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For most people, its natural to assume that if something is exclusive to the wealthiest echelons of society, it must be better. Asset management firms looking to access trillions of retail investor dollars explicitly reference this exclusivity when marketing private equity offerings. But investors should be wary when fund marketers talk about democratizing investing or opening access to areas previously only available to the elite. Reasons to be wary Investing is already democratized. The SEC eliminated fixed trading commissions in 1975, and innovation has made investing in publicly traded stocks cheaper and easier ever since. Online trading platforms allow people of modest means to easily buy shares in almost any publicly traded company. The advent of cheap, passively managed mutual funds and exchange-traded funds has made building a diversified portfolio easier and more affordable than ever. Moreover, public capital markets are a good thing. Investors who buy publicly traded stocks or bonds get transparency about their investment with ready liquidity. Meanwhile, private capital investments are often opaque and illiquid. There has been considerable debate about whether private investments generate higher returns. Measuring performance for private equity and private debt is not straightforward. Most industry benchmarks use internal rates of return, which arent really comparable to traditional performance measures like total return. Researchers have examined some of the findings related to this topic. A 2020 paper by Ludovic Phalippou, An Inconvenient Fact: Private Equity Returns & The Billionaire Factory, argues that net of fees, returns for private equity funds have been in line with those of the public equity markets since 2006. PitchBook, which is part of Morningstar, has also gathered data on public market equivalent returns for private equity. Based on those metrics, private equity funds with 2020-2023 vintage years did not generate positive excess performance returns, although funds with 2011-2019 vintages fared significantly better. Semiliquid private equity and venture capital funds Even if private capital had a performance edge in the past, theres no guarantee that this advantage will continue or that those managers will be the better performers. As Morningstars Jeff Ptaknotes, private equity funds typically have widely dispersed returns, meaning a large gap between the top and bottom performers. Your returns could differ wildly from those of benchmark indexes. As large private equity firms increasingly tap retail capital, the instruments available to average investors probably wont be the best. Investment sage Bill Bernstein stated: The first people who invested in private equity got the filet mignon and the lobster tails, and the Vanguards and Fidelities of this world are going to wind up with tuna noodle casserole. On the venture capital side, getting access to the next startup unicorn early in the game sounds appealing. But for every SpaceX, thousands of early-stage companies never take off, and there is additional risk from leveraged exposure to privately held companies. Final thoughts When you hear about the virtues of access to investments that were off-limits, its worth considering who really benefits. As passively managed funds with rock-bottom expense ratios continue to gain market share, asset management firms are pressed to find new sources of high-margin revenue. That new source of revenue, in many cases, is you. Amy C. Arnott, CFA is a portfolio strategist for Morningstar. This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance
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Twitter/X has a unique problem. After the departure of users following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media site (and again following his short stint with the Trump administration), the site has a surplus of unused user names. Now it’s looking to capitalize on that. The company has opened a waitlist for what it’s calling the “handle marketplace,” where it will sell abandoned and inactive usernames. But theres a slight catch: To make a bid for one, you’ll likely need to be a Premium+ or Premium Business subscriber to the site. Some handles will be effectively free, included in the cost of the subscription. But for “rare” handles, X is warning users the price tag could be steep. “Rare handles,” the company wrote in an FAQ about the marketplace, “may be priced anywhere from $2,500 to over seven figures, depending on demand and uniqueness.” It’s unclear if usernames X took away from active users (including @music and @sports) will be included in the sale. Two types of “‘inactive’ handles will be made available,” the company said. “Priority” usernames will include “full names, multi-word phrases, or alphanumeric combinations.” Handles that have “short, generic, or culturally significant names will be deemed rare. If youre considering signing up for a Premium+ or Premium Business subscription just to grab the name you want, then cancellingmuch like streaming subscribers do when hot series roll outyoure likely to be disappointed. If the username you choose is classified as “Priority,” you’ll only be allowed to keep it as long as youre a subscriber. Once you cancel or downgrade, you’ll revert to your current username. A Premium+ subscription on X.com costs $40 per month or $395 per year. Business subscriptions run from $2,000 per year (or $200 per month) to $10,000 (or $1,000 per month). X has been looking for ways to boost revenues since Musk took over in 2022. While the company as a whole has not reported any financials, its U.K. division made a financial filing in April showing a 66.3% drop in revenue in the year following Musks takeover. Research firm EMarketer, however, projects that X’s U.S. digital ad revenue will jump 17.5% to $1.3 billion this year from $1.1 billion in 2024. The distribution of “Rare” handles will be handled differently. The company says there will be “public drops” for some, which will be given away for free “based on merit,” with multiple users allowed to apply. The handle will be awarded based on the user’s engagement and “past contributions.” Users will not, seemingly, have to be a Premium+ or Premium Business subscriber to take part in these disbursements. Other rare handles, though, will be sold at “fixed” prices via invitation and will require a subscription. The price, X says, will be “determined by a number of factors, including popularity of word, character length, and cultural significance.” Once purchased, buyers of these handles will keep them even if they cancel their subscription. Examples of Direct purchase usernames included @one, @fly, and @compute.X said it’s hoping the handle marketplace will extend beyond the X world. “We are establishing a new standard for social media handlesa framework we hope the broader industry will adopt, similar to how Community Notes has influenced online transparency,” it wrote. X’s sale of inactive usernames has been rumored for months. In April, a user spotted the framework for the “handle inquiry” process. Reselling usernames was something Musk began discussing as early as January of 2023, however, as part of his campaign of purging the site of inactive accounts. X might stand alone right now in terms of reselling usernames, but it’s not the only company that’s thinning out inactive users. Google, in 2023, announced plans to do away with inactive Google accounts, deleting Gmail, Google Chat, Google Drive and other services that hadnt been accessed for a long period of time (generally two years), saying those were more likely to be compromised by hackers.
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E-Commerce
On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence.After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly and turned lesson plans into podcasts or online storybooks, one high school English teacher raised a concern that was on the minds of many: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?”That remains to be seen. But for the nation’s 4 million teachers to stay relevant and help students use the technology wisely, teachers unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always see eye to eye but say they share a common goal: training the future workforce of America.Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are providing millions of dollars for AI training to the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union. In exchange, the tech companies have an opportunity to make inroads into schools and win over students in the race for AI dominance.AFT President Randi Weingarten said skepticism guided her negotiations, but the tech industry has something schools lack: deep pockets.“There is no one else who is helping us with this. That’s why we felt we needed to work with the largest corporations in the world,” Weingarten said. “We went to them they didn’t come to us.”Weingarten first met with Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith in 2023 to discuss a partnership. She later reached out to OpenAI to pursue an “agnostic” approach that means any company’s AI tools could be used in a training session.Under the arrangement announced in July, Microsoft is contributing $12.5 million to AFT over five years. OpenAI is providing $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources, and Anthropic has offered $500,000. Tech money will build an AI training hub for teachers With the money, AFT is planning to build an AI training hub in New York City that will offer virtual and in-person workshops for teachers. The goal is to open at least two more hubs and train 400,000 teachers over the next five years.The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, announced its own partnership with Microsoft last month. The company has provided a $325,000 grant to help the NEA develop AI trainings in the form of “microcredentials” online trainings open to the union’s 3 million members, said Daaiyah Bilal, NEA’s senior director of education policy. The goal is to train at least 10,000 members this school year.“We tailored our partnership very surgically,” Bilal said. “We are very mindful of what a technology company stands to gain by spreading information about the products they develop.”Both unions set similar terms: Educators, not the private funders, would design and lead trainings that include AI tools from multiple companies. The unions own the intellectual property for the trainings, which cover safety and privacy concerns alongside AI skills.The Trump administration has encouraged the private investment, recently creating an AI Education Task Force as part of an effort to achieve “global dominance in artificial intelligence.” The federal government urged tech companies and other organizations to foot the bill. So far, more than 100 companies have signed up.Tech companies see opportunities in education beyond training teachers. Microsoft unveiled a $4 billion initiative for AI training, research and the gifting of its AI tools to teachers and students. It includes the AFT grant and a program that will give all school districts and community colleges in Washington, Microsoft’s home state, free access to Microsoft CoPilot tools. Google says it will commit $1 billion for AI education and job training programs, including free access to its Gemini for Education platform for U.S. high schools.Several recent studies have found that AI use in schools is rapidly increasing but training and guidance are lagging.The industry offers resources that can help scale AI literacy efforts quickly. But educators should ensure any partnership focuses on what’s best for teachers and students, said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education.“These are private initiatives, and they are run by companies that have a stake,” Lake said.Microsoft’s Brad Smith agrees that teachers should have a “healthy dose of skepticism” about the role of tech companies.“While it’s easy to see the benefits right now, we should always be mindful of the potential for unintended consequences,” Smith said in an interview, pointing to concerns such as AI’s possible impact on critical thinking. “We have to be careful. It’s early days.” Teachers see new possibilities At the San Antonio AFT training, about 50 educators turned up for the three-hour workshop for teachers in the Northside Independent School District. It is the city’s largest, employing about 7,000 teachers.The day started with a pep talk.“We all know, when we talk about AI, teachers say, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that,'” trainer Kathleen Torregrossa told the room. “But we are preparing kids for the future. That is our primary job. And AI, like it or not, is part of our world.”Attendees generated lesson plans using ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft CoPilot and two AI tools designed for schools, Khanmingo and Colorín Colorado.Gabriela Aguirre, a 1st grade dual language teacher, repeatedly used the word “amazing” to describe what she saw.“It can save you so much time,” she said, and add visual flair to lessons. She walked away with a plan to use AI tools to make illustrated flashcards in English and Spanish to teach vocabulary.“With all the video games, the cellphones you have to compete against, the kids are always saying, ‘I’m bored.’ Everything is boring,” Aguirre said. “If you can find ways to engage them with new technology, you’ve just got to do that.”Middle school teacher Celeste Simone said there is no turning back to how she taught before.As a teacher for English language learners, Simone can now ask AI tools to generate pictures alongside vocabulary words and create illustrated storybooks that use students’ names as characters. She can take a difficult reading passage and ask a chatbot to translate it into Spanish, Pashto or other languages. And she can ask AI to rewrite difficult passages at any grade level to match her students’ reading levels. All in a matter of seconds.“I can give my students access to things that never existed before,” Simone said. “As a teacher, once you’ve used it and see how helpful it is, I don’t think I could go back to the way I did things before.” The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. _This story was first published on Oct 17, 2025. It was re-published on Oct. 20, 2025, to show Brad Smith is the president and vice chairman of Microsoft, not the CEO. Jocelyn Gecker, AP Education Writer
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