Microsoft employees should strap in for another year of "intensity," according to the software giant's top finance executive.
Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood sent an email to employees on Wednesday after the company reported a $27 billion quarterly profit, telling them the year ahead will require "intensity, clarity, and bold execution."
Hood sends out these emails every quarter when Microsoft discloses its financials. Her missives mostly rehash what the company reports publicly, such as how revenue and profit are growing.
Sometimes, though, Hood's emails provide insight into what the company's top executives deem most important and what they want employees to know.
This time, Hood highlighted updates she said were personal "reminders of the scale and importance of the product and services our customers count on us to deliver." She noted that Azure revenue reached more than $75 billion — the first time the company has disclosed this number — and grew 34%.
What perhaps stood out most was Hood's message to employees, reiterating priorities for the upcoming year, and citing a memo from CEO Satya Nadella last week.
"We're entering FY26 with clear priorities in security, quality, and Al transformation, building on our momentum and grounded in our mission and growth-mindset culture," Hood wrote, mentioning Nadella's email. "Both the pace of change and customer expectations are continuously accelerating."
Hood's email, notably, did not mention Microsoft's recent workforce cuts, which have exceeded 10,000 this year even as profit swells. Nadella's email last week attempted to explain this "seeming incongruence" as the "enigma of success." Some employees weren't satisfied with the explanation.
Hood's email expanded on Nadella's thoughts by telling employees the upcoming fiscal year will require "intensity," which has become a buzzword in the tech industry as companies dial up performance pressure and make significant workforce cuts.
"FY26 will require intensity, clarity, and bold execution," Hood wrote. "I'm excited about what we'll accomplish together as we lead in this next frontier of innovation — driving impact at scale for every customer, every partner, and every community we serve around the world."
Media personality Shannon Sharpe is leaving ESPN but will still host his podcasts.
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Shannon Sharpe isn't returning to ESPN.
The NFL Hall of Famer settled a lawsuit accusing him of rape in mid-July.
Sharpe also hosts the "Club Shay Shay" and "Nightcap" podcasts, which are not part of ESPN.
ESPN is cutting ties with Shannon Sharpe after he settled a lawsuit earlier this month that accused him of rape, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Business Insider.
The media personality and NFL Hall of Famer stepped away from ESPN in late April, when a lawsuit was filed against him by a woman referred to anonymously as "Jane Doe." The lawsuit sought $50 million in damages and alleged that Sharpe raped Doe, among other claims. Doe said in the suit that their relationship began as "rocky but consensual."
Representatives for Sharpe didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Sharpe denied the lawsuit's allegations, calling them "false and disruptive" in an April 24 statement. He said the "relationship in question was 100% consensual" and agreed to temporarily step back from ESPN. Sharpe had said he planned to return to ESPN for the NFL preseason, which begins Thursday night. The Athletic first reported that he wouldn't return to ESPN.
Doe's lawyer announced on July 18 that the case had been settled. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Sharpe joined ESPN in September 2023 and became a regular on ESPN's "First Take," headlined by Stephen A. Smith. Before that, Sharpe spent seven years at Fox Sports, where he cohosted the "Undisputed" sports debate show with Skip Bayless, Smith's former costar.
Sharpe isn't leaving media entirely.
He still hosts the "Club Shay Shay" and "Nightcap" podcasts, each of which posted new episodes just hours before the news of his ESPN departure broke. Those podcasts are on The Volume network, founded by Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd.
Meta will report earnings for the second quarter after the closing bell on Wednesday.
Wall Street expects $44.3 billion in revenue for the quarter.
Heading toward the 5 p.m. ET call, analysts will be looking for info on capex plans and AI opportunities.
Meta Platforms will report its second-quarter results after the closing bell on Wednesday.
Wall Street is feeling mostly bullish heading into the results. Analysts are eyeing strong AI opportunities and growth in ad spend, but there's some growing caution around high levels of capex and Meta's recent hiring spree aimed at furthering its AI ambitions.
Analysts expect the Facebook parent to report $44.83 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $5.89.
Meta stock is up about 20% year-to-date through Tuesday's close, putting it among the top performers in the Magnificent Seven cohort.
The earnings results will be released shortly after the 4 p.m. ET closing bell. The call with analysts is expected to start at 5 p.m. ET.
Bank of America: Meta is a 'Top Online ad stock'
Meta looks best-positioned to reap the benefits of AI-driven advertising, Bank of America analysts wrote in a note.
VINCENT FEURAY/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
Bank of America called Meta a "Top Online ad stock" for 2025 in a note this month.
That's because the company looks best-positioned to reap the benefits from AI-driven advertising, analysts wrote, which they believe could support a higher valuation for the stock.
In a separate note, analysts said they expected Meta to beat consensus estimates for second-quarter earnings, pointing to positive checks the bank conducted on Meta's advertising business. Revenue could come in around $45.5 billion, they estimated, at the higher end of Meta's guidance for the quarter.
The bank reiterated its "Buy" rating on Meta. Earlier this month, it lifted its price target for the stock to $775 from $765, which implies 9% upside from current levels.
Meta earnings expectations: Wall Street estimates EPS of $5.89
Second Quarter
Revenue estimate $44.83 billion
EPS estimate $5.89
Advertising rev. estimate $44.07 billion
Family of Apps revenue estimate $44.4 billion
Reality Labs revenue estimate $386 million
Other revenue estimate $502.4 million
Operating income estimate $17.24 billion
Family of Apps operating income estimate $22.16 billion
Reality Labs operating loss estimate $4.86 billion
Operating margin estimate 38.3%
Ad impressions estimate +6.91%
Average price per ad estimate +7.58%
Average Family service users per day estimate 3.42 billion
TikTok is launching its own version of community notes in the US called "footnotes."
The tool lets TikTok users chip in on identifying bad or misleading information in videos.
The company is joining peers like Meta and X in asking users to help moderate content.
Fact-checkers, start your engines.
TikTok is launching a new "footnotes" feature in the US on Wednesday that allows users to add context or corrective information to videos.
The crowdsourcing tool is similar to X (formerly Twitter) or Meta's community notes. It lets users flag videos they believe contain false claims, information that needs clarification, or media that has been edited or artificially generated. Other users then rate the submission's accuracy and helpfulness. If enough support it, it could get added below an offending video.
The footnotes feature arrives at a key moment for TikTok, which has grown into a popular news source for young people. Last year, 17% of US adults said they regularly get news on the site, up from 3% in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.
TikTok is not relying solely on footnotes to address misinformation.
The company said it uses automation and human moderators to track down false content, working with a global network of fact-checkers to identify misinformation in different markets. But for app users, footnotes may quickly become one of the more visible forms of content review happening on the app.
To start posting footnotes, a user must be based in the US, have been on the app for at least six months, and have no recent community violations on their record. The company said it had registered around 80,000 participants to seed the product at launch.
One challenge that may crop up for TikTok is defining what is or isn't good information in a footnote (an area of contention in the US media landscape where political divisions run deep).
When submitting a footnote, TikTok asks users to provide a link to a "reliable source" to support their claim, though TikTok isn't dictating what is or isn't reliable.
"In the beginning, we're letting our users choose which links to upload and after we go live, we'll be taking a look at some of the sources that come in," Erica Ruzic, TikTok's global head of integrity and authenticity product, said on Tuesday at an event hosted at the company's New York offices. "We will let our users decide what they're deeming an authoritative source to begin."
Initially, footnotes will only appear on the original offending video, which means duets or stitches won't get flagged. They also won't appear on content from advertisers.
The effectiveness of the program may depend on TikTok's ability to prevent its system from being gamed, as bad actors might try to flood the zone with misinformation on a particular topic, Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, said during a Tuesday panel at TikTok's offices.
The speed at which a footnote is submitted, reviewed, and posted will also be an important factor in the program's impact.
"When bad content that's harmful goes viral, it doesn't go viral in two weeks, it goes viral in one hour," Roberta Braga, founder and executive director of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, said during the panel.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos of Netflix, which is said to be exploring video podcasts.
Earl Gibson III/GG2025/Penske Media via Getty Images
Netflix is quietly searching for an exec to lead its video podcast efforts.
The streamer is chasing YouTube, which has cemented itself as a video podcast titan.
Podcast listening and advertising are on the rise, and media giants are investing.
Netflix is quietly searching for a podcast leader as it looks to bring video pods onto the streaming platform, two people close to the company told Business Insider.
Netflix had previously explored potential deals with podcasters as it sought new areas of growth, as BI first reported. The hunt for an exec to lead a video podcasting effort shows how seriously Netflix is taking the space.
"We're really excited about 'The Sidemen' and 'Pop the Balloon' and a wide variety of creators and video podcasters that might be a good fit for us, and particularly if they're doing great work and looking for different ways to connect with audiences," co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the company's second-quarter earnings call this month. "The Sidemen" and "Pop the Balloon" are two Netflix shows that began in the creator realm.
Netflix has not publicized a podcast lead job opening and declined to comment for this story.
One person who had conversations with Netflix said the company wanted someone who could make video-first podcasts for a big audience.
Many of today's biggest podcasts started as audio-only endeavors and later added video as audience habits changed and YouTube gained prominence. The lines between video talk shows and podcasts have increasingly blurred, and newer podcasts often now start with video in mind.
It's not clear where the podcast role would sit inside Netflix.
A second person who had conversations with the company said they believed it would sit in Netflix's TV and film licensing arm under Lori Conkling rather than the original content side. That could signal that Netflix might look to license existing shows, as it's done with some YouTube creators like preschool entertainer Ms. Rachel, as well as make original shows with hosts. Separate content-side hires could follow.
Edison Research has charted the continued rise of podcast listening. In a new report out this week, the firm said 73% of people ages 12 and over in the US listen to or watch podcasts, up from 55% in 2020.
Video is on the rise, too, with 51% of people 12 and up saying they've watched a podcast, according to Edison.
Podcast advertising grew 26.4% to $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the IAB. EMARKETER projects it will top $2.5 billion in 2025.
Other media heavyweights have made big moves to chase the podcast-listening audience and the advertising that can come with it.
In February, Fox acquired Red Seat Ventures, which produces Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and others. Amazon paid $300 million for podcast company Wondery in 2020, The New York Times reported at the time, after snapping up audiobook company Audible in 2008.
The Tea app was hit with a data breach that exposed 72,000 images, including selfies and IDs.
The app said the breach involved a legacy data system with information from over two years ago.
Tea, which lets women share anonymous dating advice and reviews, hit the top spot in the App Store.
Tea, the anonymous dating advice app for women that has the internet buzzing, is in hot water after a data breach.
Thousands of images of women, including selfies and photos of IDs that were used to verify their identity to join the app, were exposed because of the breach.
"We can confirm that at 6:44 AM PST on Friday, July 25th, Tea identified unauthorized access to one of our systems and immediately launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact," a spokesperson for Tea told Business Insider in a statement.
"Preliminary findings indicate that the incident involved a legacy data storage system containing information from over two years ago," the spokesperson said.
The Tea app allows women to post a "man" (including his name, estimated age, location, and photos) with the option to add commentary. Users can also react to posts with green or red flags. Some users post photos of men asking for "tea" — gossip — about them. Others share posts seeking advice. The app does not allow screenshots.
The breach included about 72,000 images — about 13,000 of which were either selfies or photo identification "submitted during account verification," the company said. Another 59,000 images from within the app, as well as comments and direct messages, "were accessed without authorization."
404 Media, which found that the data had been posted to 4chan, first reported the breach on Friday morning,
Tea said it is working with "third-party cybersecurity experts" after the breach and does not believe "current or additional user data was affected."
Meanwhile, in the Tea app, an administrative account "TaraTeaAdmin" informed users about the breach in a post, which now has hundreds of comments on it.
The Tea app has seen an influx of new users and hit No. 1 on the US Apple App Store this week. On Friday, the company posted an Instagram story stating that more than 2 million new users have requested to join the app.
Privacy concerns had already been a topic of discussion amid Tea's virality — but mostly concerning the privacy of the men posted to the app. Now, those concerns are going both ways.
"DeepSeek, and R1 in particular, was the first model I've seen post some points," Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella said.
Stephen Brashear via Getty Images
Some staff questioned Satya Nadella's memo on job cuts amid huge earnings.
Microsoft has shed thousands of employees this year, as it spends $80 billion on AI.
Employees speculated about the memo's intent, and whether it presages more cuts.
Microsoft employees are reacting to a memo from CEO Satya Nadella that attempted to explain why the company has cut jobs while generating huge profits and spending billions on AI.
Microsoft has shed thousands of employees this year. The company has earned $75 billion in profit over the past three fiscal quarters, and plans to spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025. The stock also hit a record earlier this month.
Nadella sent a memo to employees on Thursday describing this "seeming incongruence" as the "enigma of success." The company expects total headcount to remain roughly flat.
Inside Microsoft, some staff speculated about what may have driven Nadella to write the memo: Are more job cuts coming? Is he feeling guilty about earnings, which the company is due to report next week? Was this just a message to Wall Street?
Nadella knows employees are stressed out
Nadella wrote the letter because he knows employees are stressed about increased performance pressure, AI competition, and job cuts, a person familiar with the matter said. Microsoft's last big employee "Signals" survey came out before the recent job cuts, but the company still gauges employee sentiment through daily and weekly "pulse" surveys.
Microsoft has about 220,000 employees, so it's hard to externally gauge the sentiment across the workforce broadly.
"With a company our size, you can imagine we have a variety of reactions internally that range from positive to constructive," Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said. "Satya heard directly back from a number of employees who appreciated his leadership as well as the content and tone of his message."
Criticism from some workers
Reactions from some employees, shared directly with Business Insider and on an employee message board, provide a partial window into how Nadella's memo was received internally.
One employee told BI that they couldn't tell if the CEO was trying to mend feelings or prepare people for more pain.
Another said Microsoft was prioritizing KPIs over people. (KPIs, or key performance indicators, is a common way for businesses to measure how they're doing.)
Handling jobs cuts is never easy, as ousted workers often feel aggrieved and remaining staff can be demoralized.
Another Microsoft staffer told BI that Nadella's memo was tone deaf. This person compared the company to a coal mine and said the CEO is focused on getting more coal and doesn't care how he gets it.
Blind suspicion
Some users in a Blind message board, which requires a Microsoft.com email address to sign up, blasted Nadella's message.
One user posted a parody of Nadella's letter, titled "A quick memo on your continued utility."
Pretending to speak as Nadella, this person said constant chaos, shifting teams, and cancelled projects are not a bug, but a feature designed to keep workers anxious, compliant, and too scared to question leadership decisions. The person also advised colleagues to stay useful, or they risk being replaced.
Another post was an apparent critique of Nadella's email, attributed to Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant. It argued that the rationale behind the layoffs was not fully explained, and didn't directly acknowledge the emotional toll of ongoing change or support mechanisms.
Another user on the Microsoft Blind message board speculated that Nadella was sending a signal to Wall Street. (This is a common technique for most public companies, which exist to serve shareholders, along with customers and employees.)
Microsoft likely understood that the CEO memo would be leaked to BI, suggesting it was crafted as a reminder to investors that layoffs have been happening, there are more to come, business is strong, this person wrote.
Tara Viswanathan, cofounder of AI-powered construction startup Unlimited Industries, recently put OpenAI's agentic capabilities to the test and was impressed by the results.
In a post on X, Viswanathan described how she used ChatGPT (Pro version) to find an Airbnb for an October event. This was her prompt:
"I want to find an Airbnb for [event] in [city / neighborhood] in October this year. I want it for at least that Wednesday through ideally the next Monday. And I want a super nice modern spot that is ideally walkable to the event. Tell me about the area nearby. And ideally it's walkable to coffee shops and things like that too. And I want it to have at least four bedrooms."
She also helped ChatGPT do preparatory work by getting the chatbot to absorb information about her preferences upfront.
"What are some core things that you need to know about me so that you can execute on more complicated tasks accurately?," she wrote to ChatGPT. "Different types of preferences or styles, things like that. Give me a list of questions that I can answer so you can remember. And give me multiple choice answers to make it easy for me."
That resulted in Viswanathan sharing likes and dislikes on topics such as food/meals, hotels, travel, and communication, helping the ChatGPT agent conduct more bespoke research on her behalf.
The AI delivered a spot-on recommendation within about 10 minutes, versus more than an hour if she'd done this online research herself.
"I'm very picky about where I stay," she wrote. "The benefit is less about the time savings and more about the peace of mind knowing it's going to handle it. Insane."
Some travelers love organizing trips more than actually going on them. For everyone else, Viswanathan's experiment offers a compelling glimpse of the future: A proactive AI concierge that knows you well enough to get travel recommendations right the first time.
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There's a fear in investing when a sector swells rapidly. Booming stock prices and aggressive spending feel great, until things inevitably cool off. Then comes the reckoning: Who overdid it in irreversible ways?
Big Tech is in an AI arms race, each company trying to outspend the others on data centers, GPUs, networking gear, and talent. Engineers can be let go. But the infrastructure? That's permanent. If the AGI dream fades, you're stuck with massive, costly assets.
So when Google announced it would hike capex by $10 billion to $85 billion in 2025 eyebrows went up. Most of it is for things you can't walk back: chips, data centers, and networking.
Google is "jumping aboard the AI crazy train," Bernstein Research analyst Mark Shmulik wrote, referencing a song by the late bat biter Ozzy Osbourne.
It's no shock when Elon, Zuck, and Sam flex on capex. But Google? That's surprising. "Google doesn't do this," Shmulik said. The company has been viewed as measured in recent years, prioritizing investment intensity with care. Not anymore.
Now investors want to know: Will these swelling bets pay off?
There are promising signs. Since May, Google's monthly token processing (the currency of generative AI) has doubled from 480 trillion to nearly a quadrillion. Search grew 12% in Q2, beating forecasts. Cloud sales surged 32%. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google is ramping up capex to support all this growth.
But it's still a huge gamble. "Does the current return on invested capital seen in both Search and Cloud hold up at higher [capex] intensity levels," Shmulik asked, "or is the spend a very expensive piece of gum trying to plug an AI-sized hole?" He leans optimistic.
Still, Google shares rose just 1% after these results. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.
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Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters" has gained steam since its launch in mid-June.
Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
"KPop Demon Hunters" is topping Netflix's global movie rankings and breaking records.
The family animation film about a K-pop group has also produced chart-topping songs.
This hit shows a path for Netflix to compete with Disney in animation, analysts said.
K-pop is taking charts of all types by storm — and Hollywood should take note.
Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters" has ranked in the top two of the streamer's global movie charts in each of the five weeks since its mid-June debut, including back-to-back weeks in the top spot.
The animated film about demon-fighting Korean pop singers is, notably, gaining steam instead of slowing down. "KPop Demon Hunters" just had its best week with 25.8 million views, and Netflix said that's the first time one of its original movies has hit a new peak in its fifth week.
The movie's popularity propelled one of its original songs, "Golden," to the top of the Billboard Global 200 last week, though it's since slipped to second — replaced by another K-pop hit.
"KPop Demon Hunters" is now set to become Netflix's biggest animated original film ever, according to entertainment data provider Greenlight Analytics.
"Netflix should absolutely continue pushing forward in the medium," Brandon Katz, the insights and content strategy director at Greenlight Analytics, said of K-pop and family animation.
A Netflix spokesperson pointed to the streamer's top-10 list and an accompanying blog post.
How K-pop can make Netflix more like Disney
Korean shows like "Squid Game" have made waves for Netflix, which responded with a multibillion-dollar investment in the country's content.
K-pop is a natural extension of that strategy. It's wildly popular around the world, as the Billboard charts show, making it an ideal fit for a global streamer like Netflix. Disney+ has taken note with a concert and documentary about BTS, one of the biggest K-pop boy bands.
"The cultural interest and excitement surrounding K-pop continues to intensify," said Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst at Comscore. He added: "The undeniable appeal of K-pop should have everyone's attention in the world of entertainment, studios, theaters, and content creators alike."
Katz went a step further, venturing that "KPop Demon Hunters" could become the backbone of franchises for Netflix, which "doesn't boast a century-long library of intellectual property like its legacy media rivals," specifically those that are family-friendly.
Sing-along franchises, especially those with K-pop, may be the icing on the cake. Netflix could create condensed sing-along versions of the hit songs from "KPop Demon Hunters" to keep its momentum going.
"It's the perfect modernization of Disney's long-running emphasis on family-friendly musicals," Katz said.
Family matters
"KPop Demon Hunters" isn't just a welcome win for Netflix's original film business — it also may be a blueprint for competing with rival Disney in family and animation.
Netflix set out to "beat Disney in family animation," cofounder and former CEO Reed Hastings told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. But despite its best attempts, the streamer hasn't achieved that goal.
Although Netflix has had many family animation hits on its platform, they've mostly come from elsewhere. Popular kids series CoComelon generated huge viewership, but the cartoon is going to Disney+ when its Netflix deal ends in 2027. And while theatrical hits like "Minions" and "Despicable Me 4" topped the charts on Netflix, they were licensed from Universal's Illumination.
By contrast, "KPop Demon Hunters " is a Netflix original, though it was produced by Sony Animation and not the streamer's in-house team. The streaming giant could keep using these production partnerships while its own team masters the craft.
Netflix should make cracking original family films a priority, Dergarabedian said. PG-rated films have outgrossed their PG-13 peers at the box office in 2023, 2024, and 2025, he said, citing Comscore data. That includes blockbusters like Universal's "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and the live-action "How to Train Your Dragon," plus Disney's "Lilo & Stitch."
Katz said that "theatrical animation is arguably the best bang for your buck genre in Hollywood" since the pandemic. He said Netflix must nail the family genre, which already accounts for 15% of its global viewership, to keep Gen Alpha kids from going to YouTube.
"Establishing an emotional connection with young audiences provides Netflix with a direct path to the next generation of disposable income spenders," Katz said.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, talking recently in Washington.
Reuters/Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA
OpenAI partners with Instructure to integrate AI into classroom instruction.
Instructure's Canvas app will use AI to enhance teaching and student engagement.
AI tools will assist in creating assignments, assessing students, and managing admin tasks.
When ChatGPT took the world by storm in 2023, students frequently used the AI chatbot to cheat on homework assignments. Two years later, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is taking a more official role in education.
On Wednesday, OpenAI and edtech company Instructure announced a partnership that brings generative AI into the heart of classroom instruction.
Instructure is the company behind Canvas, a learning app that's used by thousands of high schools and many colleges. If you're a parent, like me, you've probably seen your kids checking for homework assignments and grades in this app on their phones.
Going forward, AI models will be embedded within Canvas to help teachers create new types of classes, assess student performance in new ways, and take some of the drudgery out of administrative tasks.
For students, this provides a way to use AI for school work without worrying about being accused of cheating, according to Melissa Loble, chief academic officer at Instructure.
"Students actually do want to learn something, but they want it to be meaningful and applicable to their lives," she added in an interview. "What this does is it allows them to use AI in a class in an interesting way to help them be more engaged and learn more."
The edtech market is crowded, and many players are integrating generative AI into workflows. Last year, Khan Academy, a pioneering online education provider, launched Khanmingo, an AI powered assistant for teachers and students that uses OpenAI technology.
The LLM-enabled assignment
At the center of the Canvas transformation is a new kind of assignment. Instructure calls it the LLM-Enabled Assignment. This tool allows educators to design interactive, chat-based experiences inside Canvas using OpenAI's large language models, or LLMs.
Teachers can describe their targeted learning goals and desired skills in plain language, and the platform will help craft an intelligent conversation tailored to each student's needs.
"With Instructure's global reach with OpenAI's advanced AI models, we'll give educators a tool to deliver richer, more personalized, and more connected learning experiences for students, and also help them reclaim time for the human side of teaching," said Leah Belsky, VP of Education at OpenAI.
Instructure and OpenAI are aiming for a learning experience that better fits how students interact with technology these days — one that mirrors conversations with ChatGPT, but grounded in academic rigor.
For instance, a teacher could conjure up an AI chatbot in the form of John Maynard Keynes, powered by OpenAI GPT models. Students can chat with this AI economics avatar and ask questions such as what might happen if more supply is added to a particular market.
AI in student assessment
As students work through these AI-powered experiences and prompts, their conversations are compared with the teacher's defined objectives and funneled back into the Gradebook, offering real-time insights into student understanding. This gives educators more insight to evaluate the learning process, rather than just students' final answers.
In Canvas, the Gradebook is a centralized tool that helps instructors track, manage, and assess student performance across assignments, quizzes, discussions, and other activities within a course.
Having OpenAI models involved in the assessment process may raise eyebrows among some educators and parents. However, there will always be a human in the loop, and teachers will have full control over assessments and grades, according to Loble.
Help with scheduling and parent questions
Instructure has also developed an AI agent that helps teachers tackle heavy admin tasks in Canvas. For instance, if Porsche broke her ankle riding her horse and she asks for more time to do homework, her teacher can ask the digital agent to go into the app and bump deadlines for Porsche and all her relevant classes.
This AI agent can even help teachers respond to parent questions. Why did Porsche get a B on her economics test? Her parents might want to know at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday. The Canvas agent can summarize parent questions like these for teachers, potentially spotting similarities and trends within the messages. The teacher can then ask the agent to write a response to the relevant parents.
Again, a human is always in the loop: In this case, the teacher would check the agent's message and edit or re-write it before sending.
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The former technology sector head for Tom Purcell's $3 billion hedge fund Alua Capital is planning to launch Otter Rock in the fourth quarter of this year, a person close to the firm told Business Insider. The fund's commingled vehicle is expected to raise $300 million before launch, and there's a chance the firm might take on additional capital via a separately managed account, the person said.
Karlan declined to comment.
The new fund will invest in stocks across different sectors, with a focus on companies undergoing technological disruption, the person said. It will be based in Stamford, the Connecticut town that is also the headquarters for Steve Cohen's Point72 and Paul Tudor Jones' long-running investment manager.
So far, the firm has hired Dan Beckham as chief operating officer. Beckham, according to his LinkedIn profile, has worked in various executive roles in asset management for decades, most recently as the head of investor relations and business development at private equity firm Saturn V Capital.
Karlan started as an analyst at Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global before going to Stanford Business School. He joined Purcell's firm in 2015 and worked there until the start of 2024, when he began trading his own capital using the strategy he plans to deploy at Otter Rock.
He's the latest addition to the extended Tiger Management family tree, which includes big-name managers known as Tiger Cubs, such as Tiger Global, Coatue, Lone Pine, and the aforementioned Viking, as well as funds started by former employees of these managers. Alua, for example, is run by Purcell, a former executive at Viking, and Marco Tablada, a onetime Lone Pine investor.
Despite Julian Robertson, the billionaire founder of the legendary firm, passing away in 2022, his firm is still active and continues his legacy of backing external managers. The Tiger Cubs, started by former analysts of Robertson's, have spawned the next generation of stockpicking hedge funds, led by Viking in particular.
Former Viking investors who have become founders include Purcell, D1 founder Dan Sundheim, Avala Global founder Divya Nettimi, and Voyager Global founder Grant Wonders. The industry is also closely tracking the progress of former Viking executive Ning Jin's soon-to-launch firm, Avantyr Capital.
Michael Shvo and partners purchased three Miami Beach hotels in 2019.
Plans to turn them into a luxury destination were never finished, and the site remains empty.
A new buyer is lined up, but Shvo could still match the roughly $275 million offer.
The Raleigh, a prominent condo and hotel project along the glitzy Miami Beach waterfront, could soon change hands after six years of stalled development.
Two people with direct knowledge of sales discussions said Nahla Capital, a New York City-based residential builder, has won a bidding process to purchase the property. One of those people said Nahla agreed to pay around $275 million for the project.
They requested anonymity because the sales discussions are confidential.
Real estate developer Michael Shvo, who acquired in the Art Deco district of Miami Beach in 2019 for roughly $243 million, is attempting to match Nahla's offer and retain control of the project, the two people said. They cited a provision that gives Shvo a first right of refusal on bids. To proceed, he would have to raise fresh capital to pay off his partners in the project and also potentially arrange new debt or extend his current loan.
The Raleigh development consists of three adjacent hotels in the Art Deco district of Miami Beach: the Richmond, the South Seas, and the 80-year-old namesake property, the Raleigh.
Among Shvo's chief financial backers was Bayerische Versorgungskammer, a large German pension system known as BVK that has invested in several US real estate deals with Shvo.
"BVK generally does not comment on market rumors and speculation about transactions," a BVK spokesman wrote in an emailed statement.
A deal could herald a new chapter for the project, which for years has consisted of little more than the derelict remains of the three hotels and a vacant dirt lot.
Shvo has said he would restore and redevelop the hotel properties, build an exclusive beach club and restaurant abutting a famous historic pool at the site, and raise a new ultra-high-end condo tower designed by the star architect Peter Marino.
But aside from preliminary site work, including demolition of existing structures, the development never got off the ground. In January, a team from the commercial real estate brokerage and services firm Newmark was hired by an undisclosed partner in the project to shop it to interested takers, as Business Insider has previously reported.
Aerial shot of Miami Beach
BI
Helping to push a sale is the project's $190 million of debt, which was due to expire on July 16. BH3, the Miami-based commercial lender and developer that provided the loan, recently agreed to a three-month extension to allow the Nahla, or Shvo, to arrange an acquisition, one of the people with knowledge of the deal said.
Holding the property has saddled the current owners with considerable costs. As Business Insider previously reported, the group paid nearly $20 million in interest on the project's loan in 2023 alone and millions of dollars more in taxes, insurance, and other charges.
Core Memory founder Ashlee Vance interviews Palmer Luckey, represented by a Foundation humanoid robot, at the Reindustrialize Summit in Detroit.
Julia Hornstein / BI
Palmer Luckey teased the idea of Auduril manufacturing American-made computers.
Luckey joined the Reindustrialize Summit in Detroit virtually.
The Anduril founder also emphasized the importance of working with partners to build tools.
Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril, the defense tech giant that makes weapons and military products, announced that it could produce American-made computers at the Reindustrialize Summit, a conference about modernizing American manufacturing, in Detroit on Thursday.
"This is one of those things where I started talking to companies years ago about this," Luckey said. "I think there's a chance that it's going to be Anduril."
Luckey added that Anduril has held conversations with "everyone you would need to have to do that," including people "on the chip side, on the assembly side, on the manufacturing side."
Anduril doesn't yet make computers, and Luckey isn't completely sold on the effort. He told the crowd: "There are some things Anduril has to do," he said. "There are other things we'd rather have other people do. This is something I'd rather have other people do."
American-made computers aren't a novel concept. PC-maker Dell had several manufacturing plants throughout the US, but in 2009, it closed its North Carolina plant and announced a change to its international manufacturing partner, moving from Ireland to Poland.
Luckey, who addressed the crowd virtually and with a humanoid robot from Foundation, also added that Anduril will not build its own humanoid robot: "We're going to partner with other companies where it makes sense," he said.
Anduril, which was cofounded by Luckey in 2017, makes hardware for the US military, including drones and underwater submersibles, and an AI-powered software platform, Lattice. The company is also working on extended reality headsets and other wearables for the military in a partnership with Meta, which the companies announced in May.
Luckey declined to share what he would name the computer if he were to make it, but hinted that "it's pro-American, and also a gambling reference, but I'll leave it at that."
JPMorgan and Citi reported strong consumer spending and borrowing despite economic uncertainty.
Investment banking activity also rebounded as companies shrugged off tariff concerns.
The data surprised Wall Street watchers, but the economy is not out of the woods yet.
The labor market is rocky, costs are climbing, and uncertainty hangs over the economy. Yet consumers and businesses are showing few signs of strain — at least according to some of Wall Street's biggest banks.
Bank earnings season kicked off Tuesday with JPMorgan Chase and Citi reporting strong consumer spending and borrowing, and unexpected jumps in fees tied to M&A and other investment banking activity.
"We continue to struggle to see signs of weakness," JPMorgan's chief financial officer, Jeremy Barnum, said in a Tuesday conference call to discuss the results. The consumer "basically seems to be fine," he added.
The comments suggest that American households — even amid stubborn inflation and higher borrowing costs — are still swiping, spending, and managing their finances, in many cases more than expected.
Businesses are also showing signs of resilience. Both JPMorgan and Citi also said investment banking activity rebounded last quarter as companies decided to ignore tariff uncertainty and move ahead with mergers, acquisitions, or capital raising.
In one potential sign of consumer strength, JPMorgan said it's seen "positive early reactions" to the costly refresh of its marquee Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, which now costs $795, up from $550.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged on Tuesday that some people were taken aback by the cost hike but said many are continuing to pay the hefty annual fee.
"I've got a lot of comments from people, from friends of my kids," he said, adding that some people have said they are keeping it for what he called "value-added" benefits like access to the Chase Sapphire lounge at the La Guardia Airport.
Inflation remains a factor
At JPMorgan, revenue in the Consumer and Community Banking division rose 6% year-over-year to $18.8 billion, while net income increased 23% to nearly $5.2 billion. Spending on credit and debit cards increased 7% from a year earlier, and average loans across the consumer segment ticked up 1%. Charge-offs on card loans, a key measure of borrower stress, held relatively steady at 3.4%.
Citigroup reported an 11% increase in branded cards revenue, and said average card loans rose 5% in the quarter to $114 billion. Spending volumes increased 4% from the year before to $136 billion. Retail banking revenue also jumped, helped by higher deposit spreads, the firm said.
"We saw good growth in branded cards while retail banking benefited from higher deposit spreads," CEO Jane Fraser said. She expressed a positive outlook for Citi's core consumer business.
The data follows signs of an improving job market in June, even as tech giants and other large companies slash jobs in an effort to cut costs, and the Trump administration warns of looming cuts to government jobs.
Inflation ticked higher in June, rising to 2.7% from 2.4% the month before, according to new government data released Monday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's the second straight month prices have accelerated, with increases seen in food, clothing, rent, and furniture.
The bump was partly blamed on new tariffs, and it may give the Federal Reserve pause as it weighs whether to cut interest rates later this year. For now, markets are dialing back expectations for a rate cut in July or September, analysts said in reactions to the data. One analyst predicted the full impact of Trump's tariffs wouldn't materialize in inflationary data till later this summer.
JPMorgan's investment banking fees rose 7%, driven by gains in debt underwriting and advisory work. Citi reported a 13% jump in fees, led by equity capital markets and advisory — two areas that have struggled since the Fed's rate-hiking cycle cooled dealmaking in 2022 and 2023.
$12.5 trillion BlackRock had a record first half for fundraising in its iShares ETF line.
The firm wants to lean more heavily into higher-fee private market offerings.
CEO Larry Fink and CFO Martin Small laid out the firm's goals on BlackRock's earnings call Tuesday.
There are lots of big numbers that come up on BlackRock earnings calls. It's what happens when you're the largest asset manager in the world.
The key thing for investors in the firm and competitors tracking the behemoth from afar is deciphering which of the gaudy current-day figures will keep growing and which of the optimistic projections will actually happen.
BlackRock already manages $12.5 trillion in assets across institutions, insurers, pensions, and wealthy people, mostly in public markets. It's spent the last year and a half acquiring businesses that would help it move more of that money into lucrative private markets, where fees are higher and capital is stickier.
At its investor day last month, the firm laid out its goal to hit $35 billion in annual revenue in 2030, an increase from $20 billion in 2024.
Business Insider highlighted five stats from the firm's Tuesday call with analysts to demonstrate asset manager is currently and where it hopes to be in five years.
$152 billion
The net inflows into BlackRock products in the first half.
The influx of assets was led by a record six months from the firm's iShares ETF line, which brought in a net $192 billion of new money.
BlackRock's existing business, particularly its low-fee index investing funds, is the biggest pile of money in the industry and is still growing consistently.
Still, the first half of the year was not perfect, as some of the firm's actively traded products experienced a performance dip.
58%
The decline in performance fees collected by BlackRock in the first half of 2025 compared to the first half of 2024.
Rocky equity and bond markets worldwide, caused primarily by the trade policies proposed by President Donald Trump, have been challenging for investors of all sizes to deal with.
At BlackRock, the firm's profit margin dipped to 43.3% this quarter compared to 44.1% in last year's second quarter, and CFO Martin Small attributed 75% of that drop to the decline in performance fees.
Active equity funds in particular have had a rough 12-month stretch, the firm's earnings supplement shows: Only 40% of assets are above the index or peer median.
The firm also noted that private market funds brought in fewer performance fees than last year, but the firm's ambitions for that space remain as large as ever.
$450 million
The amount of revenue HPS Investment Partners is expected to add to BlackRock's coffers in the third quarter, according to Small. The deal for the $165 billion private credit shop closed at the start of July, and Small said the firm will issue the equivalent of up to 13.8 million shares of BlackRock common stock to retain the team at the firm.
The retention of HPS's team will be critical for BlackRock, which wants to fundraise significantly for its private-credit and infrastructure offerings over the next five years.
$400 billion
The fundraising goal for private market fundraising through 2030. Small said he expects it to ramp up in 2028 as HPS and Global Infrastructure Partners, the firm's other large private market investor acquisition, become more ingrained in the firm.
CEO Larry Fink said that he was in Asia last week, where demand for infrastructure and other private-public partnerships is already "beyond our imagination."
Those partnerships — the firm has pulled in Singapore's Temasek in its artificial intelligence infrastructure push — will be needed if the manager hopes to hit its revenue goals.
30%
The proportion of the firm's revenue that it wants to derive from its private markets funds and tech services platform, led by Aladdin, by 2030.
The New York-based firm made nearly $10.7 billion in revenue in 2025's first half, driven by its equity ETFs, which hauled in $2.8 billion in revenue alone. Tech services, meanwhile, made roughly a third of that in the same time frame.
BlackRock's Aladdin platform already serves more than 200 institutional clients, effectively making the firm an infrastructure provider to many of its clients and some of its competitors.
But the firm's fundraising push for its private market offerings also includes the hope that individual retirement accounts in the US will soon be open to such options.
Fink and Small both said that litigation reform is needed before that could happen, but are optimistic about what they've heard out of Washington on the subject.
"We think we have all the building blocks here," Small said.
Correction July 15, 2025: An earlier version of this story misstated BlackRock's revenue target for its private markets and technology businesses by 2030. The goal is for these segments to account for 30% of the firm's revenue, not 40%.
Zombie funds are on the rise as private equity dealmaking and distributions slow.
We asked recruiters about the reputational impact of working at a zombie fund.
They suggested looking for an exit, especially if you're an investor or fundraiser.
Have you heard the news? A new contagion is turning formerly healthy private equity firms into the walking dead. It's not fungal, like in "The Last of Us," a virus, like in "28 Days Later," nor a magical reanimation like the original Haitian Vodou Zombis.
Instead, it's the result of a dealmaking slump, pickier investors, and macroeconomic conditions that have turned some private-equity firms into glorified estate sales, auctioning off their dusty holdings before closing up shop.
There are many definitions of a zombie fund — but no matter how you slice it, it can be bad for your career.
To some, a zombie fund is one that's passed its investment deadline, but is still holding onto capital to invest. Others say it's a firm that can't raise new money and is stuck managing and selling off its current portfolio. Zombie fund can also refer to a fund that has invested capital but is delaying the process of returning money to investors while it continues to collect management fees.
The phrase has picked up steam amid a multiyear lag in M&A and IPOs that has slowed private equity dealmaking and distributions to investors.
Private markets data firm PitchBook said the number of US funds that haven't made an investment in a year, despite raising money in the last six years, is up 50% from 2021 to June 2025, to 651. Internationally, they're up 40% in the same period to 1203.
We spoke to recruiters about the rise of the zombie funds and what that means for people working for them. Here is what they said.
When to run
Recruiters said employees, especially in certain roles, should start job-hunting at the first sign of zombification, though they warned that not every slowdown signals trouble.
"If they are working at a firm that has no plans to fundraise for the foreseeable future, that is usually their sign to go straight to exploring the market," Jessica Xu, head of investor relations recruiting at Selby Jennings, told Business Insider.
This is especially true for people in fundraising roles, where success means growing the firm's assets under management and building strong and deep relationships with investors.
Bill Matthews, partner at BraddockMatthewsBarrett, said it's also true for people in investment roles because a zombie fund will drag down your investment track record.
"Folks have to pick their head up and move," he said, adding, "On the investment side, you want to have a track record of doing deals and exiting deals, and if there's a zombie fund, that's not going to be the case."
Of course, fundraising has slowed across the board and isn't necessarily a death knell. It's important to differentiate between a slowdown due to market conditions and one caused by dissatisfied investors. Just make sure you're keeping busy during the slowdown, said Lisa Steele, a partner at BraddockMatthewsBarrett.
"You're maintaining relationships and keeping current LPs up to date, which is also critically important to these long-term partnerships," she said, referring to limited partners, the industry's catchphrase for fund investors.
You should also be developing new relationships, which Steele said will prove "hugely valuable when you go back to market."
How to interview
A candidate running from a zombie fund may feel tempted to hide their current situation in a bid to make the candidacy more enticing. That would be a mistake, recruiters said.
Matthews said hiring firms tend to know which of their peers are zombie funds from conversations with investors and other intermediaries.
"It's important for candidates to be as transparent as possible with potential employers about their reasons for wanting to leave their current firm, and working at a zombie fund is an understandable reason," Xu said.
The trick is to do it smartly. Recruiters warned against badmouthing the current employer or divulging confidential performance information. Focusing on personal gain is key, they said.
"Many candidates in these situations feel constrained in their ability to drive growth and create meaningful value for their investors," said Xu, adding that they are "seeking environments where they can contribute more strategically."
By focusing on how you'd benefit from moving to a better-performing fund, you come across as a good player on a bad team. And it's worth remembering that there are worse situations to be in.
"A hiring firm's biggest fear is unknowingly hiring another firm's castoff," Matthews said. "A zombie fund situation is obviously a good and valid reason why someone would want to leave."
Cindy Rose is the incoming CEO of ad giant WPP, the company announced Thursday.
Isabel Infantes/Europa Press via Getty Images
Cindy Rose, a Microsoft executive, will become WPP's new chief executive in September.
Insiders see Rose's tech background and board experience at WPP as assets for the role.
WPP issued a profit warning this week, and the ad industry is beset with problems.
As advertising giants try to shed their analog roots, WPP has raided one of the world's biggest tech giants to find its next leader.
The UK-based ad giant on Thursday announced that Microsoft executive Cindy Rose, 59, will succeed Mark Read as chief executive on September 1.
Insiders and shareholders told Business Insider they were hopeful Rose would steady the ship after a rocky period.
The appointment was announced the day after WPP had issued a surprise profit warning on Wednesday, saying cautious clients were spending less and less keen on pitches.
Three company insiders expressed relief to BI that the CEO search was over just a month after Read announced in June he would exit the companyafter 30 years. WPP said it considered both internal and external candidates. Rose was a surprise appointment to most observers BI spoke to and wasn't on their lists of probable candidates.
One WPP insider said they were "very optimistic" about the hire, adding Rose was both a fresh face and knowledgeable about WPP, having sat on its board since 2019.
Mark Read, WPP's outgoing CEO, previously praised Rose for putting Microsoft on the map in the UK.
Reuters
American-born Rose is a former lawyer who switched to corporate roles, worked a long stint at Disney before joining Microsoft, where she is chief operating officer for global enterprise. She is a dual UK-US citizen and will split her time between both countries, which the insider said was another plus for a company listed on both US and UK stock markets.
Her tech background would put her in good standing to lead WPP to capitalize on the newer and more profitable parts of its offering to clients, the insider added.
"She doesn't come from a 'media' or 'creative' background, so won't see the company through that lens either," the WPP insider said.
WPP chair Philip Jansen praised Rose's experience building "enduring client relationships," having led multi-billion-dollar operations. At Microsoft, she's helped large enterprises harness AI.
Jansen said in a statement her expertise would be "hugely valuable to WPP as the industry navigates fundamental changes and macroeconomic uncertainty."
A US to UK import
Rose studied at Columbia University and New York Law School before relocating to the UK.
She worked at the Allen & Overy law firm in London and later joined Disney as legal counsel for Europe.
Ian Twinn, former director of public affairs for UK advertising trade body ISBA, told BI that Rose's legal background would help her navigate the PR highs and lows of running a large public company.
"In terms of being a public affairs guy, you do rely on people with a good legal background — it makes a big difference," said Twinn, who briefly interacted with Rose while she was at Disney. "She was very receptive and very focused."
At Disney, Rose oversaw launches like the theatrical release of "Finding Nemo" in the UK.
Pixar
Just after the turn of the millennium, Rose became Disney's UK managing director, leading thousands of employees across film, TV, and retail, and launching huge movies like "Finding Nemo" in the market.
Andy Bird, former chairman of Walt Disney International, told BI that Rose's experience as a custodian of several different brands in her time at Disney positions her well for understanding the needs of WPP's marketer clients.
"How you stay relevant to consumers is going to be very important to WPP moving forward," Bird said.
Rose was senior vice president of Disney's Europe, Middle East, and Africa interactive media group when she left after nine years to take senior leadership roles at UK telecommunications companies Virgin Media and Vodafone.
Cindy Rose, pictured in 2019 when she was Microsoft's UK boss.
Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In 2016, Rose became chief executive of Microsoft UK. Joshua Graff recalls first meeting Rose at this time, when he was UK country manager at LinkedIn, which Microsoft acquired in December of that year. They worked together at Microsoft for almost 10 years.
Graff described Rose as "direct, empathetic" and "super funny," with an ability to create energy in the teams around her.
"No doubt she will be a talent magnet for WPP," Graff told BI.
Read previously credited Rose with putting Microsoft on the map among UK business leaders and politicians. She also championed diversity, both within Microsoft and in encouraging people from different backgrounds to take up careers in tech. She will be the first woman to be chief executive of a global advertising holding company.
Bringing a touch of Microsoft to WPP
The American-accented Rose was made an Officer of the British Empire, an honor conferred by the UK government, and received it from Queen Elizabeth in 2019. Rose was promoted to become president of Microsoft in Western Europe during the pandemic and rose to her most recent position in 2023. In this role, she was responsible for helping huge blue-chip businesses understand and use technologies like AI to transform their businesses.
WPP, too, is attempting to retool its business as it looks to pick up more lucrative work than simply creating and placing ads. It's investing hundreds of millions annually in AI and other technologies as it hopes to win lucrative contracts in areas like customer-relationship management and digital transformation, areas where Rose has firsthand experience.
Cindy Rose receiving her OBE in 2019.
Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images
Matt Atkinson, former chief customer officer of The Co-Op, worked closely with Rose as the grocer transformed its tech stack, from data infrastructure to the in-store customer experience. It was a big, competitive process, and Microsoft won the pitch, beating out Snowflake, among others.
"She had created an environment where we were able to creatively and technologically collaborate for mutual benefit," Atkinson told BI.
He added she had the "technology chops, emotional intelligence, and a way of being," which made her a good choice to run WPP.
A peacemaker
Rose will join as the ad industry faces a reckoning. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty is making marketers cautious about taking on big projects and launching new brands. Meanwhile, Big Tech players are increasingly touting AI-powered tools that can create entire ad campaigns and lure eyeballs away from the sites that host the ads agencies make.
With WPP's share price hovering at lows not seen since 2009, investors will look for signs Rose is ready to make big swings to attract new business. Insiders are hoping she will boost morale after a series of restructures, layoffs, and the institution of a strict return-to-office policy that has rattled many in the internal ranks.
Claire Enders, founder of media and telecommunications research company Enders Analysis, said Rose "epitomizes the reasons women have increasingly succeeded to these roles."
"She's a peacemaker, she's very non-confrontational, very thoughtful, and she works very well in very large organizations," Enders added.
Scott Radke is New Holland's CEO and co-chief investment officer.
New Holland Capital
$6 billion New Holland Capital has started a new unit to recruit internal investment staff.
The firm had previously invested in external funds in a structure similar to a fund-of-funds.
Former North Rock Capital COO Omar Qaiser was hired to lead the new platform named Plum Island.
The competition for top investing talent is higher than ever.
Megafunds like Izzy Englander's Millennium, Ken Griffin's Citadel, and Steve Cohen's Point72 offer moneymakers tens of millions in potential payouts and top-tier perks. Up-and-coming funds and new launches such as Verition, Walleye, and Jain Global are constantly scouring the landscape for investors. Explosive growth in private market assets means PE funds and new private credit firms need head count.
In short, it's a labor market that favors the employee, not the employer. Englander himself called it a "talent bubble" in 2023.
Despite this dynamic, $6 billion New York-based New Holland Capital is expanding from its traditional, fund-of-funds structure with a new unit focused on bringing investment talent in-house. Plum Island Partners, named after a small spit of land off Long Island discovered by Dutch explorers in the 17th century, will be run by Omar Qaiser, according to a note sent to clients seen by Business Insider. Qaiser is the former COO of investment platform North Rock Capital.
"While the majority of our platform will continue to be composed of external teams, we've now established Plum Island Partners to serve as New Holland's internal trading and operations arm," the note reads.
"While our focus on niche, capacity-constrained strategies will not change, this evolution allows us to expand the universe of potential PMs to include those who have no interest in running a business," the note adds.
When it comes to potential payouts, small platforms cannot compete with firms like Millennium and Citadel. But there are investment strategies that can only manage a certain amount of money — say $100 million — that are not of interest to the biggest players because the potential returns are too marginal to make a difference, several smaller platforms have said.
Some tenured investors are also looking for more customized risk parameters, which the largest funds struggle to offer given their organizations' size.
It's why places like New Holland, among other smaller funds, have decided to bring more talent in-house even as bigger firms like Millennium increasingly allocate to external managers.
"We're trying to be indifferent — we want to find good talent and have a home for them," said New Holland CEO Scott Radke, who noted that he still expects most of the firm's investors to be external.
He said the manager has more than 40 external managers right now, while Plum Island has one internal PM, an equity capital markets investor. The new unit expects to add several more this year, but has no set goal.
New Holland began as an investment advisor for Dutch pension plans and has since become independent. Last month, it hired former Brevan Howard executive Stephan Brohme as its chief risk officer.
AMC Networks' "Better Call Saul." The company recently did a deal with Runway to use its AI for marketing.
Greg Lewis/Sony Pictures Television
Hollywood companies continue to integrate AI, even as they challenge its applications in court.
AI startups like Toonstar and Chronicle Studios are innovating in animation.
Studios are using the tech to promote content discovery and reduce production costs.
Hollywood giants are pushing back on AI's encroachment. Disney and Universal recently sued Midjourney, accusing it of using tech to rip off their famous characters.
But inside entertainment companies, it's a whole different story. The biggest studios and filmmakers are using AI technology in various ways — and people in Hollywood are taking note. The AI on the Lot conference in May has doubled its attendance to 1,200 over three years, while AI editing company Runway attracted some 1,000 people to its third film festival.
The tantalizing promise of AI is that it could solve big problems in the entertainment business, like content discovery and high production costs.
"No matter how you feel about AI tools in the media and entertainment business, they're here to stay," said Peter Csathy, who advises media companies.
Investors are climbing on board companies like Ecco, an AI startup that helps people find titles across multiple streamers using queries like "find me all the shows about F1." It has raised $7 million from Ben Silverman, Shaquille O'Neal, and others.
One such investor is Ishan Sinha, a consumer partner at Point72 Ventures. He said the hype around AI-generated video hasn't translated into consumer interest. He sees the most potential in companies that use AI to promote distribution through personalization, translation, and IP ownership.
"We believe the winning consumer businesses aggregate eyeballs — they have some type of a hook, whether it's content aggregation, playlists, proprietary IP, etc., that acquires and retains users," he said.
Point72 Ventures' investments include GlobalComix, which uses AI to bring recommendations and language translation to comic book and manga readers that they couldn't otherwise find, and Cheehoo, which is working with studios to simplify animation.
The firm also invested in Chronicle Studios, which aims to help animators grow their audiences and monetize their projects beyond YouTube.
Here are some AI companies transforming different areas of Hollywood, and the pitch decks some of them used to raise funding.
Faster, cheaper animation
AI may still be a long way from making full-length movies, but it's quickly making inroads in animation. Toonstar, a startup behind "StEvEn & Parker," uses AI for tasks ranging from developing storylines to creating images and says it can make episodes at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods.
Chronicle Studios is a startup cofounded by Chris deFaria, a former animation president at Warner Bros. and Comcast's DreamWorks, that's using AI to help creators level up, with a focus on animators. Others chasing the animation or independent creator opportunity are Further Adventures, a new studio that's investing in digital creators and independent filmmakers; Invisible Universe, an animation studio backed by Seven Seven Six; and Promise, an AI studio backed by Peter Chernin's North Road, Andreessen Horowitz, and Google.
"AI can't really make stories that are enduring," deFaria told BI. "The biggest pain point is getting an audience."
Other companies, such as Runway, which has raised $545 million from General Atlantic and others, and Connect Ventures-backed Deep Voodoo, are using AI to provide tools for de-aging and other special effects work.
Some have entered the rollup stage. Metaphysic, which was known for de-aging Tom Hanks and Robin Wright for the Robert Zemeckis film "Here," was acquired in February by DNEG Group's AI company Brahma. Papercup's voice-cloning IP was acquired in June by RWS, a content solutions company, while its team was acquired by Scale AI.
AI is also being applied to speed the dubbing process, recreate the voices of bygone actors, and restore old films and TV series. With streamers going global, there's a big demand to translate titles for new markets, and new approaches to AI promise to eliminate awkward dubbing of the past.
Runway made news this past year for deals with Lionsgate to train an AI model on its library and with AMC Networks, which will use its tools to generate promotional material for its shows.
One player, Deepdub, which uses AI to dub movies and shows, just extended its tech to real-time dubbing of live sports commentary, esports shoutcasting, and breaking news coverage.
"For the first time, broadcasters can deliver real-time, multilingual dubbing that captures not just words, but the energy, urgency, and authenticity of live content," said Ofir Krakowski, the company's CEO.
Startups are tackling different phases of production
A third area where AI startups have been active in Hollywood is in the content creation process more broadly.
This can involve everything from AI in the script reading phase to scouring video libraries to generate new ideas for titles based on what's performed well in the past.
One, Paris-based Moments Lab, recently raised a $24 million round from backers including Oxx and Orange Ventures to expand its AI tools that are used by Warner Bros. Discovery, Hearst, and others.
Moments can make clips for social media seven times faster than the conventional approach, cofounder Phil Petitpont recently told BI, citing internal research. He said media companies would be able to use AI to help make full-length documentaries based on their video libraries in several months, while predictive modeling tools that can suggest audience-boosting changes are a year away.
"We're not very far from that because audience data is very easily available on YouTube," he said.
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