PepsiCo plans to cut prices and eliminate some of its products under a deal with an activist investor announced Monday.
The Purchase, New York-based company, which makes Cheetos, Tostitos and other Frito-Lay products as well as beverages, said it will cut nearly 20% of its product offerings by early next year. PepsiCo said it will use the savings to invest in marketing and improved value for consumers. It didn’t disclose which products or how much it would cut prices.
PepsiCo said it also plans to accelerate the introduction of new offerings with simpler and more functional ingredients, including Doritos Protein and Simply NKD Cheetos and Doritos, which contain no artificial flavors or colors. The company also recently introduced a prebiotic version of its signature cola.
PepsiCo is making the changes after prodding from Elliott Investment Management, which took a $4 billion stake in the company in September. In a letter to PepsiCo’s board, Elliott said the company is being hurt by a lack of strategic clarity, decelerating growth and eroding profitability in its North American food and beverage businesses.
In a joint statement with PepsiCo Monday, Elliott Partner Marc Steinberg said the firm is confident that PepsiCo can create value for shareholders as it executes on its new plan.
“We appreciate our collaborative engagement with PepsiCo’s management team and the urgency they have demonstrated,” Steinberg said. “We believe the plan announced today to invest in affordability, accelerate innovation and aggressively reduce costs will drive greater revenue and profit growth.”
Elliott said it plans to continue working closely with the company.
PepsiCo shares were flat in after-hours trading Monday.
PepsiCo said it expects organic revenue to grow between 2% and 4% in 2026. The company’s organic revenue rose 1.5%. the first nine months of this year.
PepsiCo also said it plans to review its supply chain and continue to make changes to its board, with a focus on global leaders who can help it reach its growth and profitability goals.
“We feel encouraged about the actions and initiatives we are implementing with urgency to improve both marketplace and financial performance,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a statement.
PepsiCo said in February that years of double-digit price increases and changing customer preferences have weakened demand for its drinks and snacks. In July, the company said it was trying to combat perceptions that its products are too expensive by expanding distribution of value brands like Chester’s and Santitas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration may have softened its language on China to maintain a fragile truce in their trade war, but Congress is charging ahead with more restrictions in a defense authorization bill that would deny Beijing investments in highly sensitive sectors and reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese biotechnology companies.
Included in the 3,000-page bill approved Wednesday by the House is a provision to scrutinize American investments in China that could help develop technologies to boost Chinese military power. The bill, which next heads to the Senate, also would prohibit government money to be used for equipment and services from blacklisted Chinese biotechnology companies.
In addition, the National Defense Authorization Act would boost U.S. support for the self-governing island of Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own and says it will take by force if necessary.
“Taken together, these measures reflect a serious, strategic approach to countering the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. He said the approach “stands in stark contrast to the White House’s recent actions.”
Congress moves for harsher line toward China
The compromise bill authorizing $900 billion for military programs was released two days after the White House unveiled its national security strategy. The Trump administration dropped Biden-era language that cast China as a strategic threat and said the U.S. “will rebalance America’s economic relationship with China,” an indication that President Donald Trump is more interested in a mutually advantageous economic relationship with Beijing than in long-term competition.
The White House this week also allowed Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip to China, with those more hawkish toward Beijing concerned that would help boost the country’s artificial intelligence.
The China-related provisions in the traditionally bipartisan defense bill “make clear that, whatever the White House tone, Capitol Hill is locking in a hard-edged, long-term competition with Beijing,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank.
If passed, these provisions would “build a floor under U.S. competitiveness policy — on capital, biotech, and critical tech — that will be very hard for future presidents to unwind quietly,” he said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington on Wednesday denounced the bill.
“The bill has kept playing up the ‘China threat’ narrative, trumpeting for military support to Taiwan, abusing state power to go after Chinese economic development, limiting trade, economic and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests and disrupting efforts of the two sides in stabilizing bilateral relations,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson.
“China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this,” Liu said.
US investments in China
U.S. policymakers and lawmakers have been working for several years toward bipartisan legislation to curb investments in China when it comes to cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, aerospace, semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Those efforts flopped last year when Tesla CEO Elon Musk opposed a spending bill.
The provision made it into the must-pass defense policy bill, welcomed by Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
“For too long, the hard-earned money of American retirees and investors has been used to build up China’s military and economy,” he said. “This legislation will help bring that to an end.”
Biosecurity protections
Congress last year failed to pass the BIOSECURE Act, which cited national security in preventing federal money from benefiting a number of Chinese biotechnology companies. Critics said then that it was unfair to single out specific companies, warning that the measure would delay clinical trials and hinder development of new drugs, raise costs for medications and hurt innovation.
The provision in the NDAA no longer names companies but leaves it to the Office of Management and Budget to compile a list of “biotechnology companies of concern.” The bill also would expand Pentagon investments in biotechnology.
Moolenaar lauded the effort for taking “defensive action to secure American pharmaceutical supply chains and genetic information from malign Chinese companies.”
Support for Taiwan
The defense bill also would authorize an increase in funding, to $1 billion from $300 million this year, for Taiwan-related security cooperation and direct the Pentagon to establish a joint drone and anti-drone program.
It comes amid mixed signals from Trump, who appears careful not to upset Beijing as he seeks to strike trade deals with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader has urged Trump to handle the Taiwan issue “with prudence,” as Beijing considers its claim over Taiwan a core interest.
In the new national security strategy, the White House says the U.S. does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and stresses that the U.S. should seek to deter and prevent a large-scale military conflict.
“But the American military cannot, and should not have to, do this alone,” the document says, urging Japan and South Korea to increase defense spending.
NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount on Monday launched a hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, initiating a potentially bruising battle with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio along with the power to reshape much of the nation’s entertainment landscape.
Emerging just days after top Warner managers agreed to Netflix’s $72 billion purchase, the Paramount bid seeks to go over the heads of those leaders by appealing directly to Warner shareholders with more money — $77.9 billion — and a plan to buy all of Warner’s business, including the cable business that Netflix does not want.
Paramount said its decision to go hostile came after it made several earlier offers that Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with following the company’s October announcement that it was open to selling itself.
In its appeal to shareholders, Paramount noted its offer also contains more cash than Netflix’s bid — $18 billion more — and argued that it’s more likely to pass scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration, a big concern given his habit of injecting himself in American business decisions.
AP AUDIO: Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros., challenging a $72 billion offer by Netflix
AP’s Lisa Dwyer reports on a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Over the weekend, Trump said the Netflix-Warner combo “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share and that he planned to review the deal personally.
For its part, Netflix says it is confident Warner will reject the Paramount bid and that regulators, and Trump, will back its deal, citing multiple conversations that co-CEO Ted Sarandos has had with him about the streaming company’s expansion and hiring.
“I think the president’s interest in this is the same as ours, which is to create and protect jobs,” Sarandos said Monday at an investor conference.
Battle draws political attention in Washington
The fight for Warner drew strong reaction in Washington, with politicians from both major parties weighing in on the likely impact on streaming prices, movie theater employment and the diversity of entertainment choices and political views.
Paramount, run by David Ellison, whose family is closely allied with Trump, said it had submitted six proposals to Warner over a 12-week period before the latest offer.
“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,” the Paramount CEO said in a statement. Ellison added that his deal would lead to more competition in the industry, not less, and more movies in theaters.
A regulatory document released Monday suggested another possible Paramount advantage to win over Trump: An investment firm run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would be investing in the deal, too.
Also participating would be funds controlled by the governments of three unnamed Persian Gulf countries, widely reported as Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Trump’s family company has struck deals this year for buildings and resorts that bear his name in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, partnering in the former with a company closely tied to the government and in the latter with the government fund itself.
Also possibly in Paramount’s favor are recent changes at CBS News since its October purchase of the news and commentary website The Free Press. The site’s founder, Bari Weiss, who has a reputation for fighting “woke” culture, was then installed as editor-in-chief in a signal Ellison intended to shake up the storied network of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and “60 Minutes,” long viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment.
Trump is a wild card
Still, Trump is a wild card given his tendency to make decisions based on gut and his personal mood.
On Monday, he lashed out at Paramount for allowing “60 Minutes” to interview his ally-turned-enemy Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, writing on social media that “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.”
The drama surrounding control of Warner began Friday when Netflix made the surprise announcement that it had struck a deal with its management to buy the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter,” HBO Max and DC Studios.
The cash and stock proposal was valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt that will be assumed in the deal. By contrast, the Paramount offer is for $30 per Warner share, and worth $108 billion, included assumed debt. Paramount’s offer is set to expire on Jan. 8 unless it’s extended.
But comparing the two deals is complicated because they are not buying the same thing. The Netflix offer, if it goes through, will only close after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal, which is unlikely to close for at least a year, are networks such as CNN and Discovery.
The federal government has the authority to kill any big media deals if it has antitrust concerns, but such matters are usually left to experts at the Department of Justice. In his decision to get involved personally, Trump has decided, as he has with other government norms, to make a sharp break with precedent.
That worries Usha Haley, a Wichita State University specialist in international business strategy, who noted that Ellison is the son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person.
“He said he’s going to be involved in the decision. We should take him at face value,” Haley said of Trump. “For him, it’s just greater control over the media.”
But others are uncertain how big a role Trump will play.
John Mayo, an antitrust expert at Georgetown University, said the scrutiny will be serious whichever offer is approved by shareholders and goes before the DOJ, and that he thinks experts there will keep partisanship out of their decisions despite the politically charged atmosphere.
“That may affect at least the rhetoric that occurs in the press,” he said, “though I doubt it will affect the analysis that occurs at the Department of Justice.”
Shares of Paramount surged 9% on Monday while Netflix fell 3.4%, and Warner Bros. closed up 4.4%.
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Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky, David Bauder and Charles Sheehan in New York and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Writing in an essay on her website, Scott said, “This dollar total will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year.”
Scott acknowledged donating $2.6 billion in 2024 and $2.1 billion in 2023. The gifts this year bring her total giving since 2019 to $26.3 billion.
Scott’s donations have captured the attention of nonprofits and other charitable funders because they come with no strings attached and are often very large compared to the annual budgets of the recipient organizations. Forbes estimates Scott’s net worth at $33 billion, most of which comes from Amazon shares she received after her 2019 divorce from company founder Jeff Bezos..
With the exception of an open call for applications in 2023, it is not possible to apply for her funding nor to reach her directly, as Scott maintains no public facing office or foundation. Organizations are usually notified through an intermediary that Scott is awarding them a donation with little prelude or warning.
In advance of her announcement on her website, Yield Giving, more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities revealed they had received $783 million in donations from Scott so far this year, according to research from Marybeth Gasman, a professor at Rutgers University and expert on HBCUs.
“One of the things that I really admire about Mackenzie Scott is that she is like an equity machine,” Gasman said, especially at a time when efforts to promote equity in education have come under attack from the Trump administration. She also said Scott’s gifts to HBCUs this time are bigger than the round of donations she made in 2020.
Not all of the schools that previously had received funding from Scott received a gift this time and there were some first-time recipients as well. In total, Gasman has tracked $1.35 billion in donations from Scott to HBCUs since 2020.
In addition, UNCF, which is the largest provider of scholarships to minority students, received $70 million from Scott, and said it will invest the gift in a collective endowment it is building for participating HBCUs. Another $50 million went to Native Forward Scholars Fund, which had also received a previous gift from Scott and provides college and graduate scholarships to Native American students.
Unlike Scott’s gifts, most foundations or major donors direct grants to specific programs and require an application and updates about the impact of the nonprofit’s work. Scott does not ask grantees to report back about how they used the money.
Research from the Center for Effective Philanthropy in 2023 looked at the impact of Scott’s giving and found few of the recipients have struggled to manage the funds or have seen other funders pullback.
Kim Mazzuca, the CEO of the California-based nonprofit, 10,000 Degrees, said her organization was notified of its first gift from Scott of $42 million earlier this year.
“I was just filled with such joy. I was speechless and I kind of stumbled around with my words,” she said, and asked the person calling from Fidelity Charitable to clarify the donation amount, which is about double their annual budget.
10,000 Degrees provides scholarships, mentoring and other support to low-income students and aims to help them graduate college without taking on loans. Mazzuca said that usually nonprofits grow only gradually, but that this gift will allow them to reach more students, to test some technology tools and to start an endowment.
Mazzuca credited Scott for investing in proven solutions that already exist.
“She comes from a very deep, reflective space, very heartfelt,” Mazzuca said. “And she’s only providing these financial means as a tool for people to recognize they are who they’ve been waiting for.”
That idea references a prophecy from the Hopi Tribe that ends with the line, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Mazzuca said she’s drawn on the prophecy for years to empower both her organization and the students it supports to recognize their own power to shape our world.
In October, Scott posted an essay on her website under that title and sharing the prophecy. The essay, which she expanded upon in December to announce her giving, also reflects on how acts of generosity and kindness can ripple far afield and into the future. She cited her own experiences getting help while in college, including a dentist who repaired a tooth for free and her roommate who loaned her $1,000.
Scott now has invested in that same roommate’s company, which offers loans to students who would otherwise struggle to get financing from banks. The investments seem to be part of an effort Scott announced last year to move more of her money into “mission aligned” investments, rather than into vehicles that seek only the highest monetary returns.
In her 2025 essay, Scott seemed to urge people toward action, writing, “There are many ways to influence how we move through the world, and where we land.”
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery places CNN and its sister cable networks squarely back into what is likely to be an extended period of management limbo.
There was some relief at CNN with last Friday’s announcement that Netflix was buying Warner’s studio and streaming businesses, since the cable network would not be a part of that deal. But that quickly changed on Monday with Paramount’s announced bid, which includes the cable assets that Netflix doesn’t want and, if successful, opens the possibility of a combined CNN and CBS News.
The management uncertainty adds to what is already a challenging time at CNN, where there was no doubt who was in charge before swashbuckling founder Ted Turner sold his company in 1996. “That era might as well be the roaring ‘20s for how long ago it feels,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst at emarketer.com.
The dueling bids between Paramount and Netflix now “lead to more uncertainty and greater anxiety among the current CNN staff and among those of us who served for many years as leaders of CNN under Ted,” said Tom Johnson, former CNN president in the 1990s.
Paramount’s bid, which must be approved by shareholders and regulators, could be seen favorably by President Donald Trump, who is closely allied with Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison as well as his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison. But Trump has already expressed anger at the company on social media for Sunday’s “60 Minutes” report on former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Prior to Friday’s announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery had said it planned to spin off its cable television networks including CNN, Discovery, HGTV, the Food Network and TLC, into a separate company. The growth of streaming has made cable networks an unattractive business.
CNN’s television ratings have tumbled to the extent that it is firmly the third-rated cable news network behind Fox News Channel and MS NOW, formerly MSNBC. Its CEO, Mark Thompson, has aggressively moved into digital with a new subscription service and said that management of Discovery Global, the spinoff company, has already approved a 2026 budget investing in the plan.
“I know this strategic review has been a period of inevitable uncertainty across CNN and indeed the whole of WBD,” Thompson told staff in a memo Friday. “Of course, I can’t promise you that the media attention and noise around the sale of our parent will die down overnight. But I do think the path to the successful transformation of this great news enterprise remains open.”
Thompson had no additional comment on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
Since Paramount’s takeover of CBS News this past summer, the network has taken steps to appeal to more conservative viewers with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. Weiss is moderating a prime-time discussion this weekend with Erika Kirk, widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
During an appearance on CNBC Monday, Ellison answered, “yeah,” when asked if he would combine CNN’s newsgathering operation with CBS News. What exactly that means is unclear.
“We want to build a scaled news service that is basically, fundamentally, in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70% of Americans that are in the middle,” Ellison said.
Trump has spoken highly of both Ellison and his billionaire father. But he was clearly angry about Lesley Stahl’s “60 Minutes” interview with former MAGA supporter Greene, who broke with him and recently resigned from Congress. Trump said on Truth Social that his real problem with the show is that the new corporate ownership allowed it to air.
“THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP,” Trump said, adding he believed that “60 Minutes” had gotten worse from his perspective since the changeover.
CNN is not likely to find out soon who its new owners would be. Even before the Paramount bid, experts had predicted the Netflix deal would face more than a year of regulatory hurdles.
“There is such a need for independent, unbiased news services,” Johnson said. “I so hope that the new CNN owners will see that as their fundamental mission.”
If Netflix eventually wins, emarketer.com’s Benes predicted it would be likely that the spinoff company, Discovery Global, would be shopped around to other buyers.
“CNN will be in limbo for a while no matter which bidder purchases CNN,” he said.
HONOLULU (AP) — High up on the slopes of the west Maui mountains, the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort provides golfers with expansive ocean views. The course is so renowned that The Sentry, a $20 million signature event for the PGA Tour, had been held there nearly every year for more than a quarter-century.
“You have to see it to believe it,” said Ann Miller, a former longtime Honolulu newspaper golf writer. “You’re looking at other islands, you’re looking at whales. … Every view is beautiful.”
Its world-class status also depends on keeping the course green.
But with water woes in west Maui — facing drought and still reeling from a deadly 2023 wildfire that ravaged the historic town of Lahaina — keeping the course green enough for The Sentry became difficult.
Ultimately, as the Plantation’s fairways and greens grew brown, the PGA Tour canceled the season opener, a blow that cost what officials estimate to be $50 million economic impact on the area.
A two-month closure and some rain helped get the course in suitable condition to reopen 17 holes earlier this month to everyday golfers who pay upwards of $469 to play a round. The 18th hole is set to reopen Monday, but the debate is far from over about the source of the water used to keep the course green and what its future looks like amid climate change.
Questions about Hawaii’s golf future
There’s concern that other high-profile tournaments will also bow out, taking with them economic benefits, such as money for charities, Miller said.
“It could literally change the face of it,” she said, “and it could change the popularity, obviously, too.”
The company that owns the courses, along with Kapalua homeowners and Hua Momona Farms, filed a lawsuit in August alleging Maui Land & Pineapple, which operates the century-old system of ditches that provides irrigation water to Kapalua and its residents, has not kept up repairs, affecting the amount of water getting down from the mountain.
MLP has countersued and the two sides have exchanged accusations since then.
As the water-delivery dispute plays out in court, Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental legal group, is calling attention to a separate issue involving the use of drinking water for golf course irrigation, particularly irksome to residents contending with water restrictions amid drought, including Native Hawaiians who consider water a sacred resource.
“Potable ground drinking water needs to be used for potable use,” Lauren Palakiko, a west Maui taro farmer, told the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management at a recent meeting. “I can’t stress enough that it should never be pumped, injuring our aquifer for the sake of golf grass or vacant mansion swimming pools.”
‘This is water that we can drink’
Kapalua’s Plantation and Bay courses, owned by TY Management Corp., have historically been irrigated with surface water delivered under an agreement with Maui Land & Pineapple, but since at least the summer have been using millions of gallons of potable groundwater, according to Earthjustice attorneys who point to correspondence from commission Chairperson Dawn Chang to MLP and Hawaii Water Service they say confirms it.
Chang said her letter didn’t authorize anything, but merely acknowledged an “oral representation” that using groundwater is an an “existing use” at times when there’s not enough surface water. She is asking for supporting documentation from MLP and Hawaii Water Service to confirm that interpretation.
In emails to The Associated Press, MLP said it did not believe groundwater could be used for golf course irrigation and Hawaii Water Service said it didn’t communicate to the commission that using groundwater to irrigate the courses was an existing use.
MLP’s two wells that service the course provide potable water.
“This is water that we can drink. It’s an even more precious resource within the sacred resource of wai,” Dru Hara, an Earthjustice attorney said, using the Hawaiian word for water.
Recycled water solutions
TY, owned by Japanese billionaire and apparel brand Uniqlo’s founder Tadashi Yanai, doesn’t have control over what kind of water is in the reservoir they draw upon for irrigation, TY General Manager Kenji Yui said in a statement. They’re also researching ways to bring recycled water to Kapalua for irrigation.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former commissioner, said he’s troubled by Earthjustice’s allegations that proper procedures weren’t followed.
The wrangling over water for golf shows that courses in Hawaii need to change their relationship with water, Beamer said: “I think there needs to be a time very soon that all golf courses are utilizing at a minimum recycled water.”
A fleet of planes that UPS grounded after a deadly crash isn’t expected to be back in service during the peak holiday season due to inspections and possible repairs, the company said Wednesday in an internal memo.
The airline expects it will be several months before its McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleet returns to service as it works to meet Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, said the memo from UPS Airlines president Bill Moore to employees. The process was originally estimated to take weeks but is now expected to take several months.
A fiery MD-11 plane crash on Nov. 4 in Louisville, Kentucky, killed 14 people and injured at least 23 when the left engine detached during takeoff. Cargo carriers grounded their McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleets shortly after, ahead of a directive from the FAA.
“Regarding the MD-11 fleet, Boeing’s ongoing evaluation shows that inspections and potential repairs will be more extensive than initially expected,” Moore wrote in the memo.
A UPS spokesperson said in a statement that the company will rely on contingency plans to deliver for customers throughout the peak season, and it “will take the time needed to ensure that every aircraft is safe.”
The 109 remaining MD-11 airliners, averaging more than 30 years old, are exclusively used to haul cargo for package delivery companies. MD-11s make up about 9% of the UPS airline fleet and 4% of the FedEx fleet.
Boeing, which took over as the manufacturer of MD-11s since merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, said in a statement that it is “working diligently to provide instructions and technical support to operators” so that they can meet the FAA’s requirements.
The FAA said Boeing will develop the procedures for inspections and any corrective actions, pending approval from the FAA.
NEW YORK (AP) — MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s wealthiest women and most influential philanthropists, is now known for her “no strings attached” surprise grantmaking. But, as a Princeton University sophomore, she learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of generosity.
Facing the prospect of dropping out if she couldn’t come up with $1,000, Scott was crying when her roommate, Jeannie Tarkenton, found her and got her dad to loan Scott the money.
“I would have given MacKenzie my left kidney,” Tarkenton told the Associated Press recently. “Like, that’s just what you do for friends.”
Today, Scott’s net worth is around $34 billion, according to Forbes. In October, Scott wrote that Tarkenton’s act is among the many personal kindnesses she has considered as she has donated more than $19 billion of the wealth she amassed mostly through Amazon shares as part of her 2019 divorce from company founder Jeff Bezos. And when Tarkenton started Funding U, a lending company that offers last-gap, merit-based loans to low-income students without co-signers, Scott said she jumped at the chance to help.
A quarter century passed between the end of their sophomore year and Funding U’s creation, a period when Tarkenton realized just how many more students were being pushed into her former roommate’s position by the rising cost of college. That Scott took an interest in her old friend’s mission to help economically disadvantaged students finance school is unsurprising. Her unusual gifts — which she rarely discusses or discloses outside of essays and a database on her website, Yield Giving — tend to focus on issues of equity, higher education and economic security.
Jeannie Tarkenton poses for a photo Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Jeannie Tarkenton poses for a photo Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
But the revelation of Scott’s Funding U support offers a new glimpse into her investments. Scott wrote last year that she would invest in “mission-aligned ventures” led by “undercapitalized groups” that focus on “for-profit solutions” to the challenges that her philanthropy seeks to address. However, this is among the few confirmed publicly.
“She’s looking for innovative ways to create opportunity for those that don’t have it,” said Marybeth Gasman, who runs Rutgers’ Center for Minority Serving Institutions and follows Scott’s donations. “I have to say, as somebody who went to school on a Pell Grant and who came from an extremely low-income family, that’s really meaningful.”
Amplifying impact
Scott, in many ways, resembled the exact students that Funding U seeks to serve. Tarkenton recalled the undergraduate Scott as a “hardworking student with very good grades” who was “highly focused” and had already been accepted into a competitive program.
Her lending company plugs those sorts of details — student transcripts and internship experiences, for example— into an algorithm that determines the likelihood applicants will complete college, get a job and make enough money to pay back the loan.
Tarkenton suggested that this formula is fairer — and more predictive — than existing criteria that determine loan eligibility based on the credit histories of students or their co-signers.
Scott provides most of the “junior debt” they use to reduce the risk for larger investments from banks such as Goldman Sachs, according to Tarkenton. She is among a handful of philanthropists who provide 30 cents for every dollar that Funding U loans. These funders lend at concessionary rates, meaning they make less money back than the market suggests they should and wait a longer period of time to recoup the money.
Funding U gets the other 70% from banks, who support them to comply with federal laws aimed at preventing anti-poor discrimination by requiring banks to make loans that benefit their communities.
“I wanted to combine capital from people who were participating in this because they cared about the underlying person,” Tarkenton said, “and also, knowing that scale of philanthropy wasn’t quite big enough, bring to the table some sort of market solution alongside that capital.”
Jeannie Tarkenton poses for a photo Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Jeannie Tarkenton poses for a photo Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
A philanthropic endeavor?
Tarkenton is clear: the endeavor isn’t philanthropic. Funding U is a company, after all, and Scott will eventually get her money back — just as she repaid Tarkenton’s informal loan all those years ago at Princeton.
But the approach represents a model that Scott’s former roommate thinks more philanthropists should embrace. Tarkenton said there’s more space for the likes of Scott to “bring a spirit of investment” that serves a “greater good” but isn’t purely charitable.
“I think philanthropists can get a little messier and do more with their money,” Tarkenton said. “I’m all about pushing philanthropists in a very aligned way.”
It’s why she started Funding U. Working at an Atlanta-based adult literacy nonprofit, Tarkenton said she noticed persistent disparities in degree completion rates based on socioeconomic status. She found the problem too big for philanthropy to solve. But the need was too small for most market players to care about addressing, she said.
Scott described the Funding U loans as “generosity- and gratitude-powered” in an Oct. 15 essay about the ripple effects of kindness.
Panorama founder Gabrielle Fitzgerald, whose social impact nonprofit tracks Scott’s giving, said the investment is “very consistent with her approach to ensuring students have access to higher education.” She said many funders see impact investing as a critical part of their giving portfolios.
“It shows that she’s using all the tools at her disposal to pursue her goals,” Fitzgerald said.
And the full circle impact of Tarkenton’s college-era loan?
“It’s a really lovely story in a time when we’re not seeing a lot of kindness and generosity,” Fitzgerald added. “And just a reminder that helping your fellow humans is both a good thing to do at the time and something that could have a massive impact down the road.”
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government said young children will be banned from social media next month as scheduled despite a rights advocacy group on Wednesday challenging the world-first legislation in court.
The Sydney-based Digital Freedom Project said it had filed a constitutional challenge in the High Court on Wednesday to a law due to take effect on Dec. 10 banning Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on specified platforms.
Communications Minister Anika Wells referred to the challenge when she later told Parliament her government remained committed to the ban taking effect on schedule.
“We will not be intimidated by legal challenges. We will not be intimidated by Big Tech. On behalf of Australian parents, we stand firm,” Wells told Parliament.
Digital Freedom Project president John Ruddick is a New South Wales state lawmaker for the minor Libertarian Party.
“Parental supervision of online activity is today the paramount parental responsibility. We do not want to outsource that responsibility to government and unelected bureaucrats,” Ruddick said in a statement.
“This ban is a direct assault on young people’s right to freedom of political communication,” he added.
The case is being brought by Sydney law firm Pryor, Tzannes and Wallis Solicitors on behalf of two 15-year-old children.
Digital Freedom Project spokesperson Sam Palmer could not say whether an application would be made for a court injunction to prevent the age restriction taking effect on Dec. 10 before the case is heard.
Technology giant Meta last week began sending thousands of Australian children suspected to be younger than 16 a warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before the ban takes effect.
The government has said the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16 or face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($32 million).
Malaysia has also announced plans to ban social media accounts for children under 16 starting in 2026.
Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said this week his Cabinet approved the move as part of a broader effort to shield young people from online harm like cyberbullying, scams and sexual exploitation. He said his government was studying approaches taken by Australia and other countries, and the potential use of electronic checks with identity cards or passports to verify users’ ages.
They go by names like @TRUMP_ARMY— or @MAGANationX, and their verified accounts proudly display portraits of President Donald Trump, voter rallies and American flags. And they’re constantly posting about U.S. politics to their followers, sounding like diehard fans of the president.
But after a weekend update to the social media platform X, it’s now clear that the owners of these accounts, and many others, are located in regions such as South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Elon Musk’s X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts posting in support of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the United States — raising concerns about foreign influence on U.S. politics.
Researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation, identified several popular accounts — purportedly run by Americans interested in politics – that instead were based in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa.
The accounts were leading disseminators of some misleading and polarizing claims about U.S. politics, including ones that said Democrats bribed the moderators of a 2024 presidential debate.
What is the location feature?
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced Saturday that the social media platform is rolling out an “About This Account” tool, which lets users see the country or region where an account is based. To find an account’s location, tap or click the signup date displayed on the profile.
“This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X,” Bier wrote.
In countries with punitive speech restrictions, a privacy tool on X lets account holders only show their region rather than a specific country. So instead of India, for instance, an account can say it is based in South Asia.
Bier said Sunday that after an update to the tool, it would 99.99% accurate, though this could not be independently verified. Accounts, for instance, can use a virtual private network, or VPN, to mask their true location. On some accounts, there’s a notice saying the location data may not be accurate, either because the account uses a VPN or because some internet providers use proxies automatically, without action by the user.
“Location data will always be something to use with caution,” said Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech and a former director of the International Fact-Checking Network. “Its usefulness probably peaks now that it was just exposed, and bad actors will adapt. Meta has had similar information for a while and no one would suggest that misinformation has been eliminated from Facebook because of it.”
Which accounts are causing controversy?
Some of the accounts supported slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk as well as President Donald Trump’s children. Many of the accounts were adorned with U.S. flags or made comments suggesting they were American. An account called “@BarronTNews_,” for instance, is shown as being located in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU),” even though the display location on its profile says “Mar A Lago.” The account, which has more than 580,000 followers, posted on Tuesday that “This is a FAN account, 100 % independent, run by one guy who loves this country and supports President Trump with everything I’ve got.”
NewsGuard also found evidence that some X users are spreading misinformation about the location feature itself, incorrectly accusing some accounts of being operated from abroad when they’re actually used by Americans. Investigators found several instances where one user created fake screenshots that appear to suggest an account was created overseas.
It’s not always clear what the motives of the accounts. While some may be state actors, it’s likely that many are financially motivated, posting commentary, memes and videos to draw engagement.
“For the most visible accounts unmasked this week, money is probably the main motivator,” Mantzarlis said. “That doesn’t mean that X — as documented extensively by prior work done by academic and nonprofit organizations that are being attacked and defunded — isn’t also a target for state actors.
Users were divided over the new ability to see an account’s location information, with some questioning whether it went too far.
“Isn’t this kind of an invasion of privacy?” One X user wrote. “No one needs to see this info.”
—
Associated Press Writer David Klepper contributed to this story.
Burt Meyer, who invented toys like Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, Lite-Brite and MouseTrap in the 1960s that delighted generations of children, has died. He was 99.
Meyer’s creations arrived in the postwar boom, when plastic molding and mass production transformed how American kids played. That shift opened the door for more dynamic toys, and Meyer seized the moment with designs that would stay on shelves for decades.
Meyer died on Oct. 30, said Rebecca Mathis, executive director at King-Bruwaert House, a retirement community in Burr Ridge, Illinois, where he lived.
Meyer succeeded by straddling two often conflicting worlds, carrying a boundless childlike imagination alongside a pragmatic understanding of machines.
The idea for Lite-Brite came in 1966 when Meyer was walking in Manhattan with Marvin Glass, who owned one of the largest toy design companies at the time, and the two men passed a window display featuring hundreds of colored lights. Engineers at the company doubted that electic lights could be safely adapted for children, according to Tim Walsh, who interviewed Meyer for his 2005 book “Timeless Toys.”
Meyer, an employee at Marvin Glass & Associates, insisted it could.
“There’s billions of ideas out there,” Walsh wrote, “but executing them into a final creative solution is often the hard part.”
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Meyer came up with a small backlit box and black paper sheets that allowed kids to create illuminated patterns. Lite-Brite was a hit, earning spots on Time Magazine’s list of 100 greatest toys and in the Strong National Museum of Play’s hall of fame. New versions are still being sold.
Meyer had a similar role with a design team that reimagined a bulky boxing arcade game for home use. The original concept stalled in development after a featherweight boxer died from a brain injury, making any toy that invoked the tragedy unmarketable, company leaders thought.
Meyer revisited the idea with a simple shift. “This is too good to pass up,” he recalled saying in a 2010 interview. “Let’s take it away from humanity, let’s make it robots. And we won’t have them fall over, we’ll have something funny happen.”
The result was Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, a small game where players control the fighters’ fists by pressing buttons on joysticks. A player wins by hitting the jaw of the opposing robot, theatrically popping up the spring-loaded head.
The toy remained recognizable to later generations, appearing in the film “Toy Story 2,” and the toy company Mattel announced plans in 2021 for a live action movie adaptation.
Meyer launched his own firm, Meyer/Glass Design, in the mid-1980s. The company developed numerous best-sellers including Gooey Louie, where children picked boogers our of Louie’s nose, and the Pretty Pretty Princess board game. His son, Steve Meyer, ran the business until 2006, according to The New York Times.
Born in 1926 as Burton Carpenter Meyer, he enlisted in the Navy and served for two years as an aircraft mechanic. After retiring from toy making, he moved to Downers Grove, a suburb of Chicago, where he built small planes and could be seen deftly steering them aloft from a nearby private airfield well into his 80s.
In interviews, Meyer often drew parallels between aerospace engineering and toy design, saying both required ingenutity and teamwork.
“When you’re flying the airplane, use every resource that you have in there. That’s why we were able to turn out so many successful products,” Meyer said, crediting his success to the highly collaborative environment at Marvin Glass & Associates.
Meyer’s car had a vanity plate that said TOYKING, and by most accounts, he was. In a 2010 interview, he said he was still delighted by telling people what he did for a living, and having them respond: “Oh, I played with that!”
WASHINGTON (AP) — With Thanksgiving and the formal launch of the holiday shopping season this week, Americans will again gather for Turkey Day meals before knocking off items on their Christmas gift lists.
Most big U.S. retailers are closed on Thanksgiving Day. However, many will open early the following day, Black Friday, the unofficial start of the holiday gift-buying season and the biggest shopping day of the year.
Here’s what is open and closed this Thanksgiving, along with a travel forecast from the experts at AAA auto club.
Government Buildings
Government offices, post offices, courts and schools are closed.
Banks and the stock market
U.S. stock markets and banks are closed Thursday; however, markets reopen on Friday for a shortened trading day, wrapping up at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Package Delivery
Standard FedEx and UPS pickup and delivery services will not be available on Thanksgiving, although some critical services will be offered at certain locations.
Retailers
Walmart will be closed on Thanksgiving but most stores will open at 6 a.m. local time on Black Friday.
Target will be closed on Thanksgiving, but most stores will open at 6 a.m. local time on Black Friday.
Macy’s will be closed on Thanksgiving, but most stores will have extended hours from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Black Friday.
Kohl’s will be closed on Thanksgiving, but many stores will be open as early as 5 a.m. on Black Friday. Check your local location for hours.
Costco will be closed on Thanksgiving, but will reopen on Black Friday. Check your local store’s website for hours.
CVS will close early on Thanksgiving. You can call your local store or check store and pharmacy hours on the CVS Pharmacy website.
Walgreens will close most of its stores on Thanksgiving, though some 24-hour locations will be open. Check your local store for more information.
Grocery Stores
Most national grocery store chains are open on Thanksgiving for those last-minute turkey day needs, although many close early. Check your local store for details.
Travel
With most schools closed Thursday and Friday, the long Thanksgiving weekend is the busiest holiday travel period of the year, according to AAA.
AAA projects that 81.8 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Thanksgiving holiday period between Tuesday, Nov. 25 and Monday, Dec. 1. That’s 1.6 million more travelers compared to last Thanksgiving, which would be a new record.
AAA estimates that at least 73 million people will travel by car, amounting to nearly 90% of Thanksgiving travelers. About 1.3 million more people will be on the road this year compared to last year, AAA predicts.
Drivers are currently paying around $3 for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to AAA. Last year, the national average was $3.06 on Thanksgiving Day.
According to AAA, 6 million U.S. travelers are expected to take domestic flights over the 7-day holiday period, a 2% increase over 2024. That figure could end up lower if flights are canceled or delayed.
Travel by other modes is expected to increase by 8.5% to nearly 2.5 million people. Other forms of travel include bus, train, and cruise ships.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rallied on Monday, at the start of a week with shortened trading because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.5% for one of its best days since the summer and added to its jump from Friday, finding some strength following a shaky few weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 202 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.7%.
Stocks got a lift from rising hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in December, a move that could boost the economy and investment prices.
The market also benefited from strength for stocks caught up in the artificial-intelligence frenzy. Alphabet, which has been getting praise for its newest Gemini AI model, rallied 6.3% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. Nvidia rose 2.1%.
Monday’s gains followed sharp swings in recent weeks, not just day to day but also hour to hour, caused by uncertainty about what the Fed will do with interest rates and whether too much money is pouring into AI and creating a bubble. All the worries are creating the biggest test for investors since an April sell-off, when President Donald Trump shocked the world with his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Despite all the recent fear, the S&P 500 remains within 2.7% of its record set last month.
“It’s reasonable to expect that stocks will experience periods of pressure from time to time, which, historically, is quite healthy for longer-term strength,” Anthony Saglimbene, Ameriprise chief market strategist, wrote in a note to investors.
Several more tests lie ahead this week for the market, which could create more swings, though none loom quite as large as last week’s profit report from Nvidia or the delayed jobs report from the U.S. government for September.
One of the biggest tests will arrive Tuesday, when the U.S. government will deliver data showing how bad inflation was at the wholesale level in September.
Economists expect it to show a 2.6% rise in prices from a year earlier, the same inflation rate as August. A worse-than-expected reading could deter the Fed from cutting its main interest rate in December for a third time this year, because lower rates can worsen inflation. Some Fed officials have already argued against a December cut in part because inflation has stubbornly remained above their 2% target.
Traders are nevertheless betting on a nearly 85% probability that the Fed will cut rates next month, up from 71% on Friday and from less than a coin flip’s chance seen a week ago, according to data from CME Group.
U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. A day later, it’s on to the rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
On Wall Street, U.S.-listed shares of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk fell 5.6% Monday after it reported that its Alzheimer’s drug failed to slow progression of the disease in a trial.
Grindr dropped 12.1% after saying it’s breaking off talks with a couple of investors who had offered to buy the company, which helps its gay users connect with each other. A special committee of the company’s board of directors said it had questions about the financing for the deal by the investors, who collectively own more than 60% of Grindr’s stock.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 102.13 points to 6,705.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 202.86 to 46,448.27, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 598.92 to 22,872.01.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, continued it sharp swings. It was sitting around $89,000 after bouncing between $82,000 and $94,000 over the last week. It was near $125,000 last month.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2% for one of the world’s biggest moves. It got a boost from a 4.7% leap for Alibaba, which has reported strong demand for its updated Qwen AI app. Alibaba is due to report earnings on Tuesday.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased a bit. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.03% from 4.06% late Friday.
___
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Designer Jeffrey Banks spent years co-authoring seven books on fashion before finally deciding it was time to share his own story.
The menswear designer recounts more than 50 years in fashion, from working for Ralph Lauren to launching his own label, in his new memoir “Storyteller: Tales from a Fashion Insider.”
At 72, Banks is having a breakout year. One of his designs was selected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibit, and he’s relaunching his eponymous menswear label.
Banks debuted his label of polished tailoring and American sportswear back in 1976 at 21. His menswear played with color and texture: think tartan plaid jackets, pinstriped suits and furs. And at a time when there were few Black designers, his clothes were being sold in major department stores from Macy’s to Bergdorf Goodman and he was landing multimillion-dollar deals.
For his Jeffrey Banks menswear relaunch in January, he’s moving away from suiting and embracing sustainable sportswear, from knits to underwear.
“As much as I love suits and tailored clothing,” he told The Associated Press, “I don’t think that’s the business for now, and the business of young people.”
His industry friends have rallied around him on his book tour. The Council of Fashion Designers of America hosted a conversation between Banks and Isaac Mizrahi last week to celebrate the publication of Banks’ book.
Mizrahi, who worked for Banks on his womenswear line, called him a trendsetter in the commercial space.
“I was so inspired when I was working with him, and he was one of the first people to do a lot of things at once,” Mizrahi said. “I looked at that, and I thought that was real success.”
Banks is a natural storyteller
Banks’ memoir doubles as a love letter to the family, loved ones and fashionable friends who supported him over the years. One motivation for doing the book, he said, was to ensure his mother, who turns 105 in January, could read it.
“She instilled in me and in my sister, as did my father, the idea that if we wanted something bad enough and we were willing to work hard enough for it, we could achieve and get anything that we wanted,” Banks said. “And the fact that we were Black, that shouldn’t make a difference.”
Banks and his mother shared a love of clothing. At 10, he designed a yellow asymmetrical wool coat and matching sheath dress for her to wear on Easter Sunday.
Former CFDA President Stan Herman, 97, said that Banks is a natural storyteller with an impeccable memory, who he joked, “was born with a Vogue in his crib.”
In his book, he highlights his “Mentors” and “Best Friends Forever” through entertaining anecdotes and photos of fashion industry stalwarts like late designer Perry Ellis and celebrities like Bobby Short, Barbra Streisand and Audrey Hepburn. Ever the gentleman, Banks’ book does not divulge all his insider secrets despite working so closely with some of the biggest names in fashion.
Banks’ fashion ascent
Banks credits fashion industry giants Lauren and Calvin Klein as his mentors.
He first met Lauren as a teenager while working at Britches of Georgetowne, a menswear store in Washington, D.C. In his book, Banks shares how Lauren gave him one of his personal suits to wear for prom before he later worked for the designer while attending Pratt Institute. Banks said the two first bonded over their admiration of Hollywood movie stars like Cary Grant and Fred Astaire.
“Ralph always treated me like an equal, I mean, from Day One,” Banks said. “He always said … I’m his other son.”
While attending the Parsons School of Design, Banks was personally recruited by Klein. At his first fashion show, Banks said he sat Klein and Lauren next to one another.
It was while building Klein’s menswear line that Banks was offered the chance to start his own label. He then ventured into men’s outerwear with Lakeland, furs with Alixandre, a Jeffrey Banks Boys’ line and even womenswear.
In 1980, he was tapped to overhaul Merona Sport, a family sportswear brand, he turned into a money-making juggernaut that catapulted his career. He writes that the brand jumped from generating $7 million to $70 million within six months. At the time, Mizrahi said, it was like Banks had “struck gold.”
As Banks goes back to his roots with the relaunch of this menswear label, his fashion community is ready to embrace him again.
“He’s still as relevant as ever,” Fern Mallis, former head of The Council of Fashion Designers of America, said. “And I think there’s definitely a place for him in the market, he’s got a wonderful following of fashionista friends. … We’ll be wearing it, posting it and writing about it.”
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — For the past several years, 75-year-old Miguel Laboy has smoked a joint with his coffee every morning. He tells himself he won’t start tomorrow the same way, but he usually does.
“You know what bothers me? To have cannabis on my mind the first thing in the morning,” he said, sparking a blunt in his Brookline, Massachusetts, apartment. “I’d like to get up one day and not smoke. But you see how that’s going.”
Since legalization and commercialization, daily cannabis use has become a defining — and often invisible — part of many people’s lives. High-potency vapes and concentrates now dominate the market, and doctors say they can blur the line between relief and dependence over time so that users don’t notice the shift. Across the country, people who turned to cannabis for help are finding it harder to put down.
Overall, alcohol remains more widely used than cannabis. But starting in 2022, the number of daily cannabis users in the U.S. surpassed that of daily drinkers — a major shift in American habits.
Researchers say the rise has unfolded alongside products that contain far more THC than the marijuana of past decades, including vape oils and concentrates that can reach 80% to 95% THC. Massachusetts, like most states, sets no limit on how strong these products can be.
Doctors warn that daily, high-potency use can cloud memory, disturb sleep, intensify anxiety or depression and trigger addiction in ways earlier generations didn’t encounter. Many who develop cannabis use disorder say it’s hard to recognize the signs because of the widespread belief that marijuana isn’t addictive. Because the consequences tend to creep in gradually — brain fog, irritability, dependence — users often miss when therapeutic use shifts into compulsion.
How a habit becomes an addiction
Miguel Laboy smokes a joint on Oct. 3, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Miguel Laboy smokes a joint on Oct. 3, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Laboy, a retired chef, began seeing a substance-use counselor after telling his doctor he felt depressed, unmotivated and increasingly isolated as his drinking and cannabis use escalated.
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Naltrexone helped him quit alcohol, but he hasn’t found a way to quit marijuana. Unlike alcohol and opioids, there is no FDA-approved medication to treat cannabis addiction, though research is underway.
Laboy, who first smoked at 18, said marijuana has long soothed symptoms tied to undiagnosed ADHD, childhood trauma and painful experiences — including cancer treatment and his son’s death. Through decades in restaurant kitchens, he considered himself a “functional pothead.”
Lately, though, his use has become compulsive. After retiring, he began vaping 85% THC cartridges.
Miguel Laboy, a daily cannabis user, vapes, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Miguel Laboy, a daily cannabis user, vapes, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
“These days, I carry two things in my hands: my vape and my cellular — that’s it,” he said. “I’m not proud of it, but it’s the reality.”
Cannabis eases his anxiety and “settles his spirit,” but he’s noticed it affects his concentration. He hopes to learn to read music, but sustaining focus at the piano has grown difficult.
He’s seen an addiction psychiatrist for six months, but he hasn’t been able to cut back. The medical system doesn’t seem equipped to help, he said.
“They’re not ready yet,” Laboy said. “I go to them for help, but all they say is, ‘Try to smoke less.’ I already know that — that’s why I’m there.”
Younger users describe a similar slide — one that begins with relief and ends somewhere harder to define.
Brain fog becomes ‘your new normal’
Kyle, a college student, smokes cannabis out of a bong, Oct. 29, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Kyle, a college student, smokes cannabis out of a bong, Oct. 29, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Kyle, a 20-year-old Boston University student, says cannabis helps him manage panic attacks he’s had since high school. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he buys cannabis illegally.
In the Allston apartment he shares with fraternity brothers, they have a communal bong.
When he’s high, Kyle feels calm — and able to process anxious thoughts and feel a sense of gratitude. But that clarity has become harder to reach when he’s sober.
“I think I was able to do that better a year ago,” he said. “Now I can only do it when I’m high, which is scary.”
He said the brain fog and feeling of detachment develop so gradually they become “your new normal.” Some mornings, he wakes up feeling like an observer in his own life, struggling to recall the day before. “It can be tough to wake up and go, ‘Oh my God, who am I?’” he said.
Still, he doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
Kyle says cannabis helps him function — more than seeking professional treatment would. Doctors say that ambivalence is common: many people feel cannabis is both the problem and the solution.
A dream turns into a nightmare
This April 22, 2016, file photo shows a marijuana bud at a medical marijuana facility in Unity, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
Anne Hassel spent a month in jail and a year on probation for growing cannabis in the 1980s. She cried when Massachusetts’ first dispensaries opened — and left her physical therapy career to get a job at one.
Within a year, though, “my dream job turned into a nightmare,” she said.
Hassel, 58, said some consultants pushed staff to promote high-potency concentrates as “more medicinal,” downplaying their risks. After trying her first dab — a nearly instantaneous, “stupefying” high — she began using 90% THC concentrate several times a day.
Her use quickly became debilitating, she said. She lost interest in things she once loved, like mountain biking. One autumn day, she drove to the woods and turned back without getting out. “I just wanted to go to my friend’s house and dab,” she said. “I hated myself.”
Anne Hassel, a former cannabis user, rides her motorcycle, Nov. 6, 2025, in Chicopee, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Anne Hassel, a former cannabis user, rides her motorcycle, Nov. 6, 2025, in Chicopee, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
She didn’t seek formal treatment but recovered with the help of a friend. Riding her green motorcycle — once named “Sativa” after her favorite strain — has helped her reconnect to her body and spirit.
“People don’t want to acknowledge what’s going on because legalization was tied to social justice,” she said. “You get swept up in it and don’t recognize the harm until it’s too late.”
Community for those who want to leave
Online, that realization unfolds daily on r/leaves, a Reddit community of more than 380,000 people trying to cut back or quit.
Users describe a similar push-pull — craving the calm cannabis brings, then feeling trapped by the fog. Some write about isolation and regret, saying years of smoking dulled their ambition and presence in relationships. Others post pleas for help from work or doctors’ offices.
SLIDESHOW: The every day high
An advertisement for a cannabis delivery company is seen on a public trash bin, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Miguel Laboy shops at a cannabis dispensary, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A customer holds a package containing one gram of cannabis purchased from a dispensary, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A package of fruit-flavored cannabis gummies is displayed at a dispensary, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A gram of cannabis is seen, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Miguel Laboy plays the keyboard after smoking cannabis, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Together, they paint a portrait of dependence that is quiet and routine — and difficult to escape.
“When people talk about legalizing a drug, they’re really talking about commercializing it,” said Dave Bushnell, who founded the Reddit group. “We’ve built an industry optimized to sell as much as possible.”
What doctors want people to know
Dr. Jordan Tishler, a former emergency physician who now treats medical cannabis patients in Massachusetts, said low doses of THC paired with high doses of CBD can help some patients with anxiety. Many products have high levels of THC, which can worsen symptoms, he said.
“It’s a medicine,” he said. “It can be useful, but it can also be dangerous — and access without guidance is dangerous.”
Miguel Laboy rolls a joint Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Miguel Laboy rolls a joint Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Dr. Kevin Hill, an addiction director at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who specializes in cannabis use disorder, said the biggest gap is education, among both consumers and clinicians.
“I think adults should be allowed to do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else,” but many users don’t understand the risks, Hill said.
He said the conversation shouldn’t be about prohibition but about balance and informed decision-making. “For most people, the risks outweigh the benefits.”
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market climbed again Tuesday on hopes for a coming cut to interest rates.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9% after breaking out of a morning lull and is back within 1.8% of its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 664 points, or 1.4%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.7%.
Stocks got a boost from easing yields in the bond market. Lower interest rates can cover up many sins in financial markets, including prices going too high, and hopes are strong that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate at its next meeting to juice the economy further.
A raft of mixed economic data on Tuesday left traders betting on a nearly 83% probability that the Fed will cut in December, according to data from CME Group. That’s roughly the same as a day before and up sharply from the coin flip’s chance that they saw just a week ago.
Easier rates can boost the economy by encouraging households and companies to borrow more and investors to pay higher prices for investments than they would otherwise.
A third report, meanwhile, said inflation at the wholesale level was a touch worse in September than economists expected, but a closely tracked underlying trend was slightly better. That’s important because lower interest rates can make inflation worse, and high inflation is the main deterrent that could keep the Fed from cutting rates.
After taking all the data together, economists suggested the Fed and its chair, Jerome Powell, could be leaning toward cutting rates on Dec. 10. The Fed has already cut rates twice this year in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market.
“Taking a pause on rate cuts would probably do more damage to sentiment than a cut would help,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, who also said “Powell doesn’t need to be the Grinch that stole Christmas.”
Easier interest rates can give particularly big boosts to smaller companies, because many of them need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 2.1% to lead the market.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, several retailers leaped after delivering stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected.
Abercrombie & Fitch soared 37.5% after the apparel seller reported a better profit than expected. It also raised the bottom end of its forecasted range for revenue and profit over the full year.
Kohl’s surged 42.5% after reporting a profit for the latest quarter, when analysts were expecting a loss. Best Buy rose 5.3% after boosting its profit forecast for the full year following a better-than-expected third quarter, citing strength across computing, gaming and mobile phones.
Dick’s Sporting Goods erased an early drop of 4% to add 0.2%. It raised its forecast for results at its Dick’s stores, though its purchase of Foot Locker is requiring some work. Executive Chairman Ed Stack said the company is “cleaning out the garage” at Foot Locker by clearing inventory, closing poorly performing stores and making other moves.
Alphabet rose another 1.5%, continuing a strong run on excitement about its recently released Gemini AI model. Chinese giant Alibaba, meanwhile, saw its stock that trades in the United States fall 2.3% after losing an early gain. It reported stronger revenue than analysts expected for the latest quarter thanks in part to the AI boom, but its overall profit fell short of forecasts.
Some chip companies dropped sharply following a report from The Information that Meta Platforms is in talks to spend billions of dollars on AI chips from Alphabet instead of them. Nvidia sank 2.6% and Advanced Micro Devices dropped 4.1%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 60.76 points to 6,765.88. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 664.18 to 47,112.45, and the Nasdaq composite gained 153.59 to 23,025.59.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.00% from 4.04% late Monday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX returned 1%, and stocks in Shanghai climbed 0.9% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
Madison Investments, an investment advisor, released its “Madison Small Cap Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The third quarter was difficult for the Small Cap Fund. The small-cap index’s performance was broad-based. The Madison Small Cap Fund (class Y) was down 1.3% in the quarter, significantly underperforming the benchmarks. The underperformance was driven by stock selection and exacerbated by a very speculative market. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, the Madison Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks such as Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL). Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) offers drug discovery, non-clinical development, and safety testing services that operate through Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Solutions (Manufacturing) segments. The one-month return of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) was -14.15%, and its shares lost 16.72% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 21, 2025, Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) stock closed at $167.64 per share, with a market capitalization of $8.25 billion.
Madison Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
“We initiated a position in Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) in Q3. CRL is a high-quality company in the drug discovery and development outsourcing space with a broad range of services from basic research to contract manufacturing. The company has operating margins of 20% or more and generates substantial free cash flow. The past few years have been challenging for companies in the drug development space, as capital has become increasingly constrained and research and development spending has remained stagnant. However, CRL has the operating history and mix of businesses to be successful over the long term. The customer base is diverse and CRL benefits from the increased dynamics of outsourcing by its biopharmaceutical clients. The company’s top line has grown at a 12% compound annual rate over the last 10 years, even with the recent downturn. Management is solid, and we’ve known them for decades. We believe Charles River’s earnings power can reach approximately $15 in 2028, assuming modest growth. We also use a sum of the parts at ~12x EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) to assess the attractiveness of CRL. This implies an intrinsic value of $228. Importantly, we think we are being conservative, as we don’t build in a resumption of double-digit revenue growth in our valuation framework. However, we anticipate revenue growth of 4% from 2024 to 2028 and a modest margin recovery, aided by restructuring and cost-outs.”
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (CRL): Among Mid-Cap Stocks Insiders Were Buying in Q1 2025
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 49 hedge fund portfolios held Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) at the end of the second quarter, compared to 39 in the previous quarter. Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) reported revenue of $1 billion in the third quarter of 2025, a 0.5% decrease from Q3 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on thebest short-term AI stock.
In another article, we covered Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) and shared ClearBridge Growth Strategy’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
NEW YORK (AP) — A strong year for initial public offerings on Wall Street has fizzled out due to the government shutdown and a cautious turn by investors.
Many IPOs targeted for the end of this year will likely be pushed into next year as the Securities and Exchange Commission works to clear a backlog of hundreds of registration statements. Meanwhile, shares of companies that did make their market debuts haven’t fared well lately amid concerns that stocks have gotten too expensive after another double-digit gain for the market this year.
“A backlogged SEC, the approaching holiday slowdown, and pressure on AI and other tech stocks are all weighing on hopes for a near-term rebound,” wrote Bill Smith, CEO of Renaissance Capital, in a note to investors.
Despite the backlog, Wall Street is still anticipating several IPOs in November and December that were already in the later stages of the regulatory process.
Central Bancompany was one of the bigger companies going public following the end of the government shutdown. The bank holding company for The Central Trust Bank raised $373 million from its IPO on Thursday. Still, November is on track to be among the slowest months for IPOs in 2025, according to Renaissance Capital.
Wall Street anticipates that medical supplies company Medline could go public in December, potentially raising up to $5 billion, while cryptocurrency technology company BitGo remains another potential IPO for next month.
The more cautious turn for the market has also checked the gains of some more recent IPOs, sending some falling sharply since their debuts.
Web design software company Figma has essentially lost all its gains since going public in July. It more than tripled on its first day of trading after pricing at $33 per share. It is now trading slightly above the IPO price.
Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later company priced its IPO at $40 per share in September and is currently trading close to $29 per share. Cloud computing company CoreWeave also priced its IPO at $40 per share, in March. It surged in the months following its IPO, but has pulled back significantly to about $72 per share.
Software company Navan went public at $25 per share in the midst of the government shutdown but failed to gain much ground and is now trading at about $15.
The benchmark S&P 500 is having a bleak November. It’s down 3.5% for the month, with much of that decline being led by the tech sector, which had been driven higher by enthusiasm over developments in artificial intelligence. Wall Street has grown more concerned about whether the gains have been justified.
The S&P 500 is still up more than 12% for the year and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up more than 15%.
Renaissance Capital’s IPO Index is down about nearly 0.8% so far this year as of Friday and has been falling against the S&P 500 since mid-October.
“What that shows is that investors very quickly monetized, they didn’t want to take the long-term risk,” said Samuel Kerr, head of global equity capital markets at Mergermarket.
Still, overall demand for IPOs remains strong. Even with the recent pullback, the broader market remains expensive, especially within the influential technology sector. IPOs have traditionally been another way for investors to get into the market at a less expensive entry point.
“Increasingly, as a money manager, you have to find other places to make money and typically, IPOs are that place,” said, David Kaufman, partner and co-chair of the corporate & securities practice at Thompson Coburn LLP. “You continue to have all these large mutual funds and money managers with excess cash and no place to put this cash.”
The broader market’s direction in the new year will determine the costs and types of IPOs. Some of the more anticipated big tech names that could go public in 2026 include AI-focused software company Databricks and graphic design app Canva. Wall Street also considers financial technology Plaid as another possible 2026 IPO.
Any visible lull in IPO activity through the rest of the year is partially masking a flurry of activity beneath the surface as companies go through the regulatory process.
“It’s a busy time for lawyers and bankers trying to tee things up for the first and second quarter of next year,” Kaufman said.
Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. That’s caused many to limit new work to only a few specific roles, if not pause openings entirely. At the same time, sizable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors.
Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly — or, as seen with big names like Amazon, are redirecting money to artificial intelligence.
Federal employees have encountered additional doses of uncertainty, impacting worker sentiment around the job market overall. Shortly after Trump returned to office at the start of the year, federal jobs were cut by the thousands. And the record 43-day government shutdown also left many to work without paychecks.
The impasse put key economic data on hold, too. In a delayed report released Thursday, the Labor Department said U.S. employers added a surprising 119,000 jobs in September. But unemployment rose to 4.4% — and other troubling details emerged, including revisions showing the economy actually lost 4,000 jobs in August. There’s also growing gender and racial disparities. The National Women’s Law Center notes women only accounted for 21,000 of September’s added jobs — and that Black women over the age of 20, in particular, saw unemployment climb to 7.5% for the month.
The shutdown has left holes in more recent hiring numbers. The government says it won’t release a full jobs report for October.
Here are some of the largest job cuts announced recently:
Verizon
In November, Verizon began laying off more than 13,000 employees. In a staff memo announcing the cuts, CEO Dan Schulman said that the telecommunications giant needed to simplify operations and “reorient” the entire company.
General Motors
General Motors moved to lay off about 1,700 workers across manufacturing sites in Michigan and Ohio in late October, as the auto giant adjusts to slowing demand for electric vehicles. Hundreds of additional employees are reportedly slated for “temporary layoffs” at the start of next year.
Paramount
In long-awaited cuts just months after completing its $8 billion merger with Skydance, Paramount plans to lay off about 2,000 employees — about 10% of its workforce. Paramount initiated roughly 1,000 of those layoffs in late October, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In November, Paramount also announced plans to eliminate 1,600 positions as part of divestitures of Televisión Federal in Argentina and Chilevision in Chile. And the company said another 600 employees had chosen voluntary severance packages as part of a coming push to return to the office full-time.
Amazon
Amazon said last month that it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, close to 4% of its workforce, as the online retail giant ramps up spending on AI while trimming costs elsewhere. A letter to employees said most workers would be given 90 days to look for a new position internally.
UPS
United Parcel Service has disclosed about 48,000 job cuts this year as part of turnaround efforts, which arrive amid wider shifts in the company’s shipping outputs. UPS also closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of this year.
Target
Target in October moved to eliminate about 1,800 corporate positions, or about 8% of its corporate workforce globally. The retailer said the cuts were part of wider streamlining efforts.
Nestlé
In mid-October, Nestlé said it would be cutting 16,000 jobs globally — as part of wider cost cutting aimed at reviving its financial performance amid headwinds like rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The Swiss food giant said the layoffs would take place over the next two years.
Lufthansa Group
In September, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of artificial intelligence, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.
Novo Nordisk
Also in September, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said it would cut 9,000 jobs, about 11% of its workforce. The company — which makes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — said the layoffs were part of wider restructuring, as it works to sell more obesity and diabetes medications amid rising competition.
ConocoPhillips
Oil giant ConocoPhillips announced plans in September to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, as part of broader efforts from the company to cut costs. Between 2,600 and 3,250 workers were expected to be impacted, with most layoffs set to take place before the end of 2025.
Intel
Intel has moved to shed thousands of jobs — with the struggling chipmaker working to revive its business. In July, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel expected to end the year with 75,000 “core” workers, excluding subsidiaries, through layoffs and attrition. That’s down from 99,500 core employees reported the end of last year. The company previously announced a 15% workforce reduction.
Microsoft
In May, Microsoft began laying off about 6,000 workers across its workforce. And just months later, the tech giant said it would be cutting 9,000 positions — marking its biggest round of layoffs seen in more than two years. The company has cited “organizational changes,” but the labor reductions also arrive as the company spends heavily on AI.
Procter & Gamble
In June, Procter & Gamble said it would cut up to 7,000 jobs over the next two years, 6% of the company’s global workforce. The maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers said the cuts were part of a wider restructuring — also arriving amid tariff pressures.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — OpenAI and Taiwan electronics giant Foxconn have agreed to a partnership to design and manufacture key equipment for artificial intelligence data centers in the U.S. as part of ambitious plans to fortify American AI infrastructure.
Foxconn, which makes AI servers for Nvidia and assembles Apple products including the iPhone, will be co-designing and developing AI data center racks with OpenAI under the agreement, the companies said in separate statements on Thursday and Friday.
The products Foxconn will manufacture in its U.S. facilities include cabling, networking and power systems for AI data centers, the companies said. OpenAI will have “early access” to evaluate and potentially to purchase them.
Foxconn has factories in the U.S., including in Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas. The initial agreement does not include financial obligations or purchase commitments, the statements said.
The Taiwan contract manufacturer, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has been moving to diversify its business, developing electric vehicles and acquiring other electronics companies to build out its product offerings.
A sleek Model A EV made by the group’s automaking affiliate Foxtron was on display at Friday’s event.
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“This year, Model A. ‘A’,’ for affordable,” said Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Foxconn’s EV business.
The tie-up with OpenAI can also help Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by China, to build up its own computing resources, said Alexis Bjorlin, a Nvidia vice president.
“This allows Taiwan’s domain knowledge and key technology data to remain local and ensure data security,” she said.
“This partnership is a step toward ensuring the core technologies of the AI era are built here,” Sam Altman, CEO of San Francisco-based OpenAI, said in the statement. “We believe this work will strengthen U.S. leadership and help ensure the benefits of AI are widely shared.”
OpenAI has committed $1.4 trillion to building AI infrastructure. It recently entered into multi-billion partnerships with Nvidia and AMD to expand the extensive computing power needed to support its AI models and services. It is also partnering with US chipmaker Broadcom in designing and making its own AI chips.
But its massive spending plans have worried investors, raising questions over its ability to recoup its investments and remain profitable. Altman said this month that OpenAI, a startup founded in 2015 and maker of ChatGPT, is expected to reach more than $20 billion in annualized revenue this year, growing to “hundreds of billions by 2030.”
Foxconn’s Taiwan-listed share price has risen 25% so far this year, along with the surge in prices for many tech companies benefiting from the craze for AI.
The Taiwan company’s net profit in the July-September quarter rose 17% from a year earlier to just over 57.6 billion new Taiwan dollars ($1.8 billion), with revenue from its cloud and networking business, including AI servers, contributing the most business.
“We believe the importance of the AI industry is increasing significantly,” Liu said during Foxconn’s earnings call this month.
“I am very optimistic about the development of AI next year, and expect our cooperation with major clients and partners to become even closer,” said Liu.
