Jonathan Levin comes across as an Oxford scholar with his beard, spectacles, and plummy English accent. And indeed that’s what he was when the conversation in the pub one night turned to Bitcoin and, before long, drew him into a world of cops, hitmen and a global web of cybercrime. Today, Levin is the CEO of Chainalysis, one of the world’s pre-eminent crypto forensic firms, and whose origins he shared on the latest episode of Fortune’s Crypto Playbook podcast.
When Levin co-founded Chainalysis in 2014, most people still hadn’t heard of Bitcoin and far fewer understood the workings of a blockchain. That included nearly everyone in law enforcement. That began to change, however, when special agents began investigating so-called dark web sites where a wide variety of illicit goods and services could be bought and paid for using Bitcoin.
Soon, Levin’s startup had its first customer: the U.S. agency known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Agents at the ATF asked Levin to come over from England and show them how Bitcoin—far from being anonymous—left an indelible trail as money moved from wallet to wallet, providing clues about the location and often the identity of criminal actors.
Chainalysis’s help tracing the steps of would-be hitmen helped the company land its first contracts, which Levin says were paid for as a credit card expense rather than as part of a full-blown contract. Business really took off, however, when the startup showed U.S. law enforcement how its tracing tools could help identify the perpetrators of the Mt. Gox hack, a notorious event in the early days of crypto that saw Russian criminals make off with a good portion of Bitcoin then in circulation.
“We helped them figure out where the money had gone, and when we figured out that the money had actually been stolen from the exchange, obviously, the law enforcement agencies in the United States took a great interest in figuring out where that money went and how was it laundered,” Levin recalls.
Today, Chainalysis has teams on the ground in over 30 countries, and works with around 330 government agencies around the world. The firm also has a thriving line of business catering to the private sector, helping companies with compliance and, more generally, keeping bad guys off their platforms. All of this has helped Chainalysis raise over $536 million in funding, and achieve a multi-billion dollar valuation that puts it in position to go public.
The world of crypto has changed dramatically since Levin helped ATF agents chase hitmen on the dark web. Most obviously, it is not viewed primarily as a tool for criminals, but instead as a mainstream technology used by banks, brokerages and Fortune 500 companies. The criminal element still remains, however, and the tactics of bad actors have become more sophisticated, meaning the blockchain detective work of firms like Chainalysis remains essential as ever.
By the time you read this article, there’s a chance that President Donald Trump will have changed his policy on tariffs yet again. Since his first day in office this term, Trump has been making plans to tax imported goods from other countries into the U.S., but with each passing day, his plans continue to change.
For example, the tariffs Trump has imposed on imports from China have jumped from 10% to 34%, then up to 104%, 125% and finally 145%, before dropping back down to 30%, all over the course of five months.
After announcing his plan for tariffs back in April—on a day he called “Liberation Day”—Trump put a 90-day delay on the upcoming tariffs in order to encourage other countries to make trade deals, or reciprocal tariff deals, with the U.S. The tariff pause is set to expire Aug. 1.
As Trump goes back and forth about tariffs, businesses across the world brace themselves for impact.
A vendor waits next to tomato crates in a warehouse at Central de Abasto vegetable market on July 15 in Mexico City. On July 14, the U.S. government placed a 17% tariff on fresh Mexican tomatoes, according to The Associated Press. The U.S. imports about 70% of its tomatoes—or 4 billion pounds per year—from Mexico, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange. With the tariff in place, more of the U.S.’s tomato supply will come from within the country itself, mainly California and Florida, though most of that production is for processed tomatoes.
Cristopher Rogel Blanquet—Getty Images
Workers at a garment factory work on products in Thủ Đức, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, on June 21. In 2024, Vietnam’s textile and garment exports to the U.S. reached $16.6 billion, making it the biggest export market for Vietnam, with the value of total projected exports reaching $44 billion. In early July, Trump announced Vietnam would face a 20% tariff on goods exported to the U.S., a percentage lower than the original 46% tariff that was paused in April, but higher than expected, according to Politico.
Daniel Ceng—Anadolu/Getty Images
Workers assemble fully electric and hybrid versions of the new Mercedes-Benz CLA sedan at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant on June 4 in Rastatt, Germany. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, Germany also is home to other car manufacturers including Audi, BMW, Volkswagon, and Porsche, all of which will face a 15% tariff on exports to the U.S. The tariff, which covers most goods from the EU, is significantly lower than the current 27.5% tariff on cars exported from Europe as well as the 30% tariff Trump originally planned to enact on Aug. 1.
Florian Wiegand—Getty Images
An employee works in a lab to analyze olive oil samples on April 15 in Antequera, Spain. Spain produces about 40% of the world’s olive oil and exports roughly 180,000 metric tons to the U.S. annually, making it a key market for Spanish producers. In 2024, the U.S. imported $82.9 million of olive oil, $50.9 million of which came from Spain, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Olive oil imports into the U.S. from Spain will face the same 15% tariff that most goods from the EU will incur.
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez—Getty Images
Farmers plant rice saplings at a waterlogged rice field on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, on July 5. India is currently the world’s largest exporter of rice, exporting about $11.4 billion of rice in 2023, the country’s sixth-most exported product, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. In 2024, the U.S. imported $395 million worth of rice from India, according to the USA Rice Federation. On July 30, Trump said he’s planning to impose a 25% tariff on goods from India beginning Aug. 1, as well as an additional tax because India purchases Russian oil and thus funds the Russian war in Ukraine.
NARINDER NANU—AFP/Getty Images
A herd of cattle is seen on a road in São Félix do Xingu, Pará, Brazil, on June 20. Brazil faces a 50% tariff on exports to the U.S., the highest tariff incurred as a part of Trump’s trade war, partially because of how the Brazilian government has positioned itself against Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of Trump and the country’s former president. The tariff, which is set to begin on Aug. 1, would result in estimated losses of $1 billion for one of the big beef-packers’ lobbies in Brazil, according to Reuters. The U.S. is the second-largest importer of Brazilian beef—which is mostly used for hamburger meat—at 12% of Brazil’s beef exports.
NELSON ALMEIDA—AFP/Getty Images
A coffee producer sifts coffee beans on his farm in Porciúncula, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 17. According to The Wall Street Journal, Brazil accounts for 35-40% of the coffee consumed by the U.S., or about 58.4 billion cups per year, considering the U.S. drinks about 146 billion cups of coffee annually, according to Balance Coffee.
Bruna Prado—AP Photo
A local cork producer shows the inside of a cork tree on June 26 in Couço, Portugal. The country exported $1.34 billion worth of cork in 2024, $213.5 million—or about 16%—of which was imported into the U.S., according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Cork imports into the U.S. from Portugal will face the same 15% tariff that most goods from the EU will incur.
Adri Salido—Getty Images
An artisan works on a pair of leather boots in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia on July 15. Indonesia is the third-largest exporter of footwear to the U.S., accounting for $1.36 billion of the $20.66 billion market in 2020, according to the United States International Trade Commission. Trump originally inflicted a 32% tariff on Indonesia in April prior to the 90-day tariff suspension, and since then, Indonesia and the U.S. have agreed upon a 19% tariff for Indonesian exports into the U.S.
TIMUR MATAHARI—AFP/Getty Images
Workers load a truck with recently harvested oranges in Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil, July 16. Brazil produces 80% of the world’s orange juice under brands including Minute Maid, Tropicana, and Simply, and 42%—or $1.31 billion—of the country’s exported orange juice is purchased by the U.S., according to Reuters. Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazil, which is set to go into effect on Aug. 1, could cost the industry about $792 million per year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal also reported that orange growers are considering letting their fruit rot on the tree to avoid spending money on the harvest, since orange prices are about half of what they were this time last year.
Ettore Chiereguini—AP Photo
Molten copper is prepared in Montreal, Canada, on July 17. Copper imported into the U.S. will have a 50% tariff tacked onto it beginning Aug. 1 because the U.S. is dependent on other countries for the second-most used material by the Department of Defense, which the White House said is a threat to the country’s national and economic security. In 2024, the U.S. imported $3.97 billion worth of copper articles—which includes refined copper, scrap copper, copper wire, copper plating, and raw copper—from Canada, about 27% of the U.S.’s $14.7 billion worth of imports, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
A farm employee works during the coffee harvest in Bragança Paulista, Brazil, on April 4. The world’s leading producer of coffee is expected to begin incurring 50% tariffs on Aug. 1, which consumers in the U.S. will face the brunt of. However, this price increase likely won’t take place immediately, according to NPR, since many coffee sellers in the U.S. have inventory stockpiled.
In today’s edition: Kamala Harris’s California decision, another Ivy’s deal with Trump, and Fortune‘s Lila MacLellan on the first leadership lesson Accenture’s Julie Sweet ever learned.
– Ready to win. When Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, was a 15-year-old girl growing up in Tustin, Calif., she would often enter local debate tournaments and speech contests in the hope of winning cash prizes. She grew up in a working-class household, she explained recently, and at a Lions Club tournament, “you could earn, like, $500.”
Sweet’s father would drive her to the events in his beat-up VW bug, wearing the one sports coat he owned, and Sweet would regularly win at the podium—but not every time. One evening, she made it to the semifinals of a competition but lost to the daughter of the club’s president. On the way home, she recalled, “I was kind of complaining in the car to my dad, ‘Oh, she was so cutesy, and she was the daughter of the president.’
“My father looks at me, and he says, ‘First of all, Julie, you’re never going to be the daughter of the president of the Lions Club. That’s not the family you were born into,’” she recounted. “‘And I believe you can do anything, but…you have to be so much better than anyone else that they have to give it to you.
“‘Tonight,’” he continued, “‘you weren’t that much better.’”
Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, has positioned the company to win big from the AI boom.
Mackenzie Stroh for Fortune
Sweet called that exchange her first experience of constructive feedback, one that also taught her to be honest with herself about her performance. Her late father’s lesson that night has no doubt also helped her and her army of consultants give feedback companies desperately need as they try to navigate a world being disrupted by AI.
As I report in a new feature story, Accenture is an AI powerhouse, booking hundreds of millions in AI services for clients that are among the world’s most influential companies. Under Sweet’s tenure, Accenture has also grown; it’s worth over $170 billion now, nearly double its value in 2018, the year before Sweet took the reins. It employs 774,000 people globally, compared with 460,000 six years ago. Earlier this year, Sweet was No. 2 on Fortune‘s 2025 Most Powerful Women list. Accenture is No. 211 on the 2025 edition of the Global 500, which was released this week.
Sweet, true to her teenage self, is prepared for whatever comes next, and says she isn’t worried about suggestions that AI itself might one day replace consultants. “AI is only a technology,” she told me. “The value comes from reinvention of how we work, our workforces and the tools we use…We are making sure that we are leading the way with our own reinvention.”
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe. Subscribe here.
Mark Zuckerberg has laid out his vision for “personal superintelligence” in a new blog post. In it, he acknowledged that the company may need to be “careful about what we choose to open source” to mitigate the risks of advanced AI. The shift suggests Meta may be preparing to scale back its open-source approach as the company moves closer to “superintelligence,” a hypothetical form of artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence across all domains.
Mark Zuckerberg has published his AI manifesto, making a case for a type of “personal superintelligence” that people can use to achieve their individual goals.
In a new blog post, the Meta CEO said he wanted to build a personalized AI that helps you “achieve your goals, create what you want to see in the world, be a better friend, and grow to become the person that you aspire to be.” However, the company’s new aims come with a caveat: this powerful AI may soon be too powerful to be left open to the world.
“We believe the benefits of superintelligence should be shared with the world as broadly as possible. That said, superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We’ll need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source. Still, we believe that building a free society requires that we aim to empower people as much as possible.”
Among those risks: That AI could become “a force focused on replacing large swaths of society,” he wrote.
Zuckerberg has traditionally positioned Meta as a proponent of open-source AI, especially compared to rivals like OpenAI and Google. While many argue the company’s LLaMA models don’t meet the strict definition of “open source,” the company has leaned more toward open-sourcing its frontier models than most of its Big Tech peers.
In a blog post last year, Zuckerberg made an impassioned case for open source, heralding Meta as taking the “next steps towards open source AI becoming the industry standard.”
“I believe that open source is necessary for a positive AI future,” Zuckerberg wrote last year. “Open source will ensure that more people around the world have access to the benefits and opportunities of AI, that power isn’t concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies, and that the technology can be deployed more evenly and safely across society.”
The CEO has left himself some wiggle room, saying in a podcast last year that if there was a significant change in AI capabilities, it may not be safe to “open source” it.
Closed models give companies more control over monetizing their products. Zuckerberg pointed out last year that Meta’s business isn’t reliant on selling access to AI models, so “releasing Llama doesn’t undercut our revenue, sustainability, or ability to invest in research like it does for closed providers.” In contrast to competitors like OpenAI, Meta makes most of its money from selling internet advertising.
Closed vs. open source AI
AI safety experts have long debated whether open or closed-source models are more responsible for advanced AI development. Some argue that open-sourcing AI models democratizes access, accelerates innovation, and allows for broader scrutiny to improve safety and reliability. But others say that releasing powerful AI models openly could increase the risk of misuse by bad actors, including for misinformation, cyberattacks, or biological threats.
There’s a commercial argument against open source as well, which is why most leading AI labs keep their models private. Open-sourcing powerful AI models can erode a company’s competitive edge by allowing rivals to copy, fine-tune, or commoditize its core technology.
Meta is in a different position here than some of its rivals, as Zuckerberg said last year that Meta’s business isn’t reliant on selling access to AI models. “Releasing Llama doesn’t undercut our revenue, sustainability, or ability to invest in research like it does for closed providers,” he said.
Representatives for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune, made outside normal working hours.
They’re about the past and the future, about the company that’s going public and the wider market. IPOs are moments of truth—will public market investors, literally, buy what VCs have been backing for years? It’s also an event that tests how people are thinking about the wider IPO market. Are we, after all this time, so back?
On Wednesday, Figma, the design software unicorn led by Dylan Field, completed its initial public offering, raising $1.2 billion in proceeds ($1.4 billion if you include the over-allotement) for the company and some of its early shareholders, signaling strong demand for its shares which will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this morning. Figma seemingly sailed through its investor roadshow, upping its share price from the initial $25 to $28 range to the $33 it ultimately priced at. And after the company’s $20 billion planned merger with Adobe fell apart a year-and-a-half ago, the $19 billion valuation that Figma has fetched in its IPO is a pretty remarkable testament to its potential as a standalone business.
Derek Hernandez, emerging technology senior analyst at PitchBook, says that even compared to successful IPOs of late, Figma is singular, with its year-over-year revenue growth approaching 50%, and its Q1 profitability (Figma’s Q1 net income was $44.9 million).
“Figma stands out even among recent high-growth software IPOs like Circle and CoreWeave,” Hernandez said via email. “Figma has both scale and earnings and is a prime example of a high-growth, VC-backed company with a strong narrative that the market is eager for, positioning it as one of the most credible high-growth listings this year.”
This is, ultimately, high praise—in June, stablecoin firm Circle was priced at $31 a share, and closed yesterday at about $190, while CoreWeave’s initially muted IPO still has the company up about 150% year-to-date. High praise, of course, also means high expectations. This, perhaps, has long been true of Figma: A look at the company’s SEC filings shows that a staggering four top VC firms have stakes in Figma valued north of $1 billion—Index, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia.
And while the fallout from the failed Adobe merger was public, that attempted merger also lingers in the background as a positive signal of sorts, “which served as a massive validation of Figma’s strategic importance and market position,” said Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, via email. Adobe looms in Figma’s past and its future, added Martin, who noted that Figma has both the opportunity and challenge of “overtaking Adobe as the leading design software company, with its cloud-native collaborative platform.”
One interesting detail: Figma itself only raised $411 million. Most of the proceeds are going to a group of selling shareholders (including VCs) each taking a small slice off the table. But the biggest selling shareholder is MCF Gift Fund, part of the Marin Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization which sold 13.4 million shares for a cool $441 million.
For today, though, it appears that Figma could be the harbinger of a simmering truth: that the market for venture-backed IPOs is in a thoughtful recovery. PitchBook’s Hernandez points out via email that there have been 119 offerings year-to-date, up 45% year-over-year.
“Figma could serve as a bellwether for the market today,” Hernandez wrote Fortune. “It may provide proof-of-concept for other SaaS names, such as Canva, Netskope, and Databricks… Should Figma stumble out of the gate, especially with all its strengths, this may reinforce some caution among late-stage VCs and delay other large tech floats.”
This isn’t a 2021 deluge, but it’s not an early-2024 drought either.
“While investor appetite has been selective, Figma shows that there’s still strong demand for companies with compelling growth stories, strong fundamentals, and clear differentiation—especially in categories like SaaS and AI,” said Rainmaker Securities’ Martin via email. “We’re not back to the frothy environment of 2021, but high-quality companies are beginning to test the waters successfully again.”
If IPOs are prisms, Figma’s a flashpoint. Now, we see what shines through.
Introducing the Term Sheet Podcast… After years in your inbox, Term Sheet’s coming to a podcast feed near you. Today, we’re launching the Term Sheet Podcast—bringing this long-loved newsletter to life in audio and video. Each week, I’ll sit down with investors and founders to break down the biggest deals, trade takes, and drop at least one dad joke. First up: Will Hurd, Chief Strategy Officer at CHAOS Industries. He’s been a presidential candidate, congressman, and undercover CIA officer. You won’t want to miss it, so listen here. And, as always, hot takes, reviews, and general feelings go to [email protected].
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto came to power last year off the back of a campaign with several grand promises. Chief among them: 8% annual economic growth by the end of his term in 2029.
His brainchild to get there is the country’s latest sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, short for Daya Anagata Nusantara, which means “the power of the future for Indonesia.” It’s tasked with boosting the economy, especially through domestic investments.
The fund is also taking over Indonesia’s dozens of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), consolidating and streamlining their operations to make them more competitive. The idea is that integrated management can lead to more effective and optimized national resources, resulting in higher economic growth and better jobs.
Yet critics have governance concerns because of a revised law that gives the president greater control of the entities and their billions of dollars in annual dividends. These concerns contributed to a dip in Indonesia’s stock market index when the fund was launched in late February. Danantara, which reports to the president, will eventually oversee all SOEs (including Global 500 companies Pertamina, the oil and gas giant, and electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara).
The idea of sovereign wealth funds—investment funds managed by state actors hoping to leverage their financial surplus—has existed since Kuwait set one up in 1953 to manage its oil revenues. This surplus can come from sales of natural resources in oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia or Norway, foreign exchange as in China, or even bumper tax revenue in the case of Ireland. Sometimes the funds take an active role, backing up-and-coming startups, making a play for strategic sectors, or investing in companies based in their own country.
But Danantara is somewhat different in that it’s trying to manage and invest in its own state enterprises while investing surplus funds drawn from its SOEs’ dividends. The young entity’s CEO, Rosan Roeslani, argues this will finally help Southeast Asia’s largest economy develop its potential.
Indonesia’s stock market index dipped in late February
before climbing back up again in mid-April.
Chart by Fortune
“We have this dual role: How can we optimize assets from state-owned enterprises to create more value, and at the same time create quality jobs?” Rosan tells Fortune. As a sovereign fund, there need to be returns, he notes, but the priority is “sustainable economic growth.”
Southeast Asia’s largest economy
Indonesia accounts for roughly 40% of the region’s population and landmass. About 280 million people are spread over some 17,000 islands, and the country had a GDP of $1.4 trillion in 2024, according to World Bank data. That puts Indonesia in the top 20 economies globally.
While Indonesia was hard-hit during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–98, it was one of the region’s strongest performers during the 2008–09 Global Financial Crisis, growing by 4.6% in 2009. From 2010 to 2024 its economy grew by an average 4.74% a year, per the World Bank.
But the country trails some of its neighbors in GNI per capita, which reached $4,910 in 2024. That’s enough to categorize it as an upper-middleincome country by the World Bank’s definition. Yet GNI per capita in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand reached $74,750, $11,670, and $7,120, respectively.
That means not all of Indonesia’s people are earning as much as their regional peers—despite being blessed with abundant natural resources, like oil, gas, and critical minerals.
But Rosan thinks Danantara can help Indonesia successfully leverage its resources. “We want to develop a value-added downstream industry; doing that will improve our human capital, create more quality jobs, and obviously create a better economic return,” he says.
Indonesia has already attracted investments to its nickel industry as part of its downstreaming strategy after banning the export of raw nickel ore in January 2020—well before Danantara.
A new phase
Danantara must also streamline the country’s dozens of SOEs (an effort started under previous president Joko Widodo) and make them more competitive. “In the past, sometimes [SOEs] think they’re likely to monopolize. When you don’t have competition, sometimesyou become more relaxed,” Rosan says.
Hilman Palaon, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre, thinks Danantara marks a new phase. It’s “expected to play a key role in reshaping the SOE landscape: managing state investments, consolidating assets, and leading restructuring efforts,” he says.
That involves reducing red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, as well as fixing Indonesia’s reputation for opaqueness and, sometimes, corruption.
“Maybe in the past, an SOE always had special treatment,” Rosan explains. “Usually if there’s a government project, there’s always priority that it should be awarded to another SOE. That kind of priority we are going to revise.”
Continued SOE reform is needed as these companies become increasingly important to the economy, notes Maxwell Abbott, an associate managing director and head of political risk and strategic intelligence for APAC at consultancy Nardello & Co.
The country has already taken a step in the right direction, he says: “In recent years, Indonesia has made significant progress in improving SOE performance and efficiency by consolidating the number of SOEs and improving anti-bribery protocols.”
Rosan argues that not all SOEs are saddled with this issue, but that SOEs in general should be more efficient, transparent, and digitized.
Artificial intelligence and digitization constitute one of eight sectors Danantara has targeted for investment, to grow Indonesia’s economy while raising the standard of living. Other sectors include renewable energy, food security, and health care.
“We are still way behind in terms of the health care industry. We still import 90% of our raw materials for pharmaceuticals,” Rosan says. “We are behind in terms of doctors…Just to meet the emerging-market standard, not OECD standard, we are short about 100,000 doctors.”
Danantara has already signed several memorandums of understanding or given loans to Indonesian companies in strategic sectors. It has an MOU with ACWA Power, a Saudi Arabian company specializing in desalination and green hydrogen tech, to explore renewable energy investments. Total funding is estimated to be as much as $10 billion.
It also has partnerships with QIA, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and CIC, China’s sovereign wealth fund, aimed at facilitating investments to Indonesia. Domestically, Danantara has invested in Chandra Asri, a petrochemical and energy firm, and provided a $405 million loan to national airline Garuda Indonesia.
“Danantara’s early investment decisions show Prabowo wants to ensure domestic production of crucial industrial inputs and provide lifelines to struggling SOEs that play a prominent role in the national economy,” Abbott notes.
The legacy play
With more than $900 billion in assets and annual dividends of about $8 billion that can be used for investing, by Rosan’s estimation, Danantara isn’t just a new force in global finance; it’s a signal that Indonesia will now fully control its wealth responsibly, manage its resources with strategic foresight, and invest in its future.
“Danantara carries big ambitions,” says Palaon, the Lowy Institute research fellow. “It reflects Indonesia’s bold vision to break free from the middle-income trap and become a developed nation, but the real challenge lies in turning those ambitions into action.”
While Rosan has been a mainstay in Indonesian politics with different ministerial assignments, an ambassadorship to the U.S., and a role as Prabowo’s campaign manager and strategist, he’s also a finance guy. Before politics, he worked in banking and cofounded his own investment firm, Recapital Group.
“I came from the private sector and have actually been on the investment side. So this is [similar] to my previous job, investing in Indonesia or out of Indonesia,” he says.
Under him are several notable peers who also hail from the finance industry or the private sector, including Pandu Sjahrir, Danantara’s chief investment officer and an early backer of Southeast Asia tech giant Sea.
Danantara has also drafted non-Indonesians to sit on the board of advisors, serving on a voluntary and nonbinding basis: famed hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, prominent American economist Jeffrey Sachs, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The two Americans are no strangers to the country: Dalio’s OceanX has been working with Indonesian officials to map its seabed, and Sachs previously advised the Indonesian government.
And while Thaksin’s role may raise some eyebrows because of corruption allegations, Rosan says Thaksin is respected in Southeast Asia and that his input would be useful.
If Danantara succeeds in transforming Indonesia’s economy and lifting living standards, then it will arguably bolster Prabowo’s legacy, which is still somewhat blotted by his time as an army commander during the Suharto-era dictatorship from the mid-1960s to the 1990s.
While more investments in the country coupled with more competitive SOEs would in theory create more jobs, Rosan is aware of the skepticism and expectation for the fund to perform.
“Obviously when a new entity receives more than $900 billion in total assets, the expectation is very high,” he says, adding that the fund will not only “perform” in terms of returns but will raise governance and compliance standards. “We are building trust right now by having the best talent, and also having good governance and transparency.”
It’s a strong claim. But when asked if he’s confident that the conversation around Danantara will be positive if he speaks to Fortune again in five years, Rosan responds with a firm yes. As he puts it, we’ll see “a lot of difference.”
This article appears in the August/September issue of Fortune with the headline “Danantara’s CEO thinks the new sovereign wealth fund can help Indonesia finally unlock its potential”
Good morning. Corporate America’s relationship with cryptocurrency is far from straightforward, but many finance chiefs are planning to eventually adopt stablecoins and Bitcoin in their finance operations.
Deloittereleased new data this morning from its Q2 2025 CFO Signals Spotlight, which gauges how finance chiefs envision incorporating digital currencies into their operations (CFO Daily received an early look). Only 1% of CFOs surveyed said they do not expect to use crypto for business functions in the long term. Twenty-three percent expect their treasury departments to use crypto for investments or payments within the next two years—a figure that rises to nearly 40% among finance chiefs at companies with revenues of $10 billion or more.
Price volatility is the top concern for 43% of CFOs regarding crypto investment, followed by accounting and control complexities (42%) and a lack of industry regulation (40%).
“Crypto is a unique asset, and the accounting treatment for digital assets seems to be a work in progress,” Steve Gallucci, the global and U.S. leader of Deloitte’s CFO Program, told me. For example, in January, the SEC rescinded earlier guidance on accounting for crypto and then created a task force to develop a new framework, he explained. “Where that task force eventually lands is, at this point, uncertain,” he said.
The survey, conducted June 4–18, polled 200 North American finance chiefs at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue.
The business case for crypto
Stablecoins are typically backed by reserve assets and pegged to traditional currencies, unlike Bitcoin. The survey highlights the appeal of conducting transactions with stablecoins: 45% of finance chiefs cited enhanced customer privacy as the top benefit, followed by improved cross-border transactions. In addition, 15% of respondents said that within two years, their companies will likely accept stablecoin as payment—a percentage that rises to 24% for companies with at least $10 billion in revenues.
“It seems very likely that CFOs will need to have a solid grounding in digital assets, along with treasury and accounting capabilities, and an appropriate understanding of cryptocurrencies,” Gallucci said.
President Trump signed an executive order in March establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a national digital asset stockpile. Subsequently, in June, the U.S. Senate passed legislation regulating stablecoins.
Bitcoin, Ether, and other non-stable forms of crypto can offer certain advantages for treasurers, such as diversifying a company’s investment portfolio. A recent Fortune report examines the rise of crypto in corporate treasuries: 160 firms globally now hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, including 90 in the U.S., according to Bitcoin Treasuries. Notable names include GameStop, Block, Tesla, and the Trump Media & Technology Group, which is controlled by the president’s family. However, some experts remain skeptical of the trend of firms putting spare cash into crypto.
Taking a longer-term perspective, the CFOs surveyed by Deloitte see possibilities for business uses of both non-stable and stable crypto beyond investments and payments. More than half (52%) of finance chiefs anticipate using non-stable crypto for supply chain tracking, and a slightly smaller percentage (48%) said the same for stablecoin.
With more than a third of CFOs already discussing the use of crypto with their boards, it will be interesting to see which direction organizations take.
Markets in Europe and Asia are broadly up this morning with the exception of China, where stocks fell on news of an unexpected deterioration in manufacturing. S&P 500 futures are up nearly a full percentage point, premarket, suggesting that Wall Street very much liked Fed chair Jerome Powell’s rate-setting speech yesterday. The fly in the ointment? “Downside risks” to the labor market.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman delivered an entirely predictable press conference yesterday as he kept interest rates on hold at the 4.25% level and said he would await for more data before considering a possible move downward.
Markets liked it: Europe and Asia are broadly up this morning with the exception of China, where stocks fell on news of an unexpected deterioration in manufacturing. More importantly, S&P 500 futures are up nearly a full percentage point, premarket.
But there was one theme that Powell kept returning to, which isn’t so positive: “Downside risks” to the labor market. Powell referenced this phrase no fewer than six times in his press conference.
“We do see downside risk in the labor market,” he told reporters. “The labor market looks solid. Inflation is above target. And even if you look through the tariff effects, we think it’s still a bit above target. And that’s why our stance is where it is. But, as I mentioned, you know, downside risks to the labor market are certainly apparent.”
That’s actually a pretty good summation of what economists are seeing in the employment data right now. There is close to full employment, but the hiring market is sluggish and some of the good headline numbers are masked by one-off moves in government and education hiring.
Some analysts see U.S. employment getting weaker, not stronger, in the coming months.
“Chair Powell’s reading of the economic data was similar to ours—he highlighted the softer growth pace in the first half of the year, noted that the labor market remains solid but said six times that it faces ‘downside risks,’ and said that inflation is most of the way back to 2% and that a ‘reasonable base case’ is that tariffs will have only a one-time impact on the price level. This suggests that lowering rates soon could be reasonable but is not yet essential,” Goldman Sachs’ Jan Hatzius and his team told clients in a note this morning.
Lawrence Werther and Brendan Stuart at Daiwa Capital Markets noticed the same thing: “We found it interesting that he returned several times to the idea that officials are attentive to risks to the employment side of the dual mandate. He noted that unemployment remained low and that deceleration in hiring and growth of labor force participation suggest that the labor market is in balance, but we did read his comments as pointing to increased concern versus previous statements.”
The jobs number (nonfarm payrolls, to give its technical name) is due out tomorrow. If it comes in weak, expect stocks to react strongly.
“Our forecast is for job growth to weaken in July and for the unemployment rate to tick higher. This will probably increase Federal Reserve concerns about the risks to the labor market, potentially throwing more support behind an earlier rate cut than is in our baseline,” Oxford Economics’ Nancy Vanden Houten told clients.
UBS’s Paul Donovan has a typically pithy observation on why it might be that U.S. companies are moving factories back to America but not actually creating jobs: The new factories are full of robots, not humans: “Several advanced economies, including the US and the UK, have experienced a boom in factory building in recent years. Increasing the size of factory buildings implies more manufacturing activity is taking place inside those buildings. [But] manufacturing employment is not increasing—this investment appears to represent capital for labor substitution,” he said.
Here’s a snapshot of the action prior to the opening bell in New York:
S&P 500 futures were up 1% this morning, premarket, after the index closed down 0.12% yesterday.
STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.14% in early trading.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.52% in early trading.
Sam Altman recently warned that AI-powered fraud is coming “very soon,” and it will break the systems we rely on to verify identity.
It is already happening and it’s not just coming for banks; it’s hitting every part of our government right now.
Every week, AI-generated fraud is siphoning millions from public benefit systems, disaster relief funds, and unemployment programs. Criminal networks are already using deepfakes, synthetic identities, and large language models to outpace outdated fraud defenses, including easily spoofed, single-layer tools like facial recognition, and they’re winning.
We saw a glimpse of this during the pandemic, when fraud rings exploited gaps in state systems to steal hundreds of billions in unemployment benefits. It wasn’t just people wearing masks to bypass facial recognition. It was AI-generated fake identities, voice clones, and forged documents overwhelming systems that weren’t built to detect them. Today, those tactics are more advanced, and fully automated.
I work with over 9,000 agencies across the country. As I testified before the U.S. House of Representatives twice this year, what we’re seeing in the field is clear. Fraud is faster, cheaper, and more scalable than ever before. Organized crime groups, both domestic and transnational, are using generative AI to mimic identities, generate synthetic documentation, and flood our systems with fraudulent claims. They’re not just stealing from the government; they’re stealing from the American people.
The Small Business Administration Inspector General now estimates that nearly $200 billion was stolen from pandemic-era unemployment insurance programs, making it one of the largest fraud losses in U.S. history. Medicaid, IRS, TANF, CHIP, and disaster relief programs face similar vulnerabilities. We have also seen this firsthand in our work alongside the U.S. Secret Service protecting the USDA SNAP program, which has become a buffet for fraudsters with billions stolen nationwide every month. In fact, in a single day using AI, one fraud ring can file tens of thousands of fake claims across multiple states, most of which will be processed automatically unless flagged.
We’ve reached a turning point. As AI continues to evolve, the scale and sophistication of these attacks will increase rapidly. Just as Moore’s Law predicted that computing power would double every two years, we’re now living through a new kind of exponential growth. Gordon Moore, Intel’s co-founder, originally described the trend in 1965, and it has guided decades of innovation. I believe we may soon recognize a similar principle for AI that I call “Altman’s Law”: every 180 days, AI capabilities double.
If we don’t modernize our defenses with the same pace as technological advancements, we’ll be permanently outmatched.
What we desperately need is smarter tools and infrastructure, not more bureaucracy.
That means layering advanced identity verification, not just facial scans or passwords. It means using real-time data, behavioral analytics, and cross-jurisdictional tools that can flag anomalies before money goes out the door. It also means reviving what has already worked: tools like the National Accuracy Clearinghouse, which flagged billions of dollars in duplicate benefit claims across state lines before it was shut down.
AI is a force multiplier, but it can be weaponized more easily than it can be wielded for protection. Right now, criminals are using it better than we are. Until that changes, our most vulnerable systems and the people who depend on them will remain exposed.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell held interest rates steady yesterday and signaled a cautious approach to cutting, despite growing dissent within the Fed and market hopes for a September move downward. While acknowledging tariff-driven inflation, Powell emphasized that more data is needed before adjusting policy.
In a move that everyone was expecting, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell disappointed Donald Trump again yesterday by refusing to cut the base interest rate.
Indeed, a hawkish Powell even used the dreaded r-word (“raise”)—having suggested he is responsive enough to calls to “look through” tariff-induced inflation by not increasing interest rates, a notion which likely would have sent the Oval Office into a fury.
While rates held steady at 4.25% to 4.5%, a split among the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is growing, with two members dissenting. This represents the highest level of friction within the FOMC for more than 30 years.
But despite the pressure—both from within the Fed and externally—Powell struck a cautious tone on cutting. For some time analysts have pencilled in a cut in September, the next meeting of the FOMC.
“Higher tariffs have begun to show through more clearly to prices of some goods, but their overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen,” Powell told reporters in a news conference following the meeting. “A reasonable base case is that the effects on inflation could be short-lived—reflecting a one-time shift in the price level. But it is also possible that the inflationary effects could instead be more persistent, and that is a risk to be assessed and managed.”
To the point of a one-time price shift, Powell said the FOMC is heeding advice to not letting tariff-related inflation cloud the picture of the fundamentals of the economy.
But while investors had used this argument to lobby for a cut, Powell said the fact he is holding rate steady is evidence of this pragmatism, saying the FOMC is “a bit looking through goods inflation by not raising rates.”
Tabling a rate rise is quite the opposite of what many investors and economists are hoping for, but Powell doubled down: “The economy is not performing as though restrictive policy were holding it back inappropriately.” Investors, therefore, have been left wondering what it will take for the FOMC to cut.
“Fed Chair Powell was much more hawkish than we were expecting at his press conference,” Bank of America’s macroeconomics team wrote in a note seen by Fortune. “He was asked several questions on what it would take for the Fed to cut in September. In response, Powell made it clear that the onus is on the data to justify a September cut.“
They added: “To be clear, hikes are still very unlikely, but Powell argued that the ‘efficient’ way of balancing risks to the dual mandate is to stay on hold because cutting too early introduces the risk of having to raise rates again later.”
Markets were minded to agree with BofA on its take of a hawkish Powell. Equity markets fell following the announcement while treasury yields rose.
Elsewhere, UBS’s Paul Donovan said markets may be seeing through the FOMC dissenters, explaining in a note this morning: “Fed Chair Powell tried to present the two dissenting views as being rationally based, but investors are bound to suspect that the rationale amounted to little more than an excited jumping up and down and shouting ‘pick me, pick me’ in the general direction of the White House. The press conference gave a slightly hawkish tone in anticipating the trade tax inflation yet to come.”
Holding on for September
Despite Powell’s speech eroding some of the confidence in a September cut, analysts are tending to hold on to the hope that a cut will come at the next meeting the month after next.
The Fed chairman gave them some reason to hope, for example saying: “We are also attentive to risks on the employment side of our mandate.”
“The expectation for this meeting wasn’t a rate cut, and I don’t think there would have been much upside to Powell signaling that one was imminent,” wrote Elyse Ausenbaugh, Head of Investment Strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Managemen, adding: “The data, as it stands today, isn’t yet calling for one, and a lot could change between now and the FOMC’s next decision point in September.”
Likewise, Goldman Sachs’s chief U.S. economist David Mericle wrote in a note to clients seen by Fortune: “Neither [Powell’s] statement nor the press conference provided any direct hints about the likelihood of a cut in September. In response to a question about the two-cut baseline in the June dots, Powell acknowledged but declined to endorse it, saying that he would not want to substitute his own judgment for the views of other participants, especially with two more rounds of employment and inflation data still to come before the September meeting.”
That being said, Goldman continues to forecast three cuts in 2025: In September, October and December, followed by two more in 2026 to bring the rate down to 3% to 3.25%.
Mericle added: “Powell’s comments today suggest to us that a September cut is certainly still up for debate but not that labor market softening over the next two months is necessarily required, and we continue to see multiple paths to a cut.”
UBS’s global wealth management chief investment officer, Mark Haefele, is minded to agree with a September rate cut—citing the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)revealing declines in both openings and hires, as well as a lower quits rate.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence survey also noted 18.9% of respondents felt jobs were hard to get in July, suggesting the alarms for labor market weakening may be beginning to chime.
Haefele wrote: “We continue to expect Fed to resume policy easing in September, cutting rates by 100 basis points over the next 12 months. Investors should consider medium-duration high grade and investment grade bonds for more durable portfolio income.”
UnitedHealth Group, America’s largest healthcare company, shocked investors Tuesday by reporting unexpectedly awful financial performance. It’s the second consecutive quarter the company has committed that sin. As a result, UHG is no longer just a company that missed its numbers. It’s something much more rare: A huge enterprise—No. 3 on the Fortune 500—confessing fundamental, long-standing problems endemic throughout the organization that may take years to remedy.
The crisis first manifested in April. UHG was emerging from the trauma of executive Brian Thompson’s high-profile murder in December when the company released first-quarter profits far below Wall Street’s expectations. The stock plunged, slashing over $100 billion from market value within hours. A month later, CEO Andrew Witty abruptly resigned for unspecified personal reasons, and former CEO Stephen Hemsley returned to the job. The stock plummeted again. The next day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice was investigating UHG for possible criminal Medicare fraud. The company said it hadn’t been notified of any such investigation. The stock nosedived yet again.
In less than a month, this corporate giant had lost more than half its value. “This is a stock that every growth-oriented portfolio manager in the world owned for a decade and made money on it like clockwork,” Whit Mayo, an analyst at the Leerink healthcare investment bank, told Fortune at the time. “It’s stunning. It’s unthinkable.”
On July 24, five days before UHG’s second quarter earnings release, the company acknowledged that the Justice Department was conducting criminal and civil investigations of the company over its Medicare billing practices. You can guess what the stock did.
And then came the report of second quarter earnings.
Now, after months of being pummeled by investors, regulators, and media, Hemsley has admitted that UHG needs an exhaustive, stem-to-stern rehab—an extraordinarily audacious goal for an organization of some 400,000 employees. It’s a stark acknowledgement of deep and wide problems. How deep and wide? Hemsley says UHG will change “leadership, our businesses, our culture, approaches and practices, our board, governance and succession oversight…”
Executives now beseech shareholders for patience—quite a change from four months ago, before $330 billion of market cap evaporated. Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum, one of UHG’s two main divisions, now tells investors, “We know Optum’s performance has not met expectations.” Tim Noel, CEO of the other division, insurance, says, “We are approaching our business with greater humility.”
Hemsley appears to be setting expectations low. He says he does not see profit increasing at all this year. Next year, he sees “solid but moderate” earnings growth. Not until 2027 does he expect “our earnings growth outlook strengthening quickly.”
Even that schedule may not allow enough time. When Hemsley returned as CEO in June, the board of directors gave him a one-time $60-million award of stock options that would vest after three years. That term seemed lengthy for a 73-year-old whose objective was to right the ship. Now, after the latest quarter and the highly ambitious wide-ranging transformation he’s attempting, investors may wonder if three years will be enough.
The $645 million, 390-foot “Breakthrough” superyacht—widely linked to billionaire Bill Gates but reportedly never used by him—is up for sale. It’s the world’s first hydrogen fuel-cell superyacht and boasts luxurious amenities.
If you’re looking to cruise in style à la Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, now might be your chance.
The $645 million, 390-foot “Breakthrough” superyacht that’s long been linked to the billionaire and philanthropist is up for sale by yacht broker Edmiston.
Jamie Edmiston, CEO of his namesake company, said in a statement it’s “the most extraordinary yacht ever built [and] the one that will change it all.”
Neither Gates nor Edmiston responded to requests for comment from Fortune, but it’s been widely reported across business and industry-specific publications the superyacht was commissioned by Gates just a few years ago.
Dutch shipyard Feadship spent five years building “Breakthrough,” also known as “Project 821,” and it’s large enough to accommodate 43 crew members and 30 guests across 15 cabins. Forbes Australia reported in May 2024 the yacht also features a hospital, library, elevator, movie theatre, pool, hot tubs, steam room, gym, separate owners’ deck with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two offices, and 14 slide-out balconies.
“The big deal about Breakthrough is that it’s a modern engineering marvel, period,” Brad Hall, CEO of online yacht marketplace Yachtlify, told Fortune.
That’s because the “Breakthrough” is the world’s first hydrogen fuel-cell superyacht. And that’s what makes the superyacht particularly expensive, Heigo Paartalu, CEO of YachtWay, told Fortune.
“Breakthrough—true to its name—is a genuine breakthrough and milestone in innovation,” said Paartalu, who heads up what can be compared to the Zillow for yachts. “It’s the only privately owned vessel powered by hydrogen, and building one demands extreme precision, as any hydrogen leak could be catastrophic.”
Video footage courtesy YachtWay.com.
There are very few shipyards in the world capable of building a vessel like this, Paartalu explained, and he said “it’s no surprise” Feadship pulled it off, as it’s widely considered one of the best shipyards globally.
While most yacht owners prioritize maximum interior space, “Breakthrough” was primarily designed with the climate in mind, Paartalu said. Its engine room takes up significantly more space than traditional yacht propulsion systems.
“It’s a pretty bold, uncompromising choice,” Paartalu added. Gates is also heavily involved in clean energy projects like Breakthrough Energy, which supports early-stage companies developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
And because superyacht builders are backed up with production schedules, anyone looking to buy the “Breakthrough” should be expected to pay a premium, Paartalu said, rather than waiting four-to-five years for a new build.
“Time is priceless at this level,” he said. “Many buyers prefer immediate gratification over a multi-year wait.”
While every superyacht is unique, Paartalu said, in this case, the new owner will be buying more than a boat.
“You’re buying future-forward technology and a benchmark in innovation,” he said. “Add to that a pedigree few can match. And let’s be honest: How often can someone say, ‘I bought Bill Gates’ yacht?’”
Musical artists no longer need to limit themselves to what suits their natural voice. Indeed, anyone with an artistic vision can now develop a singing voice to match it.
At last week’s Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore conference, Kyogu Lee, founder of AI startup Supertone, demonstrated how his AI-powered tools can alter a person’s vocals.
Supertone’s model takes a voice recording and breaks it down into four different attributes: pitch, loudness, timbre, and linguistic content. A person’s timbre is what reflects their “vocal identity,” Lee explained. By isolating it and altering the other three attributes, Supertone can reconstruct different singing voices that are still unique to each person’s sound.
The tools can even work for those without singing experience—like Fortune Asia editor Nicholas Gordon, whose voice was transformed into a K-pop singer’s through Supertone’s tools.
Supertone’s programs can also create singing voices from scratch. Previously, music producers needed to find human artists whose sound perfectly matches their artistic ideas. Now, they don’t have to “resort to human personnel,” Lee said, since Supertone can easily “design unique voices for each of them.”
But Lee said he wants to work with, not replace, musical artists. “We see creators and artists as co-creators,” he explained. Supertone can help artists to experiment with new genres or styles if they don’t have the natural voice for it. The startup relies on artist feedback to refine and improve its technology.
“Listening is believing,” Lee said. Watch him demonstrate Supertone’s model on the mainstage of Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore.
In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to the CEO of Warren Buffett’s favorite sports shoe brand, Brooks Running.
The big story: Tariff deadline tomorrow.
The markets: Mostly up except for China.
Analyst notes from Wedbush on Apple’s AI strategy, Apollo Management on stablecoins, and Parthenon-EY on GDP.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. One of the toughest challenges for any company is making a niche brand feel new and cool. That’s especially tough in a market where costs are rising and consumers are spoiled for choice. And yet Brooks Running has been on a tear, with the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary reporting it had 15% annual revenue growth in the first quarter.
In the latest episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast, CEO Dan Sheridan talks about turning a favorite among hardcore runners into a broader lifestyle brand. It helps that health and wellness has become a priority for consumers at a younger age when brand preferences have yet to be set.
“Gen Z right now is engaging and running earlier than any other generation in the history of fitness,” he says, noting that many started at the age of 11. “If you put one foot in front of the other, you’re our customer.”
Nike, HOKA and plenty of other brands are chasing those feet, too. One reason Brooks can claim to have No. 1 market share in U.S. adult performance running footwear across national and specialty retail channels is its track record of focusing on performance. That’s a hard-won reputation for a 111-year-old company that once manufactured shoes for a broad range of sports, went bankrupt, overextended, reinvented itself and became part of the Berkshire family in 2006 after getting acquired by Fruit of the Loom. Buffett made it a standalone unit in 2012.
Now, Sheridan is trying to expand into new markets while catering to his core customer and contending with tariffs. “We’re so fortunate. We’re owned by who I would call the GOAT of capitalism,” he says, recalling the Oracle of Omaha’s message when he came to Brooks headquarters in 2014: “He said, ‘Berkshire focuses on the long term, and your jobs are simply this, to make sure the brand is stronger at the end of the year than it was at the beginning.’”
And from the late Charlie Munger, Sheridan says learned the importance of “organizations avoiding the ABCs: arrogance, bureaucracy, and complacency.”
As for his own workout routine, Sheridan is more of a yoga aficionado than a hardcore runner—but he does put those Brooks shoes to use. “I joke that I think I was genetically engineered to plow a field and sit on a bar stool, but I love running. It’s a part of my life.”(Here’s a transcript of the episode. You can also listen to our conversation on Apple or Spotify.)
Artificial intelligence is picking up in the workplace. But even with the potential threat of unemployment on the horizon, white collar workers are just happy that they’re less stressed out. New research reveals 4 in 10 say it has provided better work-life balance, reduced stress, and better decision-making.
What would you do if you believed your job was going to be taken by AI in 3 years?
For some, it’s to keep using it.
White collar workers like the short-term gain of work-life balance that AI brings, despite the long-term pain of it possibly taking their jobs by 2028.
Ironically, recent data shows that about 60% of 2,500 white collar tech workers believe their jobs and their entire team could be replaced by AI within the next three to five years, but they’re still using it at least once per day.
Around 7 in 10 workers say it has helped them increase their creativity and productivity, while 4 in 10 say it has provided better work-life balance, reduced stress, and better decision-making.
“Just like the advent of computers, the Internet, or any new kind of transformative technology, I think folks in general tend to kind of lean into learning the tools, and they’re discovering some great benefits,” Dallin Hatch, Head of Communications at Udacity, tells Fortune.
More productivity, creativity, and flexibility
Though AI may come for jobs in the long term, right now, employees are enjoying getting more of their time back.
Philosopher and psychology researcher Frank Martela previously told Fortune, A.I. can be good for the meaningfulness at work, because it makes room to be more creative and efficient in other tasks if it does the mundane ones. “The more A.I. takes care of the boring routine stuff, the more we can concentrate on the exciting, creative, and challenging stuff,” he said.
Reports consistently highlight that Gen-Z is more focused on work-life balance, purpose-driven tasks, and flexibility. So as AI picks up in the workplace, it could be an attractive benefit for the Zoomer generation, who typically try to avoid repetitive tasks or mundane projects.
The shift towards flexibility is already gaining traction among business leaders and could be where the future of work is headed. Microsoft’s Bill Gates says AI may soon automate almost everything, and workers could begin a 2-day work week in less than a decade. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, has also expressed his view that AI will make working less of a priority—placing his bet on a three-and-a-half-day workweek.
But don’t forget the long-term risk
The truth is, nobody knows how AI will affect their job until it happens.
Blue-collar CEOs like Ford’s boss Jim Farley predict that technology could wipe out half of white collar jobs, while emphasizing the “essential economy”. Last month, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, echoed that sentiment when he said the company’s corporate workforce will shrink as a result of AI.
Already, AI has led to mass layoffs in tech, and workplaces are shifting how they’ll position their staff in the future accordingly.
But, Hatch argues, it could also open the next generation to a whole host of new skills and jobs.
“It’s really hard to know what the future looks like,” Hatch says. “There’s one path right where, you know, it does create more opportunity for people who learn those skills to do more.”
“They may be seeing a path where more of their opportunity to make an impact on the creative and guidance side with an AI tool is now at their fingertips, where before maybe they were so heads down, surface-level work that they weren’t always able to pop up.”
Autonomous vehicles are now a common sight, with robotaxis plying the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Wuhan and Shenzhen. Economies like Japan, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates are also exploring their own autonomous taxi services.
Singapore is no different. The government has been looking to launch driverless buses on its main island. WeRide already has a driverless bus plying a short route on Sentosa island, and the ride-hailing firm Grab recently launched a driverless shuttle service between the One-North metro station and its headquarters four kilometers away.
The Grab-operated shuttle, which ferries employees back-and-forth between 2:00pm and 4:00pm each day, is just a pilot, yet CEO Anthony Tan sung the praises of AVs in an earnings call on Thursday.
“We are leaning heavily into the AV opportunity, or what we think of as driverless AV opportunity across Southeast Asia. We are in prime position to support the AV transition over the next few years,” Tan said in response to a question on an earnings call about how quickly Grab anticipates a commercial launch of its driverless offerings.
Grab’s CEO elaborated that the company will continue to build strong relationships with global AV players and OEMs, and touted the platform’s regional reach. Grab is present in eight countries across Southeast Asia.
“We have several pilots planned at the moment,” Tan said, including one with A2Z, a Korean AV manufacturer. He said to “expect to hear [about] more pilots,” which will allow Grab to understand the operational conditions for different driverless vehicle services throughout the region.
While there are concerns that driverless taxis will eliminate jobs, some Southeast Asian transport operators say they struggle to find drivers to meet demand throughout the day. AVs could fill these supply shortages when there are fewer drivers on the road.
Grab’s earnings
Grab reported a profit of $20 million for the quarter ending June 2025, reversing a loss of $68 million for the same period last year. Revenue grew by 23% year-on-year to reach $819 million, driven by gains in Grab’s on-demand and financial services segment.
The company’s financial services segment, while starting from a lower base, was its fastest-growing division. Revenue in that segment grew 41% year-on-year to reach $84 million, while its loan portfolio grew by 78% to hit $708 million.
Grab chief operating officer Alex Hungate was confident that Grab’s loan book could exceed $1 billion by the end of the year, citing its strong product lineup. Loans can be a significant revenue driver for companies like Grab, as non-traditional lenders can charge higher interest rates to cover the increased risk of lending to underbanked customers.
Grab shares, which are traded in New York, are up 0.6% in pre-market trading. The company’s shares are currently up 11.6% for the year thus far.
Yee Wee Tang, Group Managing Director of Operations at Grab (left), Philip Ang, GrabTaxi driver-partner (center), and Ryan (Ho Jin) Kim, Managing Director, Business and International for A2Z at the launch of Grab's AV shuttle in Singapore on July 8, 2025.
As AI reshapes the job market and entry-level roles disappear, Gen Z is facing a challenging employment landscape. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said in 2023 one of the simplest yet most overlooked tools for standing out is a positive attitude, starting with a smile. Cuban also has said that being kind and investing in yourself can give young professionals the lead they need in today’s competitive world.
There’s no question, the job market is being revolutionized by the rise of AI technology.
As businesses opt to replace workers and slash entry-level opportunities, it’s creating a crisis among Gen Z. In fact, some 58% of college graduates are still searching for employment a year after receiving their degree, according to Kickresume.
They could do with smiling more in the interview to stand out—that’s at least according to
But for billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who turns 67 years old today, the power of a positive attitude can go a long way.
“This tip is really, really simple. It’s something all of us would like to receive. Something all of us are capable of doing but most of us don’t. It costs nothing, takes no time, and it’s really easy to do,” Cuban said in a 2023 TikTok video filmed during a break on the set of Shark Tank.
“It’s a mystery to me why people aren’t like this, even though I have to admit back in the day when I started my first business I wasn’t always like this. And what’s the tip of the day? Be nice. Smile. Because smiling takes nothing. And you know what? We’d all rather do business with somebody who smiles. We’d all rather work with somebody who smiles.”
Beyond simply brightening someone else’s day, a smile can also uplift your mindset and approach in business environments, Cuban said.
Being nice sells
It’s not the first time Cuban has said that something as simple as learning to smile can give you a career boost.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2018, he reflected on his personal growth over the years.
“I went through my own metamorphosis. Early on in my career, I was like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam — I might curse. I might get mad. I got to the point,” he said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do business with me when I was in my 20s. I had to change. And I did. And it really paid off. One of the most underrated skills in business right now is being nice. Nice sells.”
As young professionals launch their careers, Jassy said a positive attitude can set them apart from the crowd. It not only makes them more memorable but also helps attract advocates and mentors more quickly.
It pays to invest in you
Cuban also emphasized the importance of self-investment as a cornerstone of success. Dedicating time to improving yourself, whether through education and self-reflection, can pay off in every area of life.
“It may take me a long time, but by putting in the effort, I taught myself technology. I taught myself to program,” Cuban told Men’s Health four years ago. “It was time-consuming—painfully so—but that investment in myself has paid dividends for the rest of my life.”
Investing in yourself not only boosts your confidence in making difficult decisions, speaking up in meetings, and negotiating, but it also sets an example for others, he explained.
“The fact that I recognized that learning was truly a skill, and that by continuing to learn to this day, I’m able to compete, keep up, and get ahead of most people,” Cuban said. “Because the reality is, most people don’t put in the time to keep up and learn. And that’s always given me a competitive advantage.”
Ex-NBA star turned media entrepreneur Gilbert Arenas was arrested alongside six others in what prosecutors claim was a high-end illegal gambling operation that took place at his luxury five-bedroom Mediterranean style home in suburban Los Angeles. Arenas is facing at least five years in prison on the charge; he told authorities previously that he was unaware any illegal gambling was going on in the house, which he had rented out.
Former Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, 43, also known as “Agent Zero,” was arrested on Wednesday with six other defendants on charges related to what prosecutors claimed was a sophisticated illegal gambling business that operated out of a luxe mansion in suburban Los Angeles.
According to court records, a cornerstone of the illegal poker games was the home Arenas owned on Gable Drive in Encino. Authorities alleged Arenas rented out the estate, which was then staged as a high-end poker den featuring Pot-Limit Omaha, a game similar to Texas Hold ‘em. The poker nights allegedly featured hired chefs, armed guards, valets and a custom felt-topped poker table with “Arenas Poker Club” embossed in all-caps and black and gold.
The indictment alleges that one man in the crew, Israeli suspected organized crime figure Yevgeni Gershman, hired women to work at the games. In exchange for tips, the women served cocktails, provided massages and offered “companionship” to poker players, the indictment states. The women were then required to pay a “tax” of 25% to 35% of their earnings just to be able to work at the games, authorities claim.
Prosecutors alleged Gershman in May 2022 texted a woman to ask her, in code, “whether she was open to engaging in prostitution at his illegal poker game at the Gable House that night.”
Attempts to reach Arenas and Gershman were unsuccessful.
Arenas played in the NBA for 11 seasons on teams such as the Wizards, Golden State Warriors, and Orlando Magic. Following his basketball career, he launched a second act in business, hosting a podcast, No chill with Gilbert Arenas, after starting his own media company with the same name. He also streams a YouTube show weekly that includes NBA personalities, and he’s made multiple investments in real estate ventures in California and Virginia. Arenas married French YouTuber and singer Melli Monaco this year.
Prosecutors claim the poker games differed from friendly card-game nights because the house collected a “rake,” which is a percentage or fixed fee from each pot. The games involved roughly two dozen players and more than a dozen staff members to facilitate illegal gambling, prosecutors said, and operated from September 2021 through July 2022.
The indictment lays out a complicated allegedly criminal enterprise centering around the games. Gershman, 49, allegedly handled the day-to-day, while Arenas allegedly collected rent and fees through an agent. West Hollywood man Arthur Kats, 51, allegedly served as the go-between, authorities said, collecting thousands of dollars in rent payments and setting up the house for game nights. Four others were charged, according to court documents, including Evgenni Tourevski, 48, of Tarzana; Allan Austria, 52, of West Hills; Yarin Cohen, 27, of Tarzana; and Ievgen Krachun, 43, of Tarzana. The indictment states that crew allegedly managed the actual operations, recruiting players and handling money.
Authorities said Tourevski allegedly handled dealers, texting contacts in his phone saved as “Frankie Poker Dealer” and “Dealer Poker” to arrange croupiers for the table games. Austria allegedly managed security, bringing in armed guards and texting photos of games while they were in progress. Cohen allegedly handled the finances, texting the others with data showing the amounts of the rakes, “taxes,” and expenses, the indictment states. Krachun allegedly worked as a “chip runner” who tracked wins and losses, distributed poker chips, and paid workers, court records show.
Federal agents raided the Encino mansion in July 2022, the indictment states, and Arenas allegedly tried, at that point, to distance himself from the poker games. In a petition to recover money seized in the raid, Arenas claimed he “was not involved in whatever was going on at the party.”
The indictment includes text messages allegedly showing that Arenas was aware of pot-limit Omaha games and that he at one point contemplated filming a YouTube episode at one of the games for his channel, Gil’s Arena, which has more than 1 million subscribers.
The defendants face five years on each of the charges.
Tourevski, Austria, Cohen, Kats, and Krachun could not be reached for comment.
Former Washington Wizards player Gilbert Arenas addresses the media before the game between the Washington Wizards and the Miami Heat at Capital One Arena on November 18, 2022 in Washington, DC.
The world population is still growing every year. The amount of farmland is not. That means farmers will need to find ways to use their limited land more efficiently. AI could help, according to agriculture executives.
“Humanity does not have enough food to put on the table for everybody,” Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer of the Syngenta Group, said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore conference last week. “By 2050, we will need 600 million hectares of additional land. That is almost four times the agricultural land in Europe.”
Syngenta has built a network of Modern Agriculture Platform, or MAP centers, in China to help solve this problem. The centers use digital agricultural systems—technology like drones, robots, and AI—to help local growers maximize their farmland’s potential. “Simple advice can really help improve the yield for these farmers,” Sheikh explained.
Malaysia-based Agroz Group is also leveraging AI to help farmers. The company created “Copilot for Farmers” by training an AI model on their standard operating procedures. Junior growers can take a picture of a plant they are growing, and Agroz Copilot will identify whether it’s healthy or not. Founder and CEO Gerard Lim described it as “a tool that puts the power of most senior and experienced growers in the palm of your hands.”
Additionally, Lim noted that he sees robotics as the next phase for the Agroz Group after agentic AI is perfected. “Humanoid robots will work in our indoor farms and in our greenhouses probably by next year,” he predicted
Japanese firm AGRIST is already using robots to improve harvesting efficiency on farms.
Today’s agricultural robots still aren’t as efficient at harvesting fruits and vegetables as humans. Yet farmers “don’t need a perfect robot,” explained Junichi Saito, AGRIST founder and CEO. And AGRIST’s robots have the advantage of being cheap, costing around $10,000, as well as being able to work 24 hours without sleep or food.
Robots are needed “for solving the issue of shortage of labor” in farming, Saito said. His vision is for “AI and the robot and human being [to] collaborate with each other to make the world happier.”
Login
