In a since-deleted video responding to the criticism, they insisted they werent mean people. We just didnt want her in our house, OK? they say.
Both online and off, things have gotten messy. Nicole received threatening messages from neighbors, with some suggesting the sheriff should get involved. Her underage son was reportedly doxxed. One viral video even claims the party host lost her job as a result of the drama.
@justunionjosh #antipasto #stasiahicks #stasia #hicks #4thofjuly #july4th #fyp #trending #greenscreen #drama original sound – JustJosh
What once wouldve remained small-town gossip, antipasto-gate is now a textbook example of how TikToks viral discourse cycle works: someone posts a personal grievance, internet vigilantes doxx those involved, and suddenly a local spat becomes the internets topic of the day.
For those caught in the eye of the storm, the best strategy is often to stay quiet and wait for the internets attention to shift to its next villain.
Nicole, meanwhile, has continued sharing updates on her accountincluding a highly requested tutorial for the antipasto salad.
@folkmedicineremedies #thankyou ! Again. Youve all just changed my perspective on many things. So here is the #july4th #antipasto ish salad from me the #saladlady #tiktoklearningcampaign #entrepreneur #fyp #reels – John (Songs Station) –
Meta may not currently lead the race for AI superintelligence, but it’s drawing heavily on its cash reserves to pursue the technology. Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday that the company will spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several enormous AI data centers.
The first of these centersexpected to be online next yearis called “Prometheus.” Zuckerberg says it will be capable of generating one gigawatt of energy. But Meta isn’t stopping there.
“We’re also building Hyperion, which will be able to scale up to 5GW over several years. We’re building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” he wrote on Facebook. (A Meta spokesperson tells Fast Company Hyperion is currently under construction in Louisiana, while the Prometheus project is an expansion to a data center campus in Ohio.)
Five gigawatts is roughly equal to the total energy consumption of Miami and equivalent to the output of five nuclear reactorsenough to power about 3.5 million homes for a year.
There’s a certain irony in naming the center Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus defied the gods by stealing fire from Olympus. Meta, meanwhile, has been aggressively poaching top AI talent from rivals, offering multi-million-dollar salaries that far exceed what competitors pay. Zuckerberg is reportedly overseeing those recruitment efforts himself. With data centers of this scale, he could further strengthen the companys hiring appeal.
Meta has also acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI, bringing its CEO, Alexandr Wang, on board. Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub, has also joined Meta. Daniel Grossthe CEO and co-founder of Safe Superintelligence, which he launched with OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever last Juneis now part of the company as well.
With this wave of infrastructure announcements, Zuckerberg is signaling Metas intent to outpace OpenAI and other artificial intelligence initiatives. This comes after the company’s Llama 4 model underperformed following several high-profile staff departures. In response, Meta reorganized its AI division and renamed it Superintelligence Labs.
And Meta certainly has the funds to support this push. In April, it raised its expected capital expenditure to as high as $72 billion. On Monday, Metas stock rose just under 1% to $724 per share. The company currently has a market capitalization of $1.82 trillionvastly higher than OpenAIs $300 billion valuation.
But the competition isn’t sitting by either. OpenAI is building a five-gigawatt data center of its own, called Stargate. Announced in January, the company said it would invest $500 billion over four years to build the facility, with support from Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX.
OpenAI committed to deploying $100 billion immediately. Texas has been designated as the flagship location for the data centers, with the first site expected to begin operations later this year in Abilene.
“This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post.
Alphabet, meanwhile, is spending $3.3 billion on two new data centers in South Carolina.
One issue Meta did not address: the environmental impact of these massive data centers. A scientific paper published last year on Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv (titled “The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI”) estimated that pollution from AI data centers could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths annually by 2030. It also estimated that public health costs related to their air pollution are already at $20 billion per year.
By 2030, the researchers forecast, the public health burden from AI data centers will be twice that of the U.S. steel industry, and could rival emissions from all the cars, buses, and trucks in California.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has dismantled dozens of climate programs in its first 100-plus days. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also considering overturning previous findings that classify greenhouse gas pollution as harmfulpotentially weakening its ability to regulate carbon emissions.
Debate over the so-called Gen Z stare is the latest conversation on TikTok to capture people’s attention, but like so many viral social media moments, generations from millennials to boomers have a very different take on things.
Here’s what to know about the Gen Z stare and the debate surrounding it.
What is the Gen Z stare?
First off, you’re probably wondering, what is this Gen Z stare? Simply put, it’s a blank, unfocused stare into the void, often found in the faces of Gen Z (also called zoomers)the generation born between 1997 and 2012, wedged in between millennials and Generation Alpha.
It’s most irritating for older people, namely millennials and their parents, who find it difficult to hold a conversation with members of Gen Z, instead being met with a blank, unfocused stare, often accompanied by silence or a one word answer.
Why are people debating over the Gen Z stare?
If the Gen Z stare seems like typical teenage behavior, you’re not wrong; Gen Z certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on being uncommunicative.
Now, TikTokers are debating not only whether the Gen Z stare exists and is a thing, but also, what it all means. Is it rude, or a justifiable reaction to what is being said?
In their defense, Gen Z social media users have said the stare is one of disbelief or frustration. It might be justified when, for example, in a customer service job, an older person can’t figure out how to use the credit card machine, or just has trouble using basic technologybest summed up by TikToker _kayluhbb, whose post garnered 1.1 million likes and a number of replies, like this one: “The gen Z stare is bc youre tired or repeating yourself.”
There are plenty of other TikTok posts demonstrating the stare, including this one, in which the user acts out a scenario in which she has to repeatedly tell a customer that a class is fully booked. Fair enough. But older generations used to just call this type of frustration being impatient, or mocking someone. Just sayin’.
However, not to be out-mocked, millennials are poking fun back at Gen Z, like in this post from a TikToker named Riley, who was met with a Gen Z stare as she attempts and fails to get her daughter golf lessons. Which is, at the very least, cringe.
Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that Meta Platforms would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers for superintelligence, intensifying his pursuit of a technology he has chased with a talent war for top engineers.
The social media giant is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals and doled out multi-million-dollar pay packages in recent months to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks.
Its first multi-gigawatt data center, dubbed Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026, while another, called Hyperion, will be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years, Zuckerberg said in a post on his Threads social media platform.
“We’re building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” the billionaire CEO said.
He also pointed to a report from industry publication SemiAnalysis that Meta was on track to be the first AI lab to bring a gigawatt-plus supercluster online.
Zuckerberg touted the strength in the company’s core advertising business to justify the massive spending amid investor concerns on whether the expenditure would pay off.
“We have the capital from our business to do this,” he said.
Meta shares were trading 1% higher. The stock has risen more than 20% so far this year.
The company, which generated nearly $165 billion in revenue last year, reorganized its AI efforts last month under a division called Superintelligence Labs after setbacks for its open-source Llama 4 model and key staff departures.
It is betting that the division would generate new cash flows from the Meta AI app, image-to-video ad tools and smart glasses.
D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said Meta was investing aggressively in AI as the technology has already boosted its ad business by allowing it to sell more ads and at higher prices.
“But at this scale, the investment is more oriented to the long-term competition to have the leading AI model, which could take time to materialize,” Luria said.
In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent raid for the Meta Superintelligence Labs, which will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale.
Meta had raised its 2025 capital expenditure to between $64 billion and $72 billion in April, aiming to bolster the company’s position against rivals OpenAI and Google.
Jaspreet Singh and Aditya Soni, Reuters
