At a conference in 2019, Laura Shenkar buttonholed Greg Steltenpohlthe founder of Odwalla and then-CEO of Califia Farmsto offer the juice and alt-milk pioneer a few sustainability tips.
I was like, There are a lot of things you need to do to get Califia to be truly environmentally sensitive, recalls Shenkar, an environmental business strategist at the time, laughing now at the flex. And he said, Yes, thats true. This company cant do what youre describing. Youd need to start a company from the ground up. It was a gargantuan task, he warnedone that would require designing the business at every step with a team that thinks differently, not the usual corporate CPG types.
Viewing that as a challenge, Shenkar launched PKN, a pecan milk brand, two years later in an attempt to tap into the alternative milk market. Califia and others had been mostly focused on oats and almonds. Almonds are a notoriously thirsty nut, with the highest water footprint of all major California crops. Shenkar had become fixated on pecans, instead.
Pecans are nutritious, packed with vitamins A, B, and E, omega-3s, and impressive amounts of manganese, zinc, and copper. They boast the highest antioxidant content of any tree nut. Theyre wind-pollinated, so they dont rely on bees trucked across the country like almonds do. And theyre native to the United StatesAmericas only major indigenous tree nut, growing naturally in places like Georgia, Texas, and New Mexico, where theyve thrived without needing ecological intervention.
Pecans on the ground after harvest at Pearson Farm, Fort Valley, Georgia. [Photo: Robert Holmes/Getty Images]
Theyre also drought-tolerant, something Shenkar was primed to appreciate after having spent years thinking about water preservation. In the early 2000s, she founded Artemis Water Strategy, a consulting firm that helped governments and corporations such as Intel, IBM, Walmart, and Bain & Company implement advanced water-management technologies. She designed the pilot that helped Walmart cut water use by 30% at 2,000 stores and coauthored a paper that influenced Californias drought response.
Later, the Nature Conservancys impact investment arm, NatureVest, hired her to study a drought-prone stretch of the Texas Colorado River outside Austin. She concluded that one major problem was alfalfaa high-water-use crop grown for animal feed thats become a bane of the entire Southwestand that the solution was to plant native species in its place. Theyre additive rather than depletive of the environment, she says. You dont have to import water from 200 miles away. You use the water thats falling from the sky.
That very stretch of the Colorado River is also home to San Saba, known as the pecan capital of the world. But Shenkar noticed that local farmers were leaving the pecan business. The market, they said, was fragmented and difficult. While their best nut piecesUSDA Fancy-grade halvesfetched higher prices than other nuts, the darker, nutritionally identical Choice pieces had few buyers and often got sold for animal feed at a loss. What if, she wondered, someone used those pieces to make milk?
The idea was to upcycle pecans to create a new revenue stream for farmers, to fund their transition into regenerative and organic production, she says. She knew it would take capital and technology. But to her, it was clear: Pecans, and not alfalfa, are the future for at least that part of Texas.
Tree shaker shaking pecan tree to free nuts for harvest, Tifton, Georgia. [Photo: Edwin Remsberg / VWPics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images]
Pecan milk vs. almond, soy, and oat milk
Today, plant-based alternatives often claim more supermarket shelf space than traditional dairy. Industry forecasts suggest the market is still heating up. Currently valued at $20 billionlarger than telehealth or pizza deliveryit is predicted to double globally by 2030, reaching more than $40 billion.
However, as the category evolves, its not almond, soy, and oat that are posting strong growth. The legacy alternatives are now joined by milks made from every conceivable nut, seed, grain, and bean. There are now barley, potato, corn, and water-lentil milks. A brand calling itself MILKish sells half-gallons of watermelon seed milk for $10. Oatlys investors have backed Quiny, a quinoa milk.
Yet just because a plant can be milked doesnt mean it should be. Almond milk still accounts for more than half of all category sales, according to the Plant Based Foods Association and Good Food Institutes 2024 market overview, which is based on SPINS data. Almond milk benefits from having a mild flavor and a well-documented health halo, thanks in part to prolific research funded by the Almond Board of California. But Californias almonds require an average of 3.2 gallons of total water per nut, according to one frequently cited 2019 study. And the states groundwater suppliesparticularly in heavy almond-producng regions like Joaquin and Sacramento countiesare worryingly overdrawn. These two counties alone produce roughly 80% of the worlds almonds.
If the plant-milk market does double by 2030, California almond growers wont be able to double their output to keep pace. If anything, production is slipping: Almond acreage fell by 40,000 last year, a 3% drop and the third consecutive year of decline.
Soy milk, meanwhile, may be affordable and high in protein. But soybeans are more than overplanted; the vast monocultures in which theyre grown contribute to deforestation and hasten biodiversity loss. Oat milk is beloved for its creamy texture, but that texture often comes courtesy of canola or other vegetable seed oilssometimes in quantities comparable to what youd get in a small order of fries. Cows milk, of course, produces the highest greenhouse gas emissions of all, and increasingly comes from dairies modeled on industrial factories.
And then there are pecans: nutritious, sustainable, and native to the United States.
The nut was a dietary staple for Native Americans living in the Pecan Belt region spanning from Georgia to New Mexico and down into Mexico. In the 16th century, the Algonquians were preparing a creamy pecan liquid called powcohicorapotentially Americas very first plant-based milk! Colonists quickly adopted the practice.
By the 18th century, George Washington was growing pecan trees at Mount Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson was so enamored that he demanded James Madison send him boxfuls in Europe as fresh as possible, packed in sand. By 1920, U.S. production had topped two million pounds. Today, the country produces nearly 300 million pounds, more than four-fifths of the worlds supply. This still pales in comparison even to other nuts: Americas pecan crop is valued at roughly $500 million annually. Last year, California produced almost three billion pounds of almonds worth over $4 billion, or eight times more. Yet Shenkar believes that pecan milk could capture 2030% of the alt milk market by 2030.
Chris Harrell, CEO of Southern Rootsa $150 million grower-owned pecan cooperativewould be pleased. He explains that pecan economics are a little, well, nutty. Pecans are expensive because they taste better, and if youre a health nut they check all the boxes, he says. But you wont see a lot of investment going into pecans, because the margins are much thinner than on almonds, or even walnuts. I sit on four different industry boards, Harrell adds, and I spend a good portion of every day discussing how we can generate more demand so were not selling the Choice pieces at a loss, and we can bring down the price point for consumers.
[Photo: Pkn]
Reaching the grocery chainsand across the ideological divide
PKN sources its pecans from San Saba, where farmers harvest from trees said to be more than 200 years old. The company currently offers six products, from a basic, four-ingredient milk containing just pecans, water, vanilla extract, and salt, to sweetened options like chocolate, several different creamers, and a version for baristas. Theyre sold online (through PKNs site, Amazon, and Walmart) and at about 500 stores across 31 states, including Albertsons, Sprouts, Erewhon, and Central Market. A 32-ounce carton costs around $6, a dollar more than Oatly.
PKN has only two competitors. One, a Georgia-based brand called Treenhouse Naturals, makes canned pecan drinks that recently earned a spot in Garden & Guns annual Made in the South awards. The other, Pecana, launched in 2023 and has begun infiltrating grocery chains including Whole Foods and H-E-Bit can currently be found in nearly 300 stores. Pecana also sources from San Saba, Texas, and is owned by the Chase family, heirs to the Mack Energy Corporation fortune in New Mexico.
That the top two brands are run by such different peopleShenkar, a self-described tree hugger who engages with outlets like VegNews and Green Queen, and a family that made billions in the Permian Basin oilfieldsshows that pecan milk has a refreshingly broad appeal that is missing from other plant-based alternatives.
Like it or not, food choices have become political. Our milk preferences maybe most of all: Conservatives have long mocked urban progressives supposed love of sipping not just lattes, but soy lattes. MAHAs recent rise, meanwhile, has inspired liberals to declare raw milksomething Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just took shots of at the White Housethe preferred beverage of science deniers.
Pecan milk might just sidestep the culture wars entirely. The sharpest divide over this product seems to be about pronunciation: Many Southerners (and apparently Martha Stewart) go with puh-CAWN. Northerners lean toward pee-CAN, as evidenced by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryans famous When Harry Met Sally scene. The truly deranged say PEE-CAWN.
Whatever gets people to buy into sustainability is fine with Shenkar. We can address a lot of things with pecan milk if it tastes good enough, she says. Shes been excited to discover that, with pecans, patriotism and environmentalism can be sides of the same coin. Theres a provenance thing here, she notes, which is directly tied to the environmental impact.
Mature pecans on the orchard floor that have just been shaken from the trees during the harvesting process/near Corning, Tehama County, Northern California, USA. [Photo: Kathy Coatney/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group/Getty Images]
Selling the “supernut”
Now its up to the industryand companies like PKNto get the word out. Matthew Bailey, a Georgia-based pecan executive who publishes the Pecan Report, says pecans once conjured images of holiday pies and traditional Southern treats. But the pecan industry is working to change that image.
Last August, eight years after the American Pecan Council formed, Snickers rereleased a previously limited-edition, Texas-only pecan bar, this time nationwide. Southern Rootss Harrell says Dave & Busters is about to debut a pecan-encrusted chicken dish. The pecan council, meanwhile, has since launched a national consumer campaign under the banner American Pecans, the Original Supernut, modeled on successful industry promotion slogans like Beef, Its Whats for Dinner and Pork, the Other White Meat.
Pecan milks profile is also growing. Its a good time to be in the not-almond, not-oat, not-soy milk business: All three lost ground last year, with sales down 7.4%, 1.8%, and 3.5% respectively, according to NielsenIQ. The lactose-free market continues to expand anyway. More than a third of Americans say that dairy gives them digestive trouble. Yet plant-based milks market penetration hovers around 17%, and 6 in 10 Americans say they dont like how it tastes. PKNs store count, fittingly, keeps climbing: Its products debuted on Targets milk aisle in June.
Theres a lot of stuff were looking at doing with our marketing dollars, Harrell says. But pecan milk was one of the first. He adds: Lauras been very instrumental in leading that charge.
Shenkar is now looking to set even higher sustainability goals for PKN, looking for ways to shrink the physical distance involved in manufacturing and distributing the products. She believes that would further deepen pecan milks connection to place. Were a ways off, but Id like to make an Arkansan pecan milkdoes Arkansan pecan milk taste different than Texan pecan milk? she asks. Wouldnt you like to know?
Users of Microsoft apps are having a rough year. First, in May, the Windows maker shut down the popular VOIP calling app, Skype, for good. Microsoft said it was done so that the company could focus on its latest communications app darling, Microsoft Teams.
Now, Microsoft has announced that it is nerfing one of its most popular mobile apps, too. While not shutting the app down completely, Microsoft Authenticator is about to go through a radical downgrade. The app previously acted as a password manager and authentication app, but starting this month, Microsoft has stripped Authenticator’s ability to autofill your saved passwords. And come August, Microsoft will delete all your saved passwords from Authenticator.
This means that just as users of Skype needed to find a new VOIP app, those who use Microsoft Authenticator as a password manager will need to hurry up and find a new one. Heres why Microsoft is making its changes to Authenticator, and the alternative password managers you may want to migrate to before the August deadline.
Why is Microsoft killing Authenticators password management feature?
Microsoft first introduced Authenticator in 2016 as a stand-alone app used to manage two-factor authentication security codes. In 2020, it added password management support to Authenticator, making the app a one-stop shop for autofilling passwords and security codes on websites.
However, in 2020, Microsoft also introduced its new Edge browser, and since then, Edge has become a top priority for the company. And Microsoft has now decided that Edge should act as a Microsoft users password manager of choice, partly due to the fact that the Edge browser supports multiple platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more, while Authenticator only supports iOS and Android.
The logic here is that if Edge is now your password manager, all your passwords will be accessible on every device logged into Edge. To facilitate this transition, Microsoft will automatically transfer a users saved passwords from Authenticator to Edge before permanently deleting them from Authenticator next month.
This move is great for people who dont mind a web browser serving as their password manager. However, many people prefer a dedicated password manager app because it is usually more versatile, offers advanced features like password sharing, and integrates seamlessly with various desktop and mobile browsers.
If you are in that second group, youll want to export your passwords from Authenticator before they are deleted and import them into a new dedicated password manager appbut which one to use?
Microsoft Authenticator password manager alternatives
There is no shortage of dedicated password managers out there. However, if you are moving from Microsoft Authenticator, there are three in particular that you might want to consider:
Apple Passwords: This is Apples designated password manager, which the company introduced last year. The biggest advantage of Apple Passwords is its clean, simple interface. It lets you store not only your passwords, but your passkeys and security codes, too. The Apple Passwords app is perfect if you operate primarily in Apples ecosystem, but the app also supports Windows PCs (via the iCloud app) and major browsers, including Chrome and Firefox. The app is also free to use. However, Apple Passwords does not support Android, so if you have a ‘droid, its best to consider using one of the two password managers below.
1Password: One of the most popular password managers on the planet is 1Password. Its also one of the most versatile. Not only does it support passwords, passkeys, and security codes, but you can also save identity and credit card information and even important documents. 1Password supports all major platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux. One drawback, especially if you are used to Microsoft Authenticator, is that 1Password is a paid app. Individual plans start at $2.99 per month.
Bitwarden: In addition to 1Password, there is another other cross-platform password manager champ: Bitwarden. Like all good password managers, it offers robust password management and passkey support. It also supports all the major platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and more. Best of all, Bitwarden offers a free tier of the app, allowing anyone to use its password management feature. However, if you want a password manager that also handles your security codes, like Authenticator does, youll need to upgrade to a Bitwarden plan, which starts at $10/year.
Don’t forget to export your passwords from Microsoft Authenticator
If you do switch to one of the above apps, youll need to transfer your passwords from Microsoft Authenticator to the app you choose.
Just do it quickly. Microsoft will delete all your passwords stored in Authenticator on August 1, 2025. From that date, youll need to download Microsoft Edge and export them from the companys web browser instead.
To export your passwords from Authenticator before the August deadline, follow Microsofts instructions here.
One of the most frequent questions Ive been getting from business execs lately is whether the AI pin will become the next great tech device. After all, with OpenAI recently finalizing its acquisition of Io Products, the AI hardware design firm led by legendary former Apple designer Jony Ive, it looks like well soon see the next great interface: a voice-activated, lapel-pin-size AI device thats a successor to the smartphone. And wont it be a better, calmer form of technology, they ask me, freeing us from having to stare at a small screen in our hands?
No. In a world teeming with intelligent interfaces, the AI pin chooses to be dumbnot technically, but emotionally, socially, and spatially. The core failure of the AI pin genre isnt technical, but conceptual.
But seemingly no one involved or interested in the form factor has stopped to ask: Is a chest pin even a good interface? Not questioning this is to ignore decades of interaction design: that good form emerges from use, from behavior, from affordance.
Heres what I mean.
The Narrative Inertia and Unanswered Questions Behind the AI Pin
To begin with, there are a number of very real questions with this new form factor yet to be plausibly answered, including:
Can you hear it in the wind or while in a crowd?
Can others around you tell if its listening?
What new social cues does it produce?
How do you use it while walking, biking, cooking, parenting, holding a coffee, working in a noisy office, standing in line, or going on a date?
What does it feel like to wear something thats constantly watching, blinking, and projecting?
By all appearances, the AI pin concept wasnt born out of ergonomic study, social anthropology, or material intuition. It was born out of narrative inertiathe idea that because voice agents exist, and because wearables exist, the next logical step is to wear a voice agent.
The Problem With Invisible Interfaces
Another driver of the AI pins narrative inertia is the concept of the invisible interfacethe belief that our computing is best served through a device we dont have to see, but that seamlessly responds to our stated wishes. This vision has a long history, starting with voice-based computers in science fiction (more on that below); its conceptual stickiness was further strengthened with the launch of Siri and other voice-activated assistants in the 2010s.
As a design goal, invisibility is best understood through a famous quote by Xerox PARCs Mark Weiser (though its easy to misinterpret):
A good tool is an invisible tool. . . . By invisible, we mean that the tool does not intrude on your consciousness; you focus on the task, not the tool.
The second part of the quote tells all. Its not about the device itself being invisible, but the act of usage rendering it invisible.
For instance, when we use a hammer, we focus on the nail, not the hammer. To a good woodworker, the very act of using the hammer renders it invisible.
In my experience across countless design and tech conferences, the notion of an invisible interface quickly becomes a very powerful semantic black hole. Once people start hearing the term, they cant see anything other than it, and their minds (and design practices) auto-complete to it, instead of considering other formats such as physical buttons and other familiar technologies.
Invisible technologies lack the feedback that people need to develop a relationship with them. Your mind has to make up for the invisibility in other ways, adding a cognitive strain and microfriction to their usage. If you have voice-controlled lights in your house, for instance, you have to remember what you taught Alexa to call themthe upstairs lights or something else? Imagine having a conversation like this with an AI pin all day, across many topics!
If design is governance, making an interface invisible takes away agency and ensures that design choices are far removed from the people who use it.
Which takes us to the sci-fi culprit behind the AI pin.
Truthy Tech vs. Track Record
When product developers assume pins are a natural form factor for ambient computing, they must then reverse-engineer behavior, trust, and social rituals to support it. They think the form factor will look so cool that it will just work, and address none of the cultural aspects.
Its yet another variation of what I call truthy tech: products or concepts that are exciting at first glance, usually because they resemble props from sci-fi TV shows and movies, but that quickly lose their luster when real-world considerations creep in.
In other words, the AI pin may seem inevitable because for decades, weve watched characters on the Star Trek series communicate with each other and the ships computer through the ComBadges on their uniforms. Its easy to forget that the ComBadge is only designed to be visually exciting and help advance the shows storyline, and not actually to be functional.
As a real-life consumer device, however, nearly a dozen pin-based devices have come and gone over the years without gaining mass adoptionfrom 2003s SenseCam by Microsoft (promoted by famed tech pioneer Gordon Bell) to 2024s Humane AI Pin, which imploded despite $240 million in funding.
Ive and the Search for a New Steve Jobs-Level Visionary
I should stress that none of this is meant as a criticism of Jonny Ive. He is an amazing supply chain innovator who thrived in Apples halcyon days. But his best work was always done alongside a genuine visionary. And it is very debatable if Sam Altman can ever fill Silicon Valleys conspicuous Steve Jobs-shaped absence.
In any case, the likeliest form factor for a wearable AI device is one that already exists and has been integrated into our daily lives: the earbud-type AirPods. Rather than assume Altman can somehow completely transform culture enough that we will want to interact with artificial intelligence through a lapel pin, it makes far more sense to expect a future where the AI program is connected to our iPhones and AirPods.
And after all, Jony Ive helped develop those.
Tech execs love popping supplements and infusing themselves with youthful young plasma to ward off Father Time, but new research shows that a substance humanity has been ingesting for a thousand years holds powerful anti-aging effects.
A new study published in Nature Partner Journals Aging discovered that naturally occurring compounds in the modest psychedelic mushroom were able to slow aging in cells and even increase a mouses lifespan. The two-pronged study out of Emory University examined the effects of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, on the micro level using human lung and skin cells, and the macro level using lab mice.
Human fetal lung cells treated with psilocin, psilocybins active metabolite, showed a 29% boost to their cellular lifespans a number that rocketed to 57% when exposed to a much larger dosage. When the scientists repeated the study with human skin cells, the large psilocin dose increased the cells lifespan by 51%. Across the cellular experiments, exposure to the psychedelic reduced the oxidative stress that can lead to cell damage and preserved the length of telomeres, a part of the chromosome implicated in cancer and other age-related diseases.
The scientists findings in living mice were even more impressive. When dosing older mice with psilocybin and comparing them to a control group, the research team found the aged mice lived 30% longer than their peers who werent subject to the same psychedelic journey. On top of that, the mice given psilocybin looked healthier, with better fur quality, hair regrowth and less graying on their coats.
Psilocybin is an emerging frontier in mental health research, but it obviously holds some strong potential in the field of longevity too. The psychedelic substance has shown promise for everything from helping smokers and alcoholics quit to giving patients long-lasting relief from major depression.
Our study opens new questions about what long-term treatments can do, senior study author and former Emory University associate professor Louise Hecker, PhD said. Additionally, even when the intervention is initiated late in life in mice, it still leads to improved survival, which is clinically relevant in healthy aging,
While tariffs threaten to whittle away profits for many businesses, those costs arent subtle when theyre tacked onto the price tag of an airplane.
In an effort to preserve its bottom line, Delta Air Lines is getting creative. The Atlanta-based company has been pulling engines off new Airbus jets in Europe and bringing them stateside to get grounded U.S. planes up and flyingwithout paying costs associated with importing new planes and parts.
Bloomberg reports that the company has a new practice of removing some U.S.-made Pratt & Whitney engines from new Airbus A321neo jets that were constructed in Europe and sending them to the U.S. in order to avoid import tariffs. Delta is then installing the engines on some of its older A320neo jets that arent currently flying due to engine problems.
Because Delta is reportedly waiting for regulators to give its new set of jets the green light, the engine swapping doesnt mean grounding Europe-based planes that would otherwise be flying.
Along with Boeing, Airbus is one of the two largest manufacturers of commercial aircraft in the world. Unlike U.S.-based Boeing, Airbus was founded in Europe and is co-owned by the governments of France, Germany, and Spain, among other investors.
Under President Trumps current tariff rules, European-built aircraft incur a 10% tariff when imported into the U.S. Because airlines regularly pay Airbus and Boeing billions to bolster their fleets with modern jets, even a small percentage of additional cost stands to zap the airline industrys already notoriously thin margins.
For Delta, one of the largest airlines in the U.S., coming to peace with trade chaos and paying Trumps tariffs isnt on the flight plan. We will not be paying tariffs on any aircraft deliveries, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in an April earnings call. These times are pretty uncertain, and if you start to put a 20% incremental cost on top of an aircraft, it gets very difficult to make that math work.
An AI called Devin just landed a job on Wall Street.
Goldman Sachs just “hired” an AI software engineer made by the startup Cognition.
Goldman Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti told CNBC that the company plans to augment its workforce with the AI tool, which will execute tasks on behalf of its more than 10,000 human software developers. Initially, we will have hundreds of Devins [and] that might go into the thousands, depending on the use cases, Argenti said.
Wall Street has been wading in and exploring AI in the last couple of years, but Goldmans push to integrate autonomous AI agents might be the finance sectors first plunge into the deep end.
A brief history of Devin
Cognition introduced the technology, which it hailed as the worlds first AI software engineer, last year. That tech, known as Devin, was designed to execute software engineering tasks independently, making thousands of decisions along the way. Using natural language prompts, programmers can put Devin to work doing complex tasks like building an app or finding and fixing bugs in a codebase.
Cognition describes Devin as a a tireless, skilled teammate, equally ready to build alongside you or independently complete tasks for you to review a description as likely to strike fear in the hearts of workers as it is to have executives seeing dollar signs. Shortly after its launch, the founder of prominent AI search engine Perplexity praised Cognitions Devin as the first AI agent that seems to cross the threshold of what is human level and works reliably.
The company was valued at $4 billion in March after raising hundreds of millions in investment led by 8VC, an early stage venture capital firm founded by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Cognition is obviously leaning on Devins anthropomorphic branding to generate buzz and make Devin feel like a one to one substitute for a human that can write code, but so far that strategy seems to be working.
Like most promising new technologies, the marketing doesnt always match reality at least not yet. When one group of data scientists put Devin to the test, they found that the AI software engineer only successfully completed three of 20 proposed tasks, with 14 of the test projects being total flops. In benchmark tests, Devin performed twice as well as an LLM-based chatbot, but didnt deliver on the promise of operating fully autonomously.
AI-generated code can also pose its own problems for companies, with bugs leading to downtime and security risks being glossed over due to less human involvement in the process.
What is agentic AI?
Agentic AI is yet another AI buzzword, but it does mean something specific. Unlike chatbots or AI research tools that people are most likely to interact with, agentic AI is designed to execute tasks and make decisions on its own without constant human input (hence the emphasis on agency in agentic).
The ability to execute multi-step jobs from start to finish means these tools work more how humans do, pursuing set goals and completing various kinds of tasks to get there. While generative AI is focused on generating outputs, like writing a draft email or compiling research, agentic AI is all about executing tasks and taking action, though how those systems accomplish that and the degree to which they are successful is up to their design.
Wall Street wades in
Goldman Sachs seems to be the only major bank implementing a start-to-finish AI coding tool like Devin, but its competitors likely arent far behind. AI assistants and chatbots are used widely on Wall Street already as big banks look for a competitive edge and pour investment into AI-related hires and technology.
JPMorgan Chase introduced its own generative AI assistant internally last year, making the tool available to 60,000 employees who can leverage it to write emails and file reports. Morgan Stanley similarly provided financial advisors with internal tools running OpenAIs tech under the hood.
We are completely convinced the consequences will be extraordinary and possibly as transformational as some of the major technological inventions of the past several hundred years, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in bullish comments on AI last year, adding that he expects the technology to augment virtually every job.
While AI chatbots and other lower-level tools are approaching ubiquity, adoption of agentic AI isnt there yet. In a report last year, Deloitte predicted that a quarter of companies already using generative AI would begin exploring agentic AI in 2025, but risks from the technologys relative lack of human oversight means companies will move more slowly to fully implement it.
Ford Motor just issued another major recall. On July 7, the brand recalled 850,318 Ford and Lincoln models over concerns about the vehicles’ low-pressure fuel pump, which could cause the engine to stall, increasing the risk of a crash.
The recall includes certain 2021-2023 Bronco, Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, F-250 SD, F-350 SD, F-450 SD, F-550 SD, 2021-2022 Lincoln Navigator, Mustang, F-150, and 2022 Expedition vehicles.
According to the recall notice filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “Loss of fuel pressure and flow from the low-pressure fuel pump can be due to internal contamination of the jet pump, specifically in low fuel conditions, and reduced fuel pump internal clearances that result in an increase of internal friction and sensitivity to vapor lock.”
The notice also cited several warnings that the fuel pump could fail, including engine issues, such as “misfiring or running rough,” as well as the check engine light turning on, indicating an issue. Ford noted that warm weather may exacerbate the issue, and it’s currently working on a fix for the issue.
88 recalls this year
The latest recall is certainly not the first announced by Ford recently. The brand has issued 88 safety recalls in the first half of 2025more than any other automaker in a full calendar year. Likewise, over the past 10 years, Ford has issued far more recalls than other auto brands, logging 458 recalls between 2015 and 2024.
Back in 2022, CEO Jim Farley addressed the uptick in Ford recalls, saying that his top priority was quality, but making necessary changes could take years. Weve made more progress on our launch quality and initial quality, you could see it in the surveys and our ramp-up of production,” Farley said while speaking to shareholders at the brand’s annual meeting.
Farley continued, “However, we are not satisfied at all with our quality performance, including our recalls and customer satisfaction efforts, which we need to quickly accelerate. This will require new talent, which we now have at the company. It will require a culture shift, and it will require modification and compliance to our processes for both our engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain.
Ford Authority, a news platform that discussed the brand but is not affiliated with Ford Motor Vehicles, says the more recent recalls relate to a 2024 NHTSA consent order with the brand. The agreement included a civil penalty of $165 million after NHTSA found that the automaker did not effectively recall vehicles with defective rear view cameras, breaking the law under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
Timely and accurate recalls are critical to keeping everyone safe on our roads, NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said at the time. NHTSA is committed to ensuring manufacturers comply with the laws designed to keep our roads safe. When manufacturers fail to prioritize the safety of the American public and meet their obligations under federal law, NHTSA will hold them accountable.
The rear view camera recall was issued over concerns that the camera display image could freeze or display delayed images, creating a dangerous situation for drivers. The issue led to the largest recall of 2025, with over 1.3 million vehicles impacted.
Ford said it is not aware of any injuries due to the fuel pump issue. The brand will send out notification letters to affected owners starting July 14.
The State Department is set to begin firing more than 1,300 people on Friday, according to multiple sources including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, who has seen an internal memo on the matter.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly has been planning to downsize the department, but the plan was on hold until the Supreme Court ruled 63 in a decision that now paves the way for mass federal agency layoffs.
The notice said the firings will affect approximately 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers, with hundreds of offices and bureaus eliminated, for a total of nearly 3,000 members of the workforce [to] depart as part of the reorganization, CNN reported. That number includes staff who would be leaving voluntarily.
Secretary of State Rubio first unveiled the plan back in April, at which time he called the department in charge of American diplomacy bloated.” He also hinted the downsizing was not merely fiscal, but also political, when he said the cuts would aim to root out and align those beholden to radical political ideology with the Trump administration’s current political agenda.
The State Department reportedly notified some employees of layoffs as early as Thursday, according to diplomats who told The New York Times the notices could arrive as soon as Friday.
The mass firings are just the latest in a long list of federal agencies to see their staff and resources slashed as the Trump administration continues to broadly dismantle the United States’ current federal government. Some critics say the cuts are an attempt to move resources from the agencies over to fund his massive tax cut bill, now passed and signed into law, which will add $2.4 trillion to primary deficits over the coming decade, adding $3 trillion to the national debt including interest, per the Committee for a Responsible Budget.
An estimated 175 private jets touched down in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Tuesday, kicking off the secretive annual retreat colloquially known as summer camp for billionaires.
Less than a week after Congress passed President Trumps tax and spending billwhich experts project will cut healthcare benefits for 17 million Americans, while also giving tax breaks to the wealthy and corporationsthe largest-looming figures in tech, media, and finance have convened in Sun Valley for a closed-door schmoozefest and deal-a-thon.
Its a gathering that not only ignores the current national mood felt by many Americans but stands in opposition to it.
Hosted by Allen & Co., a boutique investment bank with tentacles in media and tech, the Sun Valley conference has been a must-attend for powerbrokers since 1983. Its like Davos minus the press access, and not even a pretense of addressing global issues.
Tectonic plate-shifting deals made at past retreats include Disneys acquisition of ABC in 1995, the AOL-Time Warner merger in 1999, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezoss purchase of The Washington Post in 2013. Among attendees at this years edition, which runs from July 8July 13, are Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Ivanka Trumpan eclectic whos who of the elites elite.
Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav is also in attendance. Zaslav, you might recall, had perhaps the most well-circulated quote from last years outing. When a Bloomberg reporter asked him during Sun Valley 2024 whether he had a preference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump to be the next president, the CEO deflected with his reply: We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to be even better.
Although his remarks could be read as an indirect Trump endorsement, since Republicans tend to favor deregulation, its the phrasing that speaks volumes. It encapsulates the way in which some of the countrys most powerful figures appear indifferent to how political decisions affect the lives of actual Americans, and instead seem interested solely in how they affect business.
This ambivalence is reflected in the abundance of founders and CEOs who were once vocally critical of Trumps policies but later donated to and attended his second inauguration.
It also explains why the disconnect between the gilded world of Sun Valley and the reality of people reeling from the consequences of last years election feels so profound.
Inequality and an unknowable economy
The 2009 iteration of the retreat, with the global financial crisis unfurling in the background, was one of the only times in recent memory when the events setting may have felt even more out of step with the public mood. During that years retreat, a CNBC reporter asked Warren Buffett about the vibe behind the scenes at Sun Valley.
[I]ts a tough period, Buffett replied. On the other hand, this movie will have a good ending.
The reporter pushed for clarification on just how long that ending might take to arrive. Buffett understandably could not respond with any certainty. I know the ending will be good, he said, but I dont know whether its a two-hour movie or a four-hour movie.
In the 16 years since, the Sun Valley set did indeed enjoy a good ending.
The 793 billionaires that existed in 2009 then had combined wealth of $2.4 trillion, while the 3,000-plus billionaires of 2025 now enjoy combined wealth of $16.1 trillionan increase of over 570%.
Meanwhile, many Americans were apparently living in a different movie.
Middle-income households have seen their share of aggregate income shrink from 45% in 2012 to 42% in 2020. As for lower-income Americans, the federal minimum wage increased from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 during the same month as the Sun Valley retreat in 2009and it has not gone up one penny since, despite the best efforts of labor organizers.
The economic outlook is not quite as precarious in 2025 as it was in 2009, but thanks to Trumps erratic approach to tariffs, it feels as unstable as a rickety roller coaster.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said back in May that the economy may be entering a period of more volatile inflation and more regular supply shocks, citing tariffs as the reason for his hesitation to adjust interest rates. A majority of Americans seem to agree with this analysis. In a late-June poll from Gallup, around the time that Bezos dropped a reported $20 million-plus on his wedding with Lauren Sanchez, 72% of citizens surveyed said they thought the economy was either poor or only fair, while a relatively paltry 27% described it as either good or excellent.
Anti-billionaire animosity
Another reason this years summer camp for billionaires feels out of step with the national mood is because Americans have had excessive exposure to billionaires in 2025, and many dont seem particularly thrilled with what theyve seen.
According to a January poll, only 12% of Americans thought it would be very or somewhat good for the president to rely on billionaires for advice about government policyand that was before they got a taste of what it might look like in practice.
Despite running on a populist platform, the presidenta billioaire himself, it must be saidstocked his cabinet with fellow billionaires, and has since delivered this cohort their promised tax cuts.
Before the worlds richest man fell spectacularly out of favor with Trump, the president empowered Elon Musk and his DOGE team to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the government. This mandate resulted in thousands of federal workers losing their jobs, various staffing crises and data breaches, and, thanks to Musks gleeful decimation of USAID, untold devastation and suffering around the world.
By making himself the sneering face of this effort, Musk became so unpopular that he inspired a global protest movement. All the unmistakable hostility directed toward him, however, is only a symptom of a broader sentiment.
Judging from the historically unfavorable polling of Trumps just-passed tax billwhich had an average net favorability of -23% in every poll between May and JulyAmericans are fed up with a system that makes life easier for the wealthy and harder for everyone else.
Although the 2026 midterms are still a long way off, voters are already registering their complaints electorally. In last months New York mayoral primary, for instance, voters soundly rejected front-runner Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor, in favor of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, who spent a fraction of what Cuomos Super PAC put into the race and won anyway.
It is very much in keeping with the substance of Mamdanis campaign that, during the June 29 episode of Meet the Press, the candidate said, I dont think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of so much inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.
No wonder billionaires like former mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, and corporations like DoorDash poured millions into the race against him, and tech investors like Tyler Winklevoss have denounced the peoples choice for mayor with extreme prejudice (quite literally, in the notorious anti-Mamdani posts from Sequoia Capitals Shaun Maguire).
This exact MCU-style crossover of tech, media, political, and financial interests also happens to comprise the demographic makeup of the Sun Valley retreat.
The epitome of growth-at-all-costs mindset
In the year since Zaslav said at Sun Valley that he preferred the candidate who would best allow companies to consolidate, Zaslavs company has done the opposite. Warner Bros Discovery announced last month that it will split into two companiesand that Zaslavs pay will be significantly reduced. This despite Zaslavs much hoped-for deregulation coming to pass.
Although WBDs fate would likely have been the same no matter who won last November, other media conglomerates might not say the same.
The July 2024 merger deal between Paramount and Skydance was reportedly the talk of Sun Valley last summer. However, Trumps handpicked FCC chair has since slowed approval of the merger, creating the appearance that it would be contingent on Paramount settling a $16 million Trump lawsuit against Paramount-owned CBS News, for alleged unfair editing in an episode of 60 Minutes last fall.
On July 2, Paramount announced that it would settle the lawsuit, despite legal experts dismissing the suit as meritless and absurd.
This decision could set a dangerous precedent for press freedom, and may very well have a direct impact on how Americans receive their news going forward. Its also a sterling example of growth-at-all-costs mindsetthe pernicious force that drives companies to conduct mass layoffs in order to please shareholders, jam AI into every aspect of consumer goods and services, and support whichever political candidate promises to be best for business.
With its cloistered dealmaking by the biggest names in tech, finance, and media, Sun Valley is the epitome of growth-at-all-costs mindset.
At any other moment, it might have been easier to separate the event from all the political and social turmoil of 2025, but coming so soon after the signing of Trumps tax bill, which is expected to kick 17 million Americans off of healthcare while giving venture capitalists a $17 billion loophole, its nearly impossible to ignore.
The masters of the universe gathering this week in Idaho dont seem to care if growth at all costs ends up literally costing everythingas long as its somebody else who pays.
Global stocks fell on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump intensified his tariff war against Canada, leaving Europe squarely in the firing line, sparking a modest investor push into safe havens such as gold.
The Canadian dollar fell after Trump issued a letter late on Thursday that said a 35% tariff rate on all imports from Canada would apply from August 1. The European Union was set to receive a letter by Friday.
The U.S. president, whose global wave of tariffs has upended businesses and policymaking, floated a blanket 15% or 20% tariff rate on other countries, a step up from the current 10% baseline rate. This week, he surprised Brazil, which has a trade surplus with the United States, with duties of 50%, and hit copper, pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips.
Aside from pockets of volatility in target currencies, stocks or commodities, markets have offered little in the way of reaction to the onslaught, leaving the VIX volatility index at its lowest since late February.
In Europe, the STOXX 600, which has risen 2% this week, fell 0.8%. Futures on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell 0.4-0.5%, pointing to a retreat from this week’s record highs at the open later.
“The market is becoming a bit numb to these (tariff) announcements, and perhaps its not until we see hard data showing an impact that we (will) start to see the market reacting,” City Index strategist Fiona Cincotta said.
“Obviously, were getting more information through that does bring with it an element of clarity. Because there is so much uncertainty, there is still this idea that Trump could be open to negotiation, nothing feels ‘final’ still,” she said.
The dollar rose as much as 0.5% earlier against the Canadian dollar before retreating to C$1.3697 , up 0.2% on the day. The euro, which has lost nearly 1% in value since the start of July, was down 0.1% at $1.1694.
Earlier in the week, Trump pushed back his tariff deadline of July 9 to August 1 for many trading partners to allow more time for negotiations, but broadened his trade war, setting new rates for a number of countries, including allies Japan and South Korea, along with a 50% tariff on copper.
Joseph Capurso, head of international economics at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said the tariff rate of 35% on Canada was not as bad as feared because most of the imports are still subject to exemptions under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“Now the tariff rate on imports from the EU . . . That’s what we don’t know as yet,” Capurso said. “If you get something similar to (the U.S.-China trade war in April), that’s going to be very destabilising.”
Wall Street indexes posted record closing highs on Thursday as AI chip maker Nvidia made history, bagging a market valuation above $4 trillion.
Gold rose for a third day in a row, up 0.8% to $3,348 an ounce, bringing gains for July so far to 1.2%. Treasuries got less of a safe-haven boost, as investor concern about the fragility of long-term U.S. government finances prompted a selloff that pushed yields up.
Benchmark 10-year yields rose 3.7 basis points to 4.384%, adding to Thursday’s rise on the back of data that showed jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week.
The yen, which also typically behaves like a safe haven, has been steadily weakening as the prospects dim for a U.S.-Japan trade deal. The dollar was up 0.45% on Friday at 146.93 yen, set for a weekly gain of 1.6%, the biggest this year.
Bitcoin rose as much as 4.6% to a new record of $118,832.
Investors will be watching second-quarter corporate earnings next week to gauge the impact of Trump’s tariffs from April 2. JPMorgan Chase is due to release results on Tuesday, essentially kicking off the reporting period.
Oil prices rose nearly 1%, partially reversing the previous day’s losses, to leave Brent crude at $69.3 a barrel.
Stella Qiu and Amanda Cooper, Reuters
