US and China are expected to extend their tariff truce by another three months, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unnamed sources.
The two countries will not impose additional tariffs on each other during the extension, one of the sources told the newspaper. The current pause was to end Aug. 12.
The report comes ahead of trade talks between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng scheduled to start on Monday in Stockholm.
Bessent said Tuesday that he expected a trade-truce extension to emerge from the next round of negotiations this week, which he said will include broader range of topics including Beijing’s purchases of oil from Russia and Iran.
Foreign investors returned to U.S. stocks and bonds in force in May, just a month after retreating in the wake of President Donald Trump’s unexpectedly aggressive tariffs. New data show record net inflows, as the highest tariff rates were on hold to allow breathing room for trade talks. U.S. stocks have since retaken record highs, though bond yields remain elevated.
Just as American consumers have demonstrated extraordinary resilience amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, foreign investors apparently have a strong stomach for market chaos.
The most recent data from the Treasury Department shows that foreigners plowed a net $311.1 billion into U.S. securities in May, a record high, after pulling out $14.2 billion in April.
“All this is notable because so many commentators prophesied the end of US ‘exceptionalism’ after the turbulence of recent months,” Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote Wednesday in a post titled “US exceptionalism roars back” on his Substack. “The reality is that markets are far more accepting of all the ups and downs than people realize. US ‘exceptionalism’ is alive and well.”
Meanwhile, for the 12 months through May, net foreign inflows neared their all-time high from July 2023, when they topped $1.4 trillion to mark the peak of the American exceptionalism narrative in markets, he added.
In the immediate aftermath of “Liberation Day,” the S&P 500 flirted with a bear market, crashing nearly 20% from its prior high while the Nasdaq passed that threshold.
The 10-year Treasury yield initially plunged but then soared more than 70 basis points in just days as investors worried top U.S. debt holders would dump their holdings.
But a month later, the opposite happened.
“The hurdle for the US to experience genuine capital flight is high and certainly wasn’t breached in April,” Brooks wrote.
To be sure, the 10-year yield remains above its pre-Liberation Day level, and the dollar has suffered its worst first half in more than 50 years.
Meanwhile, talks with Japan and trade partners have cemented tariffs rates that are higher than the initial 10% baseline. Negotiations with other countries are still ongoing, and failure to reach a deal could send tariff rates even higher.
Nevertheless, market veteran Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, was also heartened by the data showing record inflows into U.S. markets.
“So, we take comfort from the data that confirm that it is the bears on the outlook for a massive selloff in US bonds, US equities, and the US dollar who might be delusional, not us,” he wrote on Monday. “Our faith in the kindness of strangers has been validated by the latest Treasury data.
Just a few months ago, top names on Wall Street were sounding the alarm on Trump’s tariffs and their long-term repercussions.
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin warned in April that the country was eroding its “brand,” explaining that from American culture to its financial and military strength, the U.S. is an aspiration for most of the world.
“On the financial markets, no brand can compare to the brand of the U.S. Treasuries… we put that brand at risk,” he said, adding that it takes a very long time to remove the tarnish on a brand.
“Our outlook argues that the structural foundations of U.S. exceptionalism—particularly the ability to finance itself cheaply via the dollar’s reserve status—have begun to erode,” economist Jim Reid wrote in a note. “So we remain structurally bearish on the dollar and expect U.S. term premia to keep rising.”
US President Donald Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen were set for make-or-break talks in Scotland Sunday, aimed at ending a months-long transatlantic trade standoff, as negotiations went down to the wire.
Trump has said he sees a one-in-two chance of a deal with the European Union, which faces an across-the-board US levy of 30 percent unless it strikes a trade pact by August 1 — with Washington warning Sunday there would be “no extensions.”
Von der Leyen’s European Commission, negotiating on behalf of EU countries, is pushing hard for a deal to salvage a trading relationship worth an annual $1.9 trillion in goods and services.
According to an EU diplomat briefed ahead of the meeting, set for 4:30 pm (1530 GMT), the contours of a deal are in place after talks went late into Saturday night — but key issues still need settling.
And of course the final word lies with Trump.
“A political deal is on the table — but it needs the sign-off from Trump, who wants to negotiate this down to the very last moment,” the diplomat told AFP.
The proposal, they said, involves a baseline levy of around 15 percent on EU exports to the United States — the level secured by Japan — with carve-outs for critical sectors including aircraft and spirits, though not for wine.
Any deal will need to be approved by EU member states — whose ambassadors, on a visit to Greenland, were updated by the commission Sunday morning, and would meet again after any accord.
According to the EU diplomat, the 27 countries broadly endorsed the deal as envisaged — while recalling their negotiating red lines.
Baseline tariff
The Trump-von der Leyen meeting was taking place in Turnberry on Scotland’s southwestern coast, where the president owns a luxury golf resort. He was out on the course for much of the weekend.
The 79-year-old Trump said Friday he hoped to strike “the biggest deal of them all” with the EU.
“I think we have a good 50-50 chance,” the president said, citing sticking points on “maybe 20 different things”.
The EU is focused on getting a deal to avoid sweeping tariffs that would further harm its sluggish economy — while holding out retaliation as a last resort.
Under the proposal described to AFP, the EU would commit to ramp up purchases of US liquefied natural gas, along with other investment pledges.
Pharmaceuticals — a key export for Ireland — would also face a 15-percent levy, as would semi-conductors.
The EU also appears to have secured a compromise on steel that could allow a certain quota into the United States before tariffs would apply, the diplomat said.
Questions on auto sector
Hit by multiple waves of tariffs since Trump reclaimed the White House, the EU is currently subject to a 25-percent levy on cars, 50 percent on steel and aluminium, and an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent, which Washington threatens to hike to 30 percent in a no-deal scenario.
It was unclear how the proposed deal would impact tariff levels on the auto industry, crucial for France and Germany, with carmakers already reeling from the levies imposed so far.
While 15 percent would be much higher than pre-existing US tariffs on European goods — averaging 4.8 percent — it would mirror the status quo, with companies currently facing an additional flat rate of 10 percent.
Should talks fail, EU states have greenlit counter tariffs on $109 billion (93 billion euros) of US goods including aircraft and cars to take effect in stages from August 7. Brussels is also drawing up a list of US services to potentially target.
Beyond that, countries like France say Brussels should not be afraid to deploy a so-called trade “bazooka” — EU legislation designed to counter coercion that can involve restricting access to its market and public contracts.
But such a step would mark a major escalation with Washington.
Ratings dropping
Trump has embarked on a campaign to reshape US trade with the world, and has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive tariffs if they do not reach a pact with Washington by August 1.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday the August 1 deadline was firm and there will be “no extensions, no more grace periods.”
Polls suggest however the American public is unconvinced by the White House strategy, with a recent Gallup survey showing his approval rating at 37 percent — down 10 points from January.
Having promised “90 deals in 90 days,” Trump’s administration has so far unveiled five, including with Britain, Japan and the Philippines.
Tesla Inc. engineering executive Lars Moravy said the company is in a “big swing moment” with its forthcoming products as he gave a wide ranging talk at a San Francisco Bay area gathering of customers and retail investors Saturday.
Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said he’s personally most excited about Semi truck — built at the company’s factory near Reno, Nevada — and called it key to the company’s mission. He spoke at the “X Takeover,” a day-long event in San Mateo.
“We take big swings, and sometimes that risk can come with a lot of downside,” said Moravy, who has been with Tesla for over 15 years. “We’re in a big swing moment right now with autonomy, Robotaxis, with Optimus and with Semi.”
Optimus is the company’s humanoid robot.
Previous “Tesla Takeover” events, sponsored by the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley club, focused on the electric vehicle maker. This year’s gathering, which drew scores of longtime Elon Musk fans, expanded to encompass SpaceX and the other companies in Musk’s overlapping business empire. Musk also spoke via video conference late in the afternoon.
Moravy’s appearance and remarks served as a rallying cry for fans of Tesla and Musk in the face of severe challenges across the core automotive business. Tesla is losing market share as sales of its aging lineup fall in key markets around the world. That includes California, its former home where sales have declined for the last seven quarters.
President Donald Trump’s signature tax plan ends the $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers that have helped support the market for years. It also makes key regulatory changes that Tesla executives have acknowledged will hurt revenue and profit.
On Tesla’s earnings call Wednesday, executives said the company started producing a more affordable EV in June, but it won’t be widely available until later this year so Tesla can prioritize making and selling as many of its current cars before the tax credit expires at the end of September.
The new model, which Musk said would resemble the Model Y, is seen as crucial to buoying sales. Tesla makes five consumer vehicles: the Model S, X, 3, Y and the Cybertruck.
Moravy oversees a team of nearly 6,000 engineers who are working on several programs. He joined the company from Honda Motor Co. in 2010, the year that Tesla went public. He’s since been deeply involved in engineering every Tesla vehicle, and works closely with chief designer Franz von Holzhausen.
On display at the event was Tesla’s forthcoming “Cybercab,” a two-seat autonomous vehicle designed without a steering wheel, as well as Optimus.
Musk has made it clear that robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving represent Tesla’s future. The company is offering limited rides in Austin with Model Y vehicles that are not fully self-driving, and is expected to expand to the Bay Area sometime this weekend.
In California, Tesla has a permit to offer rides in a non-autonomous vehicle that has a driver. The company does not have permits to deploy autonomous vehicles in the state.
Citigroup Inc. launched a premium credit card designed to rival ones offered by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and American Express Co., the latest entrant in the increasingly crowded market for cards offering high-end perks.
The ‘Strata Elite’ card will feature an annual fee of $595 — a price that the bank says can unlock almost $1,500 in value if used to its maximum potential. It offers the largest points rewards for hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on Citigroup’s travel platform, as well as restaurant dining at peak weekend times.
The card also bakes in perks for customers who fly with American Airlines Group Inc., giving four passes per year to the airline’s airport lounges and the ability to transfer Citigroup “ThankYou Points” into reward miles with the airline. That follows an expansion of the firms’ existing card partnership in December, when American Airlines chose to make Citigroup the exclusive issuer of all its credit cards.
In addition to American Express and JPMorgan, Citigroup will be competing with other banks trying to break into the premium space, including Capital One Financial Corp. The customers they vie for are highly sought after, known for their willingness to pay annual fees, and reliably spending more and prioritizing travel and hospitality.
“It’s always been highly competitive — competition makes us all better,” Pam Habner, Citigroup’s head of US branded cards and lending, said in an interview.
At $595, plus $75 a year for each authorized user, the card is cheaper than JPMorgan’s Sapphire Reserve, which Habner helped launch when she worked there in 2016. That card’s annual fee will jump to $795 from $550, JPMorgan said last month.
In addition to the perks rolled out by Citigroup directly, the Strata Elite card will be the first in Mastercard Inc.’s recently announced World Legend tier of credit cards, meaning it comes with an additional suite of benefits. World Legend cards include access to the Mastercard Collection, which translates into ticket pre-sales and streamlined airport security access, among other rewards.
“We designed benefits that we know our customers can use,” Habner said, adding that the card was designed to give customers rewards for types of spending, rather than handing them coupon-style rewards to use with specific companies.
In addition to American Express and JPMorgan, Citigroup will be competing with other banks trying to break into the premium space, including Capital One Financial Corp.
You’ve read about it all over, including in Fortune Intelligence. Maybe you or friends have been impacted: artificial intelligence is already transforming work, not least hiring and firing. Nowhere is the impact more visible than in the labor market.
The technology industry, the original epicenter of AI adoption, is now seeing many of its own workers displaced by the very innovations they helped create. Employers, racing to integrate AI into everything from cloud infrastructure to customer support, are trimming human headcount in software engineering, IT support, and administrative functions. The rise of AI-powered automation is accelerating layoffs in the tech sector, with impacted employees as high as 80,000 in one count. Microsoft alone is trimming 15,000 jobs while committing $80 billion to new AI investments.
But labor market intelligence firm Lightcast is offering a ray of hope going forward. Job postings for non-tech roles that require AI skills are soaring in value. Lightcast’s new “Beyond the Buzz” report, based on analysis of over 1.3 billion job postings, shows that these postings offer 28% higher salaries—an average of nearly $18,000 more per year. The Lightcast research underscores the split in tech and non-tech hiring: job postings for AI skills in tech roles remain robust, but the proportion of AI jobs within IT and computer science has fallen, dropping from 61% in 2019 to just 49% in 2024. This signals an ongoing contraction of traditional tech roles as AI claims an ever-larger share of the work.
AI demand explodes beyond tech
Rather than stifling workforce prospects, Lightcast’s research suggests that AI is dispersing opportunity across the broader economy. More than half of all jobs requesting AI skills in 2024 appeared outside the tech sector—a radical reversal from previous years, when AI was confined to Silicon Valley and computer science labs. Fields like marketing, HR, finance, education, manufacturing, and customer service are rapidly integrating AI tools, from generative AI platforms that craft marketing content to predictive analytics engines that optimize supply chains and recruitment.
In fact, job postings mentioning generative AI skills outside IT and computer science have surged an astonishing 800% since 2022, catalyzed by the proliferation of tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and DALL-E. Marketing, design, education, and HR are some of the fastest growers in AI adoption—each adapting to new toolkits, workflows, and ways of creating value.
Cole Napper, VP of research, innovation, and talent insights at Lightcast, told Fortune in an interview that he was struck by the lack of a discernible pattern for which industries were most affected by the explosion of AI skills present in job postings, noting that the arts come top of the list.
AI skills are in demand
For the workforce at large, AI proficiency is emerging as one of today’s most lucrative skill investments. Possessing two or more AI skills sends paychecks even higher, with a 43% premium on advertised salaries.
In 2024, more than 66,000 job postings specifically mentioned generative AI as a skill, a nearly fourfold increase from the prior year, according to the Lightcast’s 2025 Artificial Intelligence Index Report. Large language modeling was the second most common AI skill, which showed up in 19,500 open job posts. Postings listing ChatGPT and prompt engineering as skills ranked third and fourth in frequency, respectively.
Sectors such as customer/client support, sales, and manufacturing reported the largest pay bumps for AI-skilled workers, as companies race to automate routine functions and leverage AI for competitive advantage.
Christina Inge, founder of Thoughtlight, an AI marketing service, told Fortune in a message AI isn’t just automating busywork, it’s also becoming a tool AI-fluent workers can leverage to increase their own value to a company—and to outperform their peers. Take, for example, someone in sales using AI to create more targeted conversations to close deals faster, Inge wrote. The same can be said for customer service workers.
“[Customer service workers fluent in AI] know how to interpret AI outputs, write clear prompts, and troubleshoot when things go off script,” Inge said. “That combination of human judgment and AI fluency is hard to find and well worth the extra pay.”
In fields like marketing and science, even single AI skills can yield large returns, while more technical positions gravitate to specialists with advanced machine learning or generative AI expertise.
Crucially, the most valued AI-enabled roles demand more than just technical wizardry. Employers prize a hybrid skillset: communication, leadership, problem-solving, research, and customer service are among the 10 most-requested skills in AI-focused postings, alongside technical foundations like machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“While generative AI excels at tasks like writing and coding, uniquely human abilities—such as communication, management, innovation, and complex problem-solving—are becoming even more valuable in the AI era,” the study says.
Winners and losers
The emerging repercussions are striking. Tech workers whose roles are readily automated face rising displacement—unless they can pivot quickly into emerging areas that meld business, technical, and people skills. Meanwhile, millions of workers outside of tech are poised to translate even basic AI literacy into new roles or wage gains. The competitive edge now lies with organizations and professionals agile enough to combine AI capabilities with human judgement, creativity, and business acumen.
For companies, the risk is clear: treating AI as an isolated technical specialty is now a liability. Winning firms are investing to embed AI fluency enterprise-wide, upskilling their marketing teams, HR departments, and finance analysts to build a future-ready workforce.
AI may be the source of turmoil in Silicon Valley boardrooms, but its economic dividends are flowing rapidly to workers—and companies—in every corner of the economy. For those able to adapt, AI skills are not a harbinger of job loss, but a passport to higher salaries and new career possibilities. Still, the research doesn’t indicate exactly where in the income levels the higher postings are coming, so Napper said it’s possible that we are seeing some compression, with higher-paid tech jobs being phased out and lower-paying positions being slightly better-paying.
Napper said the trend of AI skills cropping up in job postings has exploded over the past few years, and he doesn’t expect a slowdown anytime soon. Napper said there’s a “cost to complacency”—one that includes a significant salary cut. He added that the 28% premium, Lightcast plans to release follow-up research on what level of the income latter the trend is hitting the most.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade isn’t afraid to admit she’s always working to be better—and she values that same humility in job candidates. Recognizing your weaknesses and asking thoughtful questions, she says, can set you apart in an interview. It’s a mindset shared by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who got his start as a Denny’s dishwasher and credits the journey teaching him hard work and humility.
Landing a job in today’s market can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Not only do you have to find a role that you’re interested in—and are qualified for—but you also have to craft an application, resume, and cover letter that’s interesting to both humans and AI. But once you land the coveted interview, that’s when the pressure is on.
Luckily, even during an era of AI-assisted interviews, there remain ways to stick out from the crowd.
When asked what her red flags are in hiring, Kelli Valade, CEO of Denny’s Corporation, noted that she asks applicants a few critical questions.
One of the signs Valade looks for comes at the end of the interview, when she asks: what questions do you have for me?
“Have a thoughtful one or two. You don’t really even have to have more than that,” she tells Fortune. “Any more than that, actually, it’s too much.”
In fact, it often does not matter what the questions are, but the fact that you do ask shows you did your homework and are seriously interested, Valade adds.
(However, Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran advises candidates to ask, “Is there anything standing in the way of you hiring me?”)
She also is sure to ask: what would they say makes you most effective at what you do? Typically, candidates are pretty well equipped to answer that question, Valade says.
“Then I ask them, what would make them more effective?” she explains. “Which basically is saying, what are your weaknesses? And there you’d be amazed at how many people can’t answer that, or would say, ‘I’ve not thought about it.’ And so really what you’re saying is, ‘I’ve not thought about my weaknesses.’”
The 55-year-old admits that she herself is a work in progress, but what’s helped her stand out throughout her career is not shying away from admitting her areas of improvement. It’s something she hopes to see in her employees, too.
From Denny’s dishwasher to leading the world’s biggest company
Now that you know tips for getting hired at Denny’s, you may ask, why work at the restaurant chain?
There may be no more notable member of Denny’s employee alumni than Jensen Huang. The now billionaire CEO of Nvidia started his career at the diner as a dishwasher at just 15 years old—and it’s experience he credits for teaching him about hard work.
“I planned my work. I was organized. I was mise en place,” Huang told students at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business last year. “I washed the living daylights out of those dishes.”
“No task is beneath me,” he added. “I used to be a dishwasher. I used to clean toilets. I cleaned a lot of toilets. I’ve cleaned more toilets than all of you combined. And some of them you just can’t unsee.”
And while his time at Denny’s came well before Valade’s tenure, she says they are now friends today—and the billionaire continues to pay homage to the diner. His LinkedIn notably only includes two employers: Denny’s and Nvidia. He also made an appearance last year at Denny’s franchise convention and partnered with the company to launch a special edition “Nvidia Breakfast Bytes.”
“Start your first job in the restaurant business,” Huang said in 2023. “It teaches you humility, it teaches you hard work, it teaches you hospitality.”
From hostess to CEO
Valade started her career in the restaurant space at just age 16, when she landed a hostess job at TJ’s Big Boy. Decades later, she began climbing up the corporate ladder in the human resources world—with the dream of one day becoming a chief people officer, not necessarily becoming a CEO.
So when she was tapped to jump from head of HR to chief operations officer at Chili’s, self-doubt was her first instinct.
“I didn’t think I could do that at the time,” she recalls. “I thought, I think you’re looking for the wrong person here. I don’t know. My first instinct was, I’m not sure I know how to do that.”
While the feeling is natural, she adds leaders—and especially women—should self-reflect on whether you are holding yourself back from a greater potential.
“Push yourself and challenge yourself on why you may not feel like that,” she adds.
After later rising to brand president at Chili’s and CEO of Red Lobster, Valade was tapped to become Denny’s CEO in 2022, centering her career on two of her favorite things: people and pancakes.
A seismic generational shift is underway, and its epicenter is Generation Z. Born from 1997 onward, Gen Z is coming of age in a world where traditional milestones like landing a lifelong job, buying a house in your 20s, or chasing wealth for its own sake have become difficult, or borderline impossible, in the modern economy. Gen Z has responded pragmatically, insisting, well, maybe they don’t really want those things anyway.
A massive new study from EY’s Generational Dynamics core team, spanning more than 10,000 young adults across 10 countries and five continents, finds Gen Z is often misunderstood—and their measured approach should define them as the “pragmatic generation.” The authors, Marcie Merriman and Zak Dychtwald, wrote Gen Z approaches “life’s traditional milestones” with a sort of “reasoned skepticism.”
According to Joe Depa, EY Global chief innovation officer, the research reveals how 18- to 34-year-olds are taking a surprisingly pragmatic approach to adulthood, finances, and their future. “Far from being financially reckless,” Depa tells Fortune Intelligence, “this generation is focused on long-term stability — and redefining success along the way.”
Money, for them, is necessary but not the be-all and end-all: 87% say financial independence is important, yet only 42% rate wealth as a primary marker of success, trailing far behind metrics like mental and physical health and family relationships. Put simply, for Gen Z, financial stability is a tool—not a goal. They use money to open doors to flexibility, purpose, and well-being.
Depa says the research “tells a different story” about Gen Z. “The idea that young adults are postponing adulhtood is outdated.” They’re approaching life milestones not with rebellion but with “reasoned skepticism and a global perspective.” As employees and customers, Gen Z will challenge organizations that have been wired around a different way of doing things. For business leaders, understanding this shift will be vital to attracting and retaining talent.
The job hoppers
Where baby boomers and Gen Xers often stuck with one employer for decades, Gen Z is dismantling that concept.
EY’s research found 59% of young adults globally expect to work for two to five organizations throughout their lives, and nearly 20% say they will work for six or more. This flexible approach to employment—embracing job changes and flexible gig work—reflects not only a desire for varied experiences, but a strategic response to rapid change, uncertainty, and a lifetime of economic instability.
“Younger generations are not merely reacting to financial constraints,” the EY Generational Dynamics team writes, but making rational and thoughtful decisions about what aligns with both their own lived experiences and the pitfalls suffered by previous generations. EY says it’s a perspective that contrasts sharply with the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality often espoused by older generations, with Gen Z finding that to be dismissive of their specific context.
Redefining success: inside out, not outside in
Success, in Gen Z’s eyes, is an inside-out project: emotional well-being, strong relationships, and impact outrank titles and salaries. It’s no longer about ticking the boxes of homeownership, lifelong employment, or even traditional family milestones. Landmarks such as marriage and children are being postponed—not out of rejection, but for pragmatic reasons: economic insecurity, housing unaffordability, and a desire to be emotionally and financially prepared.
The rise of job-hopping has replaced the well-worn “script” of adulthood: Only 59% see working for a single organization as a viable path, whereas nearly 20% of respondents said they plan to work for six or more employers in the course of their careers. Linear career ladders and employer loyalty are giving way to “project-based” growth, taking new jobs, and side hustles, all in search of variety, autonomy, and purpose. “Job hopping is not viewed as a negative, but an essential step to open doors and advance opportunities,” the EY team writes.
The average Gen Z respondent reports feeling like an adult earlier than previous generations, and as a result, more than half (51%) said they prioritize physical and mental health as their chief markers of success, with family ties also outranking wealth in many countries. The push for authenticity is also striking; 84% cite “being true to oneself” as extremely important.
Employers, beware (and evolve)
For Gen Z, a job is not a life sentence, nor is money alone enough to keep them engaged. Employers used to loyalty and linear career ladders may be blindsided by Gen Z’s willingness to prioritize purpose, wellness, and flexibility—even if it comes at the expense of job security or long-term benefits. Conventional incentives are losing their grip.
For employers, this new pragmatism is both a wake-up call and an opportunity. Flexibility is mandatory, with hybrid and remote work, fluid hours, and support for “micro-retirements” between jobs becoming non-negotiable.
Gen Z expects employers to have clear values around well-being, sustainability, and social justice—and to act on them. Over 70% want their employer to be transparent about values and pay, and are unafraid to challenge leadership if authenticity is found wanting. This generation will quickly leave if growth stalls: 57% would quit for better professional development. They crave mentorship, personalized learning, and a sense of upward mobility.
Gen Z is less loyal to brands or employers unless that loyalty is returned; nearly half say they have “zero loyalty” to brands, and only about 60% feel any loyalty to their employer. Empathetic leadership and honest, two-way communication are expected, not a bonus.
Gen Z wants to be included in company decisions and expects a seat at the table. This finding aligns with separate research from Glassdoor, whose Worklife Trends report in June 2025 found emotional intelligence is now a standard expectation held by workers, many of them Gen Z. “The bar on what constitutes a good manager has been raised,” Glassdoor chief economist Daniel Zhao previously told Fortune Intelligence.
Employers slow to adapt to these realities won’t just struggle to recruit Gen Z—they’ll risk losing relevance altogether. The pragmatic playbook demands companies redesign everything from hiring and communication to values and pay structures.
The flip side? Gen Z’s pragmatism can also be an asset: They are technologically adept, mission-driven, and resourceful. But their skepticism can also translate into disengagement or even open dissatisfaction if workplaces fail to address their real priorities. Businesses would be pragmatic in their own right to tune into what Gen Z values most—authentic leadership, transparent communication, and support for well-being—if they want to retain this generation.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
Multimillionaire Shark Tankinvestor Kevin O’Leary looks for three star qualities in the entrepreneurs he goes into business with: those who have a “founder’s mindset,” a balanced talking-to-listening ratio, and executional prowess. From working with the likes of late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and multimillion-dollar entrepreneurs to being an investor on his hit-TV show, he’s picked up a few patterns of the most successful people.
Multimillionaire entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary knows a thing or two about picking the right people and ideas to invest in. Having worked with greats like Steve Jobs, not to mention his success on Shark Tank backing businesses generating millions, he’s picked up on a few key qualities in great founders.
O’Leary looks for three qualities in the people he chooses to do business with. The 71-year-old investor tells Fortune the most critical trait is having “founder’s mindset”: adopting a frame of mind that prioritizes “signal,” or what has to get done in the next 18 hours, while drowning out the “noise” of everyday life and complications. He witnessed this demeanor while working with Jobs, when Apple was partnering with O’Leary’s $4.2 billion software company SoftKey Software Products. He requires that the founders he invests in have that same leadership ethos—even if it’s a quality that’s hard to come by.
“The ability to see all the noise coming at you and filter it out, and focus on the three to five things you’re going to get done, that’s a remarkable attribute,” O’Leary tells Fortune. “You find that in 30% of the people. Then you want to back those people, because if they’re not successful in their first mandate, they’re going to figure it out. That attribute is very important.”
When it comes to the signal versus the noise, he currently operates on a 80:20 balance, just like Jobs did while running Apple, and looks for entrepreneurs who can keep their eye on the ball.
O’Leary admits that he didn’t always have the right ratio in embodying the founder’s mindset—but now has achieved it, and looks for it in others.
“You have to decide everyday, every 18 hours, what three to five things you have to get done,” O’Leary says. “It’s not the big vision. It’s what you have to get done in the next 18 hours that matters.”
The two other traits a founder needs to have O’Leary’s backing
O’Leary has heard hundreds—if not thousands—of entrepreneurs plead their business case while starring on Shark Tank. Thanks to his intuition from decades in the game, he’s worked alongside and invested in a lot of winners.
In 2014, O’Leary put $150,000 down for 80% of licensing profits of small photo-book subscription service Groovebook, which was later bought by Shutterfly for $14.5 million, making it one of the show’s biggest acquisitions.
He also had luck with sustainable cleaning-products business Blueland, investing $270,000 for 3% equity and $0.50 per unit royalty until principal was recouped. By 2022, Blueland made over $100 million in lifetime sales and profitability, with its products now flying off the shelves of Target and Whole Foods every 10 seconds.
It’s clear the serial investor has developed a keen eye for what will work well. In addition to the “founder’s mindset,” the serial investor also emphasizes the importance of having a balanced listening-to-talking ratio and strong executional skills, which he says is “impossible to find.”
He says he didn’t always get the talking-to-listening balance right. Wall Street and Silicon Valley executives may think they should be the loudest and most outspoken people in the room—but taking a backseat and giving others the floor is important, too. Not enough listening and too much talking may stifle great business ideas that get drowned out.
“Reverse the ratio of talking and listening. Most people love to hear themselves talk—I was guilty of that for years, and I’ve reversed it,” O’Leary says. “I listen two thirds of the time, and I talk one third of the time. That’s my new ratio, and it’s much more powerful.”
Lastly, the baby boomer investor looks for unparalleled executional skills. Coming up with the next billion-dollar business venture is one thing, but getting it off the ground is another.
O’Leary looks for founders and teams that can get the job done—even if it takes more than one try. Being an excellent executor doesn’t always mean hitting a home run your first time at bat. Sometimes, O’Leary says, investors and entrepreneurs need a little karma and luck.
“Great ideas are dime a dozen—executional skills are impossible to find,” O’Leary continues. “I’ve invested in lots of teams over the years that screw up their first deal, they go to zero, and then I invest again, and I get a huge hit, because I know they’re good.
“I’m working on a deal right now with a team that I just finished a great execution with, and hopefully will be good on the second one. I like to work with people that I know have proven executional skills.”
The multimillionaire entrepreneur and investor looks to do business with entrepreneurs who have a “founder’s mindset”—embodied by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs—alongside strong listening and executional skills.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars (FCEVs) have been on the market for a similar duration to the current wave of battery EVs (BEVs). But they have sold a tiny fraction in comparison. In 2024, 12,866 FCEVs were registered globally, versus 10.8 million BEVs. Still, some manufacturers have hopes that hydrogen has a role to play in transport.
One of these is BMW, which recently announced it would be bringing its first FCEV into series production in 2028. Fortune caught up with BMW Group’s General Project Manager Hydrogen Technology and Vehicle Projects, Jürgen Guldner, at a recent summit promoting FCEVs, among other hydrogen evangelists.
Toyota has been the leading seller of FCEVs with the Mirai launched in 2014, but it isn’t the only player. Hyundai has been selling its Nexo since 2018, and Honda, after offering various cars under the Clarity name from 2008 to 2021, brought its CR-V e:FCEV plug-in hybrid hydrogen car to market in 2024. BMW has been more cautious. The company has been trialling FCEVs with a pilot run of vehicles based on X5 since 2023. The iX5 Hydrogen is already a credible vehicle, with smooth driving and a familiar X5 interior. However, this won’t necessarily be the vehicle that BMW will launch in 2028.
“The good news is a hydrogen vehicle is an electric vehicle,” says Guldner. “It’s just a different way of storing the energy versus a battery, which also means that we can reuse a lot of the components like the electric motors in the car from our BEVs. It also has a unique value proposition. It’s the best of both worlds, with all the benefits of electric driving—acceleration, silent driving, zero emission—but you can refuel in 3 to 4 minutes and you’re 100% full and ready to go again.”
The problem of hydrogen infrastructure
This has always seemed like a compelling argument for hydrogen on paper, but the reality has been that hydrogen refueling hasn’t proliferated like BEV charging stations. In fact, it has gone backwards in many countries. In the UK, in 2019 there were as many as 15 hydrogen fuel stations, whereas today in 2025 only four were listed, with two potentially not in service. By contrast, according to Zap-Map, there were 39,733 public charging locations in the UK in May 2025, with 80,998 devices and 115,241 connectors. Germany is better served for hydrogen refueling, but some European countries have no stations at all, such as Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Some hydrogen proponents argue that this is a strategic mistake if your goal is to decarbonize road transport.
“FCEVs are complementary to battery electric vehicles and heading towards one common direction,” says David Wong, head of technology and innovation at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. “If you invest in both charging infrastructure and the fuel cell hydrogen refilling infrastructure, the overall cost is lower. We’ve done modelling where they use Germany as an example. It shows that if we have a motor park penetration of 90% BEVs and 10% FCEVs, the overall cost of investing in infrastructure is $40 billion lower than the scenario where 100% of infrastructure is public charge points.”
There is also concern about resource usage when manufacturing BEVs. Guldner points out batteries requires a lot of raw materials, which could lead to scarcity.
“Having a second technology, not putting all eggs in one basket, provides resilience,” he explains. “BMW having two technologies is better than one. We got a lot of feedback from people saying BEVs don’t work for them. We’re thinking about those people who can’t or don’t want to use battery electric cars because maybe they don’t have electric charging at home, or are on the road a lot and don’t want to depend on charging stops, even if you can get them down to maybe 20 minutes. We have issues like towing and cold weather conditions. In the fuel cell you can use excess heat, so you don’t lose any range.”
This still leaves the problem with how you ramp up the infrastructure to support hydrogen. A commercial DC charger might be $50,000, a home charger can cost $1,000, or you can even use a very slow $200 mains plug cable.
But the price for a hydrogen station is much greater—between $1.5 and $2 million, although some estimate as much as $4 million. The solution, at least in the UK, is to target the long-haul commercial sector first and build out from that. HyHAUL is a project aiming to achieve that.
“The biggest challenge with hydrogen is the fact that it works very well at large scale, but not so good at small scale,” says Chris Jackson, CEO and founder of Protium Green Solutions, which co-founded HyHAUL. “One single hydrogen fueling station requires hundreds of passenger cars to make the economics work, but only a very small number of trucks. We are initially developing three major refueling stations and all we need to get the project off the ground is 30 fuel cell trucks. The first stage will be along the M4 corridor. We’ll be covering from Wales all the way into the M25 around London. Over time, we plan to expand across other networks, going up the M5 and M6.”
For consumer adoption of FCEVs, however, it would be necessary to cover the UK completely within half an hour driving distance, which would require about 1,300 stations. One of the reasons why Tesla was able to kickstart the BEV revolution so effectively was its two-pronged approach of building the supportive charging infrastructure to go with its cars.
Automakers developing FCEVs have traditionally left this to third parties, leading to a chicken-and-egg situation where car adoption awaited infrastructure, and vice versa. This has meant that as BEVs have reached a tipping point in many markets, including the UK, EU and China, while FCEVs wait in the wings.
Can fuel cells prevail?
This hasn’t prevented Toyota from persevering with FCEVs. “Our role is to provide customers with choice,” says Jon Hunt, senior manager, Hydrogen Transformation, Toyota GB. “We can’t have people dismissing technologies that are there to enable us all to learn and develop.”
Commercial vehicles could help FCEVs reach that tipping point. In Paris, around 1,000 FCEV taxis have been operated by Hype since 2015, the majority of which are Toyota Mirais. For this reason, Paris has six hydrogen fuel stops with three more being built. This could lay the groundwork for consumers to adopt FCEVs in the city. However, outside Paris there is no supportive infrastructure yet, preventing long journeys beyond the urban limits. Hype has also recently said it is pivoting away from FCEVs to BEVs.
Even with full launch still three years away, BMW is placing a heavy bet on infrastructure having improved sufficiently for hydrogen to be a viable choice for consumers by 2028.
Guldner notes BMW hasn’t yet decided which countries it will bring those vehicles to market, adding that it will depend on the infrastructure.
“Right now, it’s simply not here in the UK. But hopefully in the next few years, development will pick up,” he says.
The exact model that will go into production in 2028 also hasn’t been announced. And while a price hasn’t been unveiled either, BMW is hoping for parity with BEVs, Guldner says, pointing to previous dramatic cost reductions in other technologies like batteries and solar cells.
For these cost reductions to materialize, though, there has to be enough demand for FCEVs to deliver sufficient scale.
“I am always surprised by surveys in newspapers where so many people say they would prefer a hydrogen vehicle over battery power,” he says. “There seems to be demand there.”
The question will be whether these survey responses translate into vehicle sales. In 2028, when BMW launches its production FCEV, we could find out.
CoreWeave(NASDAQ: CRWV) and Nebius Group(NASDAQ: NBIS) have witnessed a rapid jump in their share prices this year. Investors have been buying these stocks hand over fist because they are benefiting big time from the growing demand for cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
CoreWeave stock has shot up a remarkable 224% in just four months since going public in March this year, and Nebius has clocked healthy gains of 84% so far in 2025. Both companies are in the business of renting out data centers powered by graphics processing units (GPUs), which their customers use to train AI models, build applications, and scale up those applications in the cloud.
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But if you have to choose one of these two stocks for your portfolio right now, which one should it be? Let's find out.
Image source: Getty Images.
The case for CoreWeave
CoreWeave's rally since its initial public offering (IPO) can be attributed to the terrific growth in the company's revenue and backlog. Its top line jumped by more than fivefold in the first quarter to $981 million, and it's on track to sustain its outstanding momentum.
That's because the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service market in which CoreWeave operates is growing at an incredible pace. Grand View Research estimates that the cloud AI market could generate $650 billion in annual revenue in 2030, nearly 7.5 times the size of this market last year. CoreWeave is capitalizing on this lucrative opportunity by offering access to the top-of-the-line GPUs from Nvidia along with server processors from AMD.
The company claims that customers using its cloud AI infrastructure enjoy significant cost and performance advantages. It says its infrastructure is "purpose-built for compute-intensive workloads, and everything from our servers to our storage and networking solutions are designed to deliver best-in-class performance."
The demand for the company's AI infrastructure is outpacing supply, so it is focused on scaling up its capacity quickly to satisfy the strong demand. Management said on its May earnings conference call that it has raised over $21 billion to expand infrastructure and data center capacity.
The company recently announced the upcoming $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific, which could bring another 1 gigawatt (GW) of data center capacity and help lower its costs from its existing leases with Core Scientific.
CoreWeave forecasts a reduction of over $10 billion in future lease liabilities once the acquisition is complete, followed by annual run-rate cost savings of $500 million by the end of 2027. Before this acquisition was announced, CoreWeave was projecting a fourfold increase in its data center capacity under its existing capacity contracts.
This focus on enhancing data center capacity should pave the way for outstanding growth for CoreWeave since it was sitting on a revenue backlog of almost $26 billion at the end of the first quarter -- 63% higher from the year-ago period. As such, analysts are expecting its revenue to continue increasing at a strong pace.
CoreWeave is likely to remain a top AI stock since it is serving a fast-growing market and is investing aggressively to capture a share of it.
The case for Nebius
Nebius shot up impressively last week after Goldman Sachs put a 12-month price target of $68 on the stock. The investment bank said that the company's full-stack AI infrastructure, which includes hardware and software tools, allows it to make the most of the impressive opportunity in this space.
Goldman's price target calls for a 31% jump in the stock in the coming year. And there is a good chance that the company could surpass that given its 385% revenue jump year over year in the first quarter to $55 million. More importantly, the growth in its annual revenue run rate was much faster at 684% year over year to $249 million.
That improved to $310 million in April, and the company forecasts an annual revenue run rate of $750 million to $1 billion by the end of the year, driven by the new data center capacity it is planning. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Arkady Volozh said:
We are rapidly expanding our capacity footprint. In just three quarters, we've gone from one location in Finland to five locations across Europe, the U.S., and now the Middle East. We are actively exploring new sites in the U.S. and around the world, and we expect to provide more news on this soon.
Unlike CoreWeave, Nebius provides more than just AI hardware infrastructure to customers. Its cloud platform also offers developer tools and services that customers can employ to refine their AI models, run inference tasks, and develop custom solutions. This is why Goldman believes that Nebius could be a leader in the cloud AI space.
The company's balance sheet -- with $1.45 billion in cash and $188 million in debt -- allows it to continue putting more money into its cloud infrastructure. This explains the healthy top-line growth it is projected to deliver.
So, like CoreWeave, Nebius is likely to remain a high-growth company. But is it a better buy than its larger peer at this point?
The verdict
Both CoreWeave and Nebius are growing at healthy rates and are expected to sustain that. So, investors should look at their valuations to decide which is the better buy.
The two companies aren't profitable right now considering their aggressive infrastructure investments, so we need to compare their price-to-sales ratios (P/S).
Nebius stock is way more expensive than CoreWeave when comparing sales multiples, indicating that the latter is a better buy even after its strong rally this year. Moreover, CoreWeave is growing faster, has a huge backlog, and is sitting on ample resources to continue expanding its data center footprint, making it the easy choice for investors considering which of these two AI stocks is worth adding to their portfolios right now.
Should you invest $1,000 in CoreWeave right now?
Before you buy stock in CoreWeave, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and CoreWeave wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
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Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Goldman Sachs Group, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
In the past decade, Netflix(NASDAQ: NFLX) shares have soared 955%. Just this year (as of July 23), they are up 32%. With this type of stellar performance, it seems the business can do no wrong.
However, there is one area Netflix has yet to tap: Theme parks. The company has become a dominant media and entertainment enterprise, but it's presence in the physical world is nonexistent.
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This puts Netflix behind a peer like Walt Disney(NYSE: DIS), which owns and operates seven of the 10 most visited theme parks on the face of the planet. Not to mention the cruise ships that Disney also has. Maybe Netflix is staring at an obvious opportunity here to grow its revenue and fan base.
Should the top streaming stock become more like the House of Mouse? Here's how investors should view this situation from a strategic and financial perspective.
Image source: Getty Images.
Creating a flywheel
Disney has unmatched intellectual property (IP), which helps support its flywheel. People might watch a new Marvel movie or series and immediately want to experience these characters in real life, so they visit Walt Disney World to ride the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster. They might also buy merchandise. It's a situation where all the pieces fortify Disney's competitive position, allowing it to develop deeper and longer-lasting connections with its fans.
Creating physical experiences can help Netflix bolster its brand in the same way. For what it's worth, the company plans to launch Netflix Houses in Dallas and Philadelphia this year, and in Las Vegas in 2027. These are permanent, but small-format (about 100,000 square feet) setups located in shopping malls. There are interactive experiences, dining options, and retail stores.
It's encouraging to see Netflix test the waters when it comes to physical experiences. It might not have the breadth and depth of IP that Disney has, especially when it comes to content for kids and families, but it has extremely popular shows and movies that people love. It's probably best that Netflix isn't going full steam ahead with building an actual theme park, as it likely won't be able to compete with Disney's dominance, or with Comcast's Universal Studios.
Financial implications
When making these kinds of strategic decisions, what matters most is the potential they can have for financial success. Disney's Experiences segment is its most profitable. In fiscal 2024 (ended Sept. 28, 2024), this division raked in $9.3 billion in operating income on $34.2 billion in revenue.
Netflix reported $6.9 billion in free cash flow in 2024, with a forecast to bring in between $8 billion and $8.5 billion this year. Investing in building out theme parks would require huge capital expenditure commitments that would certainly dent Netflix's strong financial position. Return on invested capital is a key metric that management teams should think about when allocating cash to its best use. Developing physical experiences at Disney's level would take resources away from creating top-notch content that the company is known for.
In September 2023, Disney announced that it was going to spend $60 billion over the next decade to expand its Experiences segment. That's a massive undertaking that Netflix can avoid.
Netflix is doing just fine
The media industry, which is now being driven by the streaming model, is extremely competitive. There are many businesses vying for viewer attention, so it's always important to figure out ways of standing out. But Netflix reigns supreme, with more than 300 million subscribers worldwide. It's operating from a position of strength with the upcoming launch of Netflix Houses.
Netflix doesn't need to be more like Disney. The former continues to fire on all cylinders. The opposite argument holds more weight, with Disney needing to be more like Netflix -- at least when it comes to the House of Mouse's streaming segment that just became profitable not too long ago.
Should you invest $1,000 in Netflix right now?
Before you buy stock in Netflix, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Netflix wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Over the past few years, BYD investors have been spoiled. The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) juggernaut swept through the country's domestic EV market with relative ease and then applied tremendous pricing pressure with a long list of highly affordable and compelling EV vehicle options. While BYD has been a no brainer winner over the past five years with its stock trading nearly 380% higher over that time, it might finally be showing signs of slowing down.
Time to jump off the BYD hype train?
BYD's monthly sales and deliveries have stagnated over the summer months, which are traditionally slower selling months, providing fresh challenges for China's EV giant. Not only is BYD dealing with slowing sales, but it's also being reprimanded vocally by the Chinese government for applying so much pressure on pricing that it's caused a race to the bottom, slowly but surely eating away at industry margins. BYD slashed prices by as much as 34% in May, causing increased government scrutiny on the industry.
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In fact, in what would be a rare miss for the top Chinese EV maker, the company looks like it's going to fall short of its annual sales target for 2025. BYD would need to sell roughly 560,000 units monthly through December to hit its sales target, which would be more vehicles sold in one month than it ever has in its history -- BYD sold just short of 515,000 vehicles last December.
Image source: BYD.
And now analysts are stumbling over themselves to downgrade BYD's annual sales estimates. In fact, Deutsche Bank AG said it now expects BYD to deliver 5 million in wholesales, which is simply deliveries to dealer networks, which breaks down into 4 million domestic deliveries and 1 million overseas as the company continues its global expansion.
Morgan Stanley lowered its delivery projection to 5.3 million last month, noting that a smaller number of new models would be a drag on company deliveries. Perhaps even worse yet, Bloomberg Intelligence's Joanne Chen said BYD will be forced to sacrifice some profits, while maintaining large incentives and discounting, if it wants to stay on track and have a chance at reaching its delivery estimates.
"Regulatory scrutiny will temper direct cuts to vehicle sticker prices but competition isn't going away and retail promotions are still needed to sustain sales momentum," Chen said, according to Automotive News. "New model roll outs and steady tech upgrade are also crucial."
Global expansion
Further, when you back out BYD's global expansion and the estimated deliveries overseas, investors will see that BYD's domestic car deliveries in China are shrinking. In June, domestic deliveries slipped 8%, compared to the prior year. HSBC data shows that Geely was the largest gainer of market share during the first half of 2025, while BYD was one of the biggest losers.
Back to looking at BYD's global expansion, while the company is on pace to reach its forecast of 800,000 overseas deliveries, it still faces challenges in two emerging markets: Saudi Arabia and India. Both markets are potentially huge, but Saudi Arabia has EV market share of just 1% of total sales and faces high costs, charging infrastructure challenges, and extreme temperatures that make EV adoption slower in the region. India, the world's third largest automotive market, has similar problems and substantial tariff headwinds that can increase the cost of imported vehicles by 100% in some cases.
Ultimately, investors should prepare for an inevitable slowdown in BYD's expansion after years of rocketing higher in deliveries and stock price. That said, eventually it's likely that BYD and other Chinese automakers will enter the U.S. market, and that could provide the company's next massive boost in deliveries and financials -- but when that will happen is anyone's guess. Long-term investors should stay the course because even if BYD slows down from its rapid rise it's still in an incredible position to thrive globally in the years ahead.
Should you invest $1,000 in BYD Company right now?
Before you buy stock in BYD Company, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and BYD Company wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
HSBC Holdings is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends BYD Company and HSBC Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
PepsiCo(NASDAQ: PEP) announced second-quarter 2025 earnings that were stronger than Wall Street expected. The stock popped 6% the next day, which is great. But it is a typical short-term, news-driven move that probably shouldn't be too important to long-term investors.
The bigger story here is that the stock remains well off its highs, which makes it a buy if you are worried about a bear market. Here are three reasons why.
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1. PepsiCo is a consumer staples company
PepsiCo makes beverages, salty snacks, and packaged foods. It owns some of the most iconic brands around, including Pepsi, Frito-Lay, and Quaker Oats.
Its size, distribution strength, marketing prowess, and research and development acumen make it a valuable partner to retailers around the world. It is highly unlikely that PepsiCo goes away anytime soon.
Image source: Getty Images.
And there's a key feature here that is important to remember: PepsiCo makes affordable products that are bought regularly and have high brand loyalty among customers. This is the core of why consumer staples companies are resilient to economic downturns and are often sought out by investors as safe havens during bear markets. PepsiCo's business, while it will vary a bit over short periods of time, is really fairly stable, with a slight growth bias over the long term.
If you are worried about a bear market, consumer staples stocks are a great place to go fishing for new investments. Notice that statement is broad and not specific to PepsiCo. Which brings up the next point: its stock price.
Without getting too deep into the details, PepsiCo hasn't been firing on all cylinders lately. Some of its peers, notably Coca-Cola(NYSE: KO), have been performing better. Thus, Wall Street has been downbeat on PepsiCo's stock.
Even after the pop following unexpectedly strong second-quarter 2025 earnings, shares remain down more than 20% from their 2023 highs. A bear market is when the broader indexes fall 20% or more, so PepsiCo is kind of in its own private bear market already.
A market-wide downturn could easily lead investors to seek out safe havens, like already downtrodden consumer staples makers. PepsiCo could quickly find itself gaining favor again in that scenario.
And even if that positive shift doesn't happen, given the already deep drawdown, it seems likely that the stock wouldn't suffer as much as the broader market in a downturn.
3. PepsiCo has a proven record of survival
The final reason to consider buying PepsiCo if you are worried about a bear market is its status as a Dividend King. With over five decades of annual dividend increases, the company has proved it knows how to survive bear markets, recessions, and whatever else the world can throw at it. Simply put, you don't create a dividend record like that by accident.
On this front, you might also want to pay attention to the stock's historically high dividend yield of around 4% or so. Basically, you are getting paid very well to own this reliable dividend stock, and that can help you wait out a broader market downturn without losing your cool.
PepsiCo is muddling through again
To reiterate, PepsiCo is not operating at the top of its game right now. That said, it is making moves to get back into form, including cutting costs and acquiring new, more relevant brands, among other things.
It is basically doing the right things from a business perspective. Add that to what is really a pretty reliable business, the deep decline in the stock price, and an attractive dividend yield, and this dividend stalwart looks like a buy even if you aren't worried about a bear market!
Should you invest $1,000 in PepsiCo right now?
Before you buy stock in PepsiCo, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and PepsiCo wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
"Promises made, promises kept." That's how a recent White House article celebrated the One Big, Beautiful Bill's (OBBB) new senior tax deduction, set to take effect for the 2025 tax year. The Trump administration has claimed that, as a result of this change, 88% of seniors on Social Security won't owe any taxes on their Social Security benefits -- a follow-through on one of President Donald Trump's biggest campaign promises.
It certainly sounds compelling, but as someone who's been writing about Social Security for years, it only took me one look at the data to realize that the OBBB change was far from an end to benefit taxes. The new deduction will help many seniors to a degree, but you need to understand what it is -- and isn't -- to know what kind of a difference it will make for you.
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Image source: Getty Images.
How the OBBB senior tax deduction works
The OBBB added a new $6,000 tax deduction for seniors 65 and older ($12,000 for married couples). This is on top of the standard deduction for their filing status, which the law also increased from $15,000 to $15,750 for single adults and from $30,000 to $31,500 for married couples, and the existing senior tax deduction ($2,000 for an individual or $1,600 per qualifying individual for a married couple).
Tax deductions reduce the portion of your income you have to pay taxes on. For example, if you earned $50,000 this year and qualified for $15,000 in tax deductions, you'd only owe taxes on the remaining $35,000. So the OBBB change is definitely useful. It means you'll owe taxes on less money than you did before.
That said, not everyone will be able to take advantage of this new deduction. Single adults with incomes over $75,000 and married couples with incomes over $150,000 will see their deduction decrease by $60 for every $1,000 by which their income exceeds these thresholds. Single adults with incomes greater than $175,000 and married couples with incomes exceeding $250,000 won't be able to claim the new deduction at all.
So far, we can already see two key differences between the OBBB senior deduction and Trump's promise to end benefit taxes. Seniors under 65 receive no benefit from the OBBB deduction, even if they're on Social Security, and high earners who would have benefited from ending benefit taxes will experience no gains from this new change. But there's another big distinction to be made between Trump's promise and what he delivered.
The tax savings fall far short of what Trump promised
The OBBB senior tax deduction will give the average senior about $670 more in after-tax income, according to a Council for Economic Advisors report. But that's a far cry from the gains that would come from ending the benefit taxes that are still on the books, even after the OBBB's passing.
Let's look at the example of a single 65-year-old who takes $50,000 from a 401(k) in 2025 and has annual Social Security benefits of $24,000. The government decides what percentage of your Social Security benefits to tax by looking at your provisional income -- your adjusted gross income (AGI), plus any nontaxable interest from municipal bonds, and half your annual Social Security benefit. In this case, that's $62,000.
Then, it compares this amount to the following chart.
Marital Status
0% of Benefits Taxable If Provisional Income Is Below:
Up to 50% of Benefits Taxable If Provisional Income Is Between:
Up to 85% of Benefits Taxable If Provisional Income Exceeds:
Single
$25,000
$25,000 and $34,000
$34,000
Married
$32,000
$32,000 and $44,000
$44,000
Data source: Social Security Administration.
Under Social Security benefit tax rules, 85% of their benefits would be taxable and get added to their AGI, bringing it to $70,400. So what does this mean for their taxes?
The following table outlines this person's tax bill under pre-OBBB law, with the new OBBB standard and senior deductions in place, and in a scenario where the OBBB hadn't passed and benefit taxes were eliminated instead.
Pre-OBBB Law
With OBBB Senior Deduction
If Benefit Taxes Were Eliminated
401(k) Withdrawals
$50,000
$50,000
$50,000
Social Security Benefits
$24,000
$24,000
$24,000
Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
$70,400 ($50,000 from 401(k) + $20,400 of SS benefits)
$70,400 ($50,000 from 401(k) + $20,400 of SS benefits)
$50,000 from 401(k)
Standard Deduction for Single Filers
$15,000
$15,750
$15,000
Senior Deduction
$2,000
$8,000
$2,000
Taxable Income
$53,400
$46,650
$33,000
Taxes Owed
$6,662.00
$5,359.50
$3,721.50
Source: Author's calculations.
In this example, the OBBB senior deduction and the increase to the standard deduction for all single filers would result in $1,302.50 in tax savings. However, eliminating Social Security benefit taxes would've saved $2,940.50 in taxes, even without the new deductions in place.
So the Council of Economic Advisors' claim that 88% of seniors on Social Security won't pay any benefit taxes isn't accurate. The report says this is a result of "their total deductions exceeding their taxable Social Security benefits." But if we follow this logic, we could say that single filers who had $16,550 or less in taxable Social Security benefits in 2024 (equal to the $14,600 standard deduction for single filers plus the $1,950 senior deduction that year) didn't pay taxes on their Social Security benefits, when we know that's not true. If you have taxable Social Security benefits, you are paying taxes on them.
The OBBB didn't do anything to change how benefit taxation works. An increasing number of seniors will encounter this tax as average benefits and living costs continue to rise. The OBBB's new senior deduction may provide a bit of relief, but it's a small gain compared to Trump's initial promise.
It's also, for the moment, a limited-time offer. The law says it only applies until the 2028 tax year. Congress will have to decide whether to extend it for future years.
Whether the government will actually end benefit taxes remains an open question. Many seniors want it to do so, but with Social Security facing insolvency, the program could really use the benefit tax revenue right now. However, if Congress makes broader changes to the program in the next few years to keep it sustainable for future generations, talk of ending benefit taxes may resurface.
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If you invested $10,000 in Realty Income(NYSE: O) at the turn of the last century, it would be worth around $56,000 today. That is a long way off from $1 million, but don't look at this result in a vacuum. The truth is, Realty Income has outperformed the S&P 500 index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) over that span. And even if Realty Income can't repeat that feat, there's still a very good reason to own this high-yield real estate investment trust (REIT). Here's what you need to know.
Times have changed, but history is important
Back at the turn of the century, REITs were still a somewhat obscure asset class. In fact, they remained a niche segment of the financial sector until 2014, when real estate finally got its own sector designation. Ultimately, way back in 2000, REITs weren't well followed and were largely the purview of small, income-oriented investors. A material portion of the growth over the past 25 or so years has come from the inclusion of REITs in the portfolios of larger investors.
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But the performance numbers are still interesting to consider. The growth of $10K noted above for Realty Income compares to the same investment increasing to roughly $43,000 for the S&P 500 index. That, however, is a price-only figure. That same amount with dividend reinvestment would have grown to nearly $68,000 in the S&P 500 and, hold your hat, over $230,000 for Realty Income.
How is that possible? The answer is that back in the 2000s, Realty Income's yield was quite high. Compounding the dividend via dividend reinvestment supercharged the stock's total returns. The S&P 500's yield wasn't nearly as high. So, Realty Income benefited from both the increase in price that came with the broader acceptance of the REIT asset class and its lofty, and steadily growing, dividend.
What's the future going to look like?
Obviously, the future is unknowable. However, given the past, Realty Income is likely to be a reliable dividend stock. It has increased its dividend annually for 30 consecutive years. If it keeps that up, even though growth is generally fairly modest in any given year, it will be a solid foundation for a broader income portfolio.
But there's another bit to consider here. While Realty Income's dividend yield isn't as high as it was back when REITs were less popular, it is still pretty high at roughly 5.6%. For comparison, the S&P 500's yield is only about 1.2%. Compounding that dividend will still help to supercharge Realty Income's return.
But that's not the only thing worth noting. Realty Income's stock price is down around 30% from the highs it reached prior to the coronavirus pandemic. That suggests that there is some recovery potential here to go along with the lofty dividend. Put the two together, and investors could see pretty attractive and reliable long-term returns over time.
Realty Income is a foundational investment
That said, Realty Income isn't going to excite you. But that's the point of buying this REIT. It is a boring and slow-growth business that will provide you with a lofty yield. You can pair it with lower-yielding but higher-growth investments to create a portfolio that will help turn you into a millionaire. That's the value of a $10,000 or $100,000 investment in Realty Income. It can give you the emotional and financial strength to take on the kind of investment risks that will drive the value of your portfolio into seven figures. And yet, as history shows, this REIT, which has outperformed the S&P 500, is anything but dead money.
Should you invest $1,000 in Realty Income right now?
Before you buy stock in Realty Income, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Realty Income wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Realty Income. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Realty Income. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Smart investors know that you don't need to swing at every pitch. Sometimes, simply parking a modest sum in the right play before the crowd arrives can reap outsize rewards. A fast-maturing corner of crypto -- real-world asset (RWA) tokenization -- offers that setup today as it moves stocks, bonds, and other traditional instruments onto blockchains for cheaper, faster settlement compared to existing financial technologies.
Two coins already capturing some of the capital flows related to tokenization are Solana(CRYPTO: SOL) and XRP(CRYPTO: XRP). They approach the megatrend of asset tokenization slightly differently, giving investors a paired bet on whatever flavors of tokenized finance proliferate next. Even a relatively modest investment of $1,500 could be intelligently allocated into either of these two coins, so let's investigate both. And I suggest holding for at least three years.
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This chain is a speed specialist
Solana's chief selling points are its throughput and its cheapness.
The network routinely clears more than 1,000 transactions per second (TPS) at sub-penny fees, letting developers iterate without worrying that usage spikes will crush users' wallets. That has proved invaluable for tokenized stocks. After a platform called xStocks launched on the chain in late May, the value of stock tokens on Solana tripled to about $48 million within three weeks; as of late July, the chain's tokenized stocks are worth more than $102 million.
Zoom out, and the corpus of tokenized assets on Solana now stands near $553 million, up by more than 218% this year alone, which is more than double the sector's overall growth.
Image source: Getty Images.
The chain is thus emerging as a natural magnet for asset issuers experimenting with tech that's beyond their traditional venues.
If Boston Consulting Group's projection that the sum of tokenized real-world assets will reach $16 trillion by 2030 is even half-right, a rising tide of assets would keep nudging validators to lock up Solana for staking, tightening supply. Furthermore, asset issuers will need to buy and hold the coin to manage their tokens, not to mention parking at least some of their fiat currency on the chain as stablecoins.
Regulatory surprises remain the main risk here, as tokenized stocks and funds live in (partially) uncharted territory. But, that risk seems likely going to get resolved within the next few years thanks to new leadership at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and when it does, the chain would pick up a new tailwind in the form of regulatory clarity.
Buying $1,500 worth of Solana and holding it through then is thus a favorable course of action.
This institutional plumber is carving a compliance moat
Where Solana thrives on raw speed, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a money transfer and asset-tracking system that embeds the (boring but essential) features banks actually ask for, like account freezing tools, native blacklisting, and built-in identity layers that satisfy know-your-customer (KYC) rules without the need to bolt on third-party widgets. Those controls are attracting issuers of regulated debt and payment instruments, which are the (once again, boring but essential) enormous backbone of finance.
XRP now has roughly $133 million in tokenized assets on its chain, up from under $50 million a year ago. That footprint is small compared to other chains like Ethereum, but its composition skews toward institutional debt rather than stocks. Every new bond or payment token minted consumes XRP for fees, subtly trimming float and sharpening its scarcity narrative.
Whereas one of Solana's strong points so far has been with tokenized stocks, XRP's advantage at the moment is in its deeply liquid tokenized U.S. Treasury bill platform, worth $75.2 million, which is something that banks and other financial institutions need. When those players use XRP as part of their financial back end, they gain a significant advantage from being able to tap into borrowing those Treasuries natively on-chain. Furthermore, the ledger's tight compliance posture also reduces headline risk, as institutions can adopt the coin without cobbling together legal patchwork like they'd need to do with Ethereum-based solutions.
Of course, the chain relies entirely on the business development muscle of Ripple, the business which issues XRP. Should legal or strategic missteps slow institutional partner onboarding, the coin's growth would stall. Still, the chain's design speaks the language of regulators, which is a competitive advantage that compounds as rules tighten worldwide and as larger players (with heftier compliance requirements) enter the crypto space.
Over the coming years, as institutions pile into crypto to take advantage of its technology, few chains are better positioned than XRP. And that's why it's worth buying with $1,500 today, and holding for at least three years.
Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?
Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Fintech stocks have long been volatile. The sector surged during the pandemic before crashing in the 2022 bear market. However, as digital payments continue to take share from traditional forms of payment and AI ups the stakes in fintech, sector stocks have started to rally again, benefiting from the broader risk-on sentiment since President Trump paused the Liberation Day tariffs.
Several fintech stocks have soared since then, but there are two in particular that look poised to deliver multibagging returns if you have a little bit of cash to invest. Let's take a closer look.
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Image source: Getty Images.
1. Upstart Holdings
Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) was a fintech darling of the pandemic era as the stock posted triple-digit growth and delivered double-digit profit margins. However, when interest rates rose, demand for loans from its platform dried up, profits disappeared, and the stock was forgotten.
Since then, Upstart has improved its technology with better models that have led to higher conversion rates. It has strengthened its capital with new funding sources and streamlined its business, and now expects to be profitable again this year.
In addition to those improvements, Upstart is starting to tap into massive loan markets in auto and home as it continues to roll out those offerings in new states. As a result, the business is stronger than ever, though that's not reflected in its stock price. While Upstart stock has gained in recent weeks, the stock is still down roughly 80% from its peak in 2021, and its market cap is just $7 billion.
For a company chasing a massive addressable market and trying to disrupt traditional FICO scores, Upstart has the potential to be much larger than a $7 billion company, especially if interest rates fall again, stimulating loan demand. Even at current interest rates, the business is thriving. In the first quarter, revenue rose 67% to $213 million as fee revenue climbed 34% to $185 million.
Transaction volume doubled to 240,706, showing the benefit of its new, more advanced Model 18. If Upstart can maintain its momentum, the upside potential from here is considerable.
2. Sezzle
Like Upstart, Buy now, pay later (BNPL) companies also had a moment during the pandemic, soaring as demand for the new kind of payment took off before interest in the sector faded in the 2022 bear market.
However, BNPL hasn't gone away, and one of the fastest-growing companies in the space is now Sezzle (NASDAQ: SEZL), a BNPL that initially went public in Australia and has grown its business with a different strategy from most of its competitors. Instead of focusing on the merchant, Sezzle has prioritized the consumer, growing its business through subscription programs, rewards, and new product features like auto-couponing, which automatically finds coupons for customers as they shop.
That strategy seems to be resonating as Sezzle's growth rate has accelerated into the triple digits.
In its first quarter, the company reported revenue growth of 123% to $104.9 million as gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose 64.1% to $808.7 million.
Sezzle's profit margins have also soared alongside that growth as the company reported an operating margin of nearly 50%, showing the business model is highly scalable. The company has also managed its credit risk successfully, and cuts customers off from the product if they miss a payment.
Investors are valuing the stock like its growth story is coming to an end, but BNPL is also a massive addressable market, competing with credit cards, so there's plenty of runway for the company to grow.
At a market cap of $4.5 billion, the stock could easily be a multibagger from here, even as it's already up more than 800% over the past year.
Should you invest $1,000 in Upstart right now?
Before you buy stock in Upstart, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Upstart wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
Banks aren't supposed to be exciting. They are supposed to provide basic services that help the world function on the financial front. Boring is good, but it often doesn't lead to a stock that has an ultra-high dividend yield. That said, Bank of Nova Scotia(NYSE: BNS) is boring enough to buy but "exciting" enough to have a lofty dividend yield. Here's why you might want to jump on this ultra-high-yield bank if you have $10,000 to invest right now.
What does Bank of Nova Scotia do?
Bank of Nova Scotia, which generally goes by the nickname Scotiabank, isn't particularly different from most other large banks. It provides customers with the basics, like bank accounts, checking accounts, and mortgages. It deals with business customers, too. But on top of that it also adds things like wealth management and investment banking. In this way it not only competes with local banks, but also with giants like Bank of America or Citigroup.
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Image source: Getty Images.
That said, there's a key difference here that is important to keep in mind. Scotiabank hails from Canada. Canadian banking regulations are very stringent, leading the largest of the country's banks, of which Scotiabank is one, to have entrenched industry positions. The heavy regulation has also resulted in Canadian banks having a conservative ethos that permeates all aspects of their businesses. All in, Scotiabank has a very solid business foundation.
The best display of this comes from Scotiabank's dividend. It has paid a dividend continuously since it started paying a dividend in 1833. That said, the dividend hasn't increased every single year (more on this below), but it also didn't get cut during the 2007 to 2009 financial crises. The Great Recession, as that deep recessionary period is known, led both Citigroup and Bank of America to cut their dividends.
So it stands out on the dividend front for its consistency. But it also stands out because of the huge 5.7% dividend yield. For reference, the S&P 500 index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is yielding just 1.2% and the average bank has a yield of 2.5%.
Scotiabank's yield would suggest that it is a risky bank. And yet its core Canadian operations would suggest the exact opposite. What's going on? As it turns out, like other Canadian banks, Scotiabank has looked to foreign markets for growth. Most of its peers chose to focus on the U.S. market, but Scotiabank sought to differentiate itself by focusing on Central and South America. That didn't work out quite as well as hoped.
It has since shifted gears, getting out of less desirable markets and focusing on becoming a leading Mexico to Canada bank, as it attempts to bulk up its business in the United States. This overhaul resulted in the dividend not being increased in 2024. However, Scotiabank has made quick progress, and it started increasing its dividend again in 2025.
That doesn't mean the transition process is complete, but it does signal that the board and management are confident in the progress the company is making. All in, Scotiabank looks like a fairly low-risk turnaround story that comes with a very attractive dividend yield. While there's more work to be done, you are being paid well to stick around.
A sizable chunk of Scotiabank stock
A $10,000 investment in Scotiabank today will get a dividend investor a bit over 175 shares of the Canadian bank giant. And it will get you access to a well-above-market and well-above-peer dividend yield. But the key is that the yield is supported by a conservatively run bank that is moving its business in a positive direction.
Should you invest $1,000 in Bank Of Nova Scotia right now?
Before you buy stock in Bank Of Nova Scotia, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Bank Of Nova Scotia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
Citigroup is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Bank Of Nova Scotia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Bank Of Nova Scotia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) market is crowded, but that doesn't mean it's a winner-takes-all scenario. Different companies have different business models with varying risks and rewards, and Joby Aviation(NYSE: JOBY) is arguably the one with the most reward and also one that's reducing its risk the most in 2025. Is it enough to make it a stock that could set investors up for life? Here's the lowdown.
What makes Joby Aviation different
It's always interesting to compare competitors across a growth industry, and doing so with Joby's peer Archer Aviation(NYSE: ACHR) makes for a fascinating comparison. The first conclusion is that they have significantly different models. The second is that the nature of their models allows for more than enough room for both in the market, and the third is that Joby Aviation is making real progress in de-risking the elements of its business that are subject to greater market uncertainty.
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In a nutshell, you can think of Joby Aviation as a "go it alone" player in the industry, backed by a heavyweight manufacturing partner in Toyota, as well as other investors such as Uber and Delta Air Lines. Its business model is different from Archer's and the rest of the industry in two key ways:
Joby Aviation doesn't plan to sell its aircraft and prefers to develop much of its technology in-house, having its own powertrain and electronics manufacturing facility in California.
As quoted from its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Joby plans to "own and operate our aircraft ourselves, building a vertically integrated transportation company that will deliver transportation services to customers."
Both points are crucial to understanding the investment case.
Joby's in-house development
Archer, along with other eVTOL companies such as Germany's Lilium and the U.K.'s Vertical Aerospace, makes no secret of the fact that it has leading aerospace and automotive companies as partners in providing solutions. The advantage of heavy integration with established partners in developing technology is a simplified and less risky process, which, theoretically, leads to earlier certification.
Image source: Getty Images.
For example, Archer partners with Honeywell for actuators and climate systems, Hexcel for advanced composite materials, Safran for avionics, and Stellantis (also a key investor). Honeywell is a key strategic technology partner of Vertical Aerospace and partners with European aerospace companies GKN and Leonardo.
Lilium partners with GE Aerospace in flight data management and Honeywell (also an investor) for flight control, avionics, and propulsion unit sensors.
As such, Joby's more "go it alone" approach could be deemed more risky. However, it has received significant investment (up to $894 million) from a manufacturing heavyweight, Toyota. Moreover, the Japanese giant is assisting in improving Joby's manufacturing processes and optimizing design.
A vertically integrated transportation company
Here again, Joby is different. It doesn't want to sell its aircraft; instead, it wants to handle the commercialization of transportation services itself. Again, this is a more risky business model, as it implies commercial business expertise in addition to research & development and manufacturing expertise. It's somewhat akin to Boeing or Airbus deciding to operate an airline.
On the other hand, there's a reason why Uber has invested $125 million in Joby so far: the obvious potential to integrate their services. Similarly, Delta Air Lines is investing up to $200 million in Joby to transport passengers to airports. With Delta increasingly focusing on premium travelers and looking to offer experiences that engender loyalty, the Joby tie-in is a significant plus.
Image source: Joby Aviation.
Can Joby Aviation be a life-changing investment?
Given the current trends in the global economy, whereby technology is enabling fundamental shifts in how industrial and transportation companies operate (think Tesla selling direct or Uber not needing to own cars), Joby's business model makes perfect sense and has the potential to create more value for shareholders over the long term.
Meanwhile, while its peers are working with leading aerospace companies, Toyota is a formidable manufacturing entity and partner, and the Toyota Production System is the precursor to all the lean manufacturing practices successfully implemented by GE Aerospace and many others.
There are no guarantees in nascent technology fields such as eVTOL, and diversification is key when investing in growth stocks. Still, Joby Aviation is a strong candidate for an investment that could set you up for life.
Should you invest $1,000 in Joby Aviation right now?
Before you buy stock in Joby Aviation, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Joby Aviation wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,063,471!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Delta Air Lines, GE Aerospace, Hexcel, and Stellantis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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