Life in the C-suite: How top business leaders power through the day
The drink of the summer is also a recession warning signal.
Inside the whisper networks of laid-off former coworkers.
Homebuyers could be the winners of America's next big land grab.
Here's how much AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic pay employees.
But first: How do they do it?
If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.
This week's dispatch
A day in the life
Ever wonder how the world's most accomplished business leaders make it all look so effortless? How do they conquer jam-packed calendars, build empires, and still find time to fly helicopters or sip matcha in peace?
Welcome to Power Hours, a fresh Business Insider series that peels back the curtain on the daily routines of top CEOs, founders, and creative visionaries. We're going deep on what makes these high performers tick — and how you can apply their secrets to your own life.
We've gone behind the scenes with leaders like Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, who starts his day before sunrise, ruthlessly cuts out unnecessary meetings, and flies a helicopter in his spare time. David Risher, CEO of Lyft, winds down with afternoon matcha and occasionally goes undercover as a driver to stay connected to his mission.
Here's a snapshot of some of the leaders we've profiled.
Anders Kurtén, head of the world's largest yacht brokerage, starts his day with a drive from France to Monaco and a 5K or 10K run, depending on his mood.
Allison Ellsworth, cofounder and chief brand officer of Poppi, said she thrives on chaos and candidly admits she's never taken a formal lunch break. "I'm a creative person," she says. "So I'm very unorganized."
Justin Nedelman, CEO of Pressed Juicery, begins his morning with meditation, hydration, and a sweat session—long before most of us are even awake.
And just the other day, we caught up with billionaire Mark Cuban. At first, he told us his daily routine was "boring." But then he dropped a productivity gem that's surprisingly practical and one that everyone can use.
Each Power Hours profile delivers a dose of inspiration — and a toolkit of takeaways — for readers to better understand how the pros do it all.
So, what are your Power Hours? Let us know, we'd love to hear from you!
Warning at the bar
Surdyk's; Tyler Le/BI
For years, the Spaghett — a mix of cheap beer and Aperol — was known almost exclusively by service industry workers. Now, it's making its way into the spotlight.
The Spaghett's rise is also a sign that the economy is on the edge of disaster. It's a lot cheaper than other cocktails and easy to make at home — a standout choice for when you feel pressure on your wallet.
No frills, great flavor.
All in this together
The silver lining of mass layoffs is that no one has to go through it alone. From former Big Tech workers to laid-off federal employees, old coworkers are banding together on networks like Slack and Signal.
In their private channels, laid-off workers offer each other more than just emotional support. They're helping each other navigate the confusing administrative tasks that come with being fired, sharing job postings, and engaging in mock interviews.
.
America's next big land grab
Secretive investors are betting big on the next homebuilding boom. Known as "land bankers," these investors are scooping up construction-ready real estate and waiting until builders are ready to put shovels in the ground.
The result would be a more reliable homebuilding machine and even cheaper homes. That's great news for homebuyers in the near future.
A new breed of land barons.
AI startup salaries, revealed
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Big Tech companies and startups are racing to dominate the next frontier of AI, and they're shelling out top dollar to the limited pool of tech talent who will join them.
BI pulled federal filings from some of the top AI startups valued at over $2 billion. Companies like OpenAI are dangling mid-six-figure salaries amid the war for talent.
What 13 startups are paying.
Amazon salaries revealed: How much the cloud and retail giant pays
What Microsoft pays software engineers, product managers, and more
See how much Google pays key roles amid the AI boom
This week's quote:
"People won't remember in 10 years why they don't like Nike anymore, but they will still think slightly ill of it."
— A guy who runs a website called Shop Canadian Stuff, following a wave of the "Buy Canadian" movement in response to Trump's tariffs.
More of this week's top reads:
Windsurf was a startup Cinderella story. Now it's become a cautionary tale.
Sydney Sweeney is a meme stock icon now.
Companies love trapping people in subscriptions. Savvy consumers are fighting back.
Jerome Powell isn't flinching from Trump. Leaders should take note.
West Point emails reveal how the prestigious military academy messed up Pete Hegseth's admissions status.
Read Microsoft CEO's memo to staff explaining why the tech giant is laying off workers while making huge profits.
Microsoft staffers react to the layoffs memo with suspicion, anger, and speculation.
Internal xAI documents show how hundreds of AI tutors spent hours recording facial expressions to train Grok.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Meta's year of bold 'superintelligence' bets unlikely to pump profits
By Jaspreet Singh and Aditya Soni (Reuters) -It's crunch time for Mark Zuckerberg as he pulls out all the stops to stay relevant in Silicon Valley's intensifying advanced artificial intelligence race. The Meta CEO has sparked a billion-dollar talent war, aggressively poaching researchers from rivals including OpenAI. But as Meta's spending rises, so does the pressure it faces to deliver returns. For the second quarter, though, Wall Street is bracing for disappointment as the company is set to report its slowest profit growth in two years on Wednesday, rising by 11.5% to $15.01 billion, as operating costs jump nearly 9%. Revenue, too, likely grew at its slowest pace in seven quarters in that period, up an expected 14.7% to $44.80 billion, according to an average analyst estimate from LSEG. While Zuckerberg is no stranger to high-stakes pursuits - Meta's augmented-reality unit has burned more than $60 billion since 2020 - his latest push comes with added urgency because of the underwhelming performance of the company's large language Llama 4 model. He recently pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to build massive AI data centers and shelled out $14.3 billion for a stake in startup Scale AI, poaching its 28-year-old billionaire CEO Alexandr Wang, even as Meta continued to lay off people. Investors have largely backed Zuckerberg's frenzied pursuit of superintelligence - a hypothetical concept where AI surpasses human intelligence in every possible way - pushing the company's stock up more than a fifth so far this year. But they will watch if Meta further increases its capital expenditure for the year after boosting it in April. Alphabet also upped the ante last week, increasing its annual capex forecast by 13% to $85 billion due to surging demand for its AI-powered Google Cloud services. "We view rising capex as positive given... Meta can become a one-stop shop for many marketing departments," said Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, which holds Meta shares. Lagging efforts from Alphabet's Google DeepMind and OpenAI, Meta launched a Superintelligence Lab last month that will work in parallel to Meta AI, the company's established AI research division, led by deep learning pioneer, Yann LeCun. To differentiate its efforts, Zuckerberg has promised to release Meta's AI work as open source and touted that superintelligence can become a mainstream consumer product through devices like Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, rather than a purely enterprise-focused technology. The strategy plays to Meta's strengths, analysts say, pointing to its more than 3-billion strong social media user base and engagement gains in recent years, driven by AI-enhanced content targeting. Still, Meta's mainstay advertising market is under threat from advertisers pulling back spending in the face of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and tough competition from Chinese-owned TikTok, whose U.S. ban now seems unlikely. Some advertisers may have leaned on proven platforms such as Meta amid the uncertainty, but that will not shield the company from questions over its superintelligence ambitions and how they fit into its broader business strategy, said Minda Smiley, senior analyst at eMarketer. "While Meta has seen massive gains from incorporating AI into its ad platform and algorithms, its attempts to directly compete with the likes of OpenAI are proving to be more challenging while costing it billions of dollars." Questions remain about when superintelligence can be achieved, a timeline Zuckerberg admits is uncertain. Meta's LeCun is also a known skeptic of the large language model path to superintelligence. "Meta's AI strategy today is more cohesive than in 2023, but there's still a sense the company is still searching for direction," MoffettNathanson analysts said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
2 Top Stocks That Could Dominate the Rest of 2025
Key Points Nvidia's long-term growth opportunity might be bigger than anyone can imagine. Wall Street continues to underestimate Google's AI technology and competitive position in search. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › The markets are still reaching new highs in the middle of the year. The Nasdaq Composite is currently up 9.1% year to date at the time of writing. In the aftermath of the market sell-off earlier this year, two top tech stocks asserted their dominance in the second quarter. Since April 1, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares are up 57%, while shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) are up 22%. Here's why these stocks could outperform for the rest of 2025 and remain rewarding investments for the long term. 1. Nvidia Nvidia is providing mission-critical technology to power the revolution in artificial intelligence (AI). It focuses on developing graphics processing units (GPUs), which were originally designed for graphics-intensive software like video games, and are now being used by the most powerful supercomputers. The company's market cap is now over $4 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world. Nvidia controls around 90% of the data center GPU market. Its hardware is found in all the leading data centers and used by leading AI researchers like OpenAI, and these customers continue to pour billions into new chips. Last year, revenue doubled to $131 billion, and the current Wall Street consensus forecast has that reaching $200 billion this year. All signs point to Nvidia's revenue continuing to grow into the hundreds of billions of dollars over the next several years, as the company's addressable market continues to expand. For example, nations around the world are building their own sovereign AI infrastructure to be less dependent on foreign AI models that weren't trained on their own languages and cultures. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says this is a $1.5 trillion opportunity. Because there's no substitute for Nvidia's ultrapowerful GPUs, the company stands to generate substantial wealth for long-term investors. On top of the sovereign AI opportunity, Nvidia also should benefit from growth in robotics and autonomous vehicles. Huang sees the potential for robots to be the next multitrillion-dollar industry. If you didn't buy shares during the stock's recent dip, you shouldn't feel you missed out. It's still trading at a reasonable forward earnings multiple of 40; this is within its trading range over the last three years. Long-term, the stock still offers substantial upside as it capitalizes on the global investment pouring into AI from every industry. 2. Alphabet (Google) Alphabet has a strong competitive moat based on billions of people who use Gmail, YouTube, Search, and its other services every day. The company reported another stellar earnings report for the second quarter, beating expectations, and showing why it's a leading AI company to bet on for the long term. The large number of people who use Google services continued to fuel strong growth in advertising revenue in the second quarter. Alphabet said total revenue grew 14% year over year, with net income surging 19%, and earnings per share up 22%. Solid growth in Google Search revenue eased fears that competing AI models from xAI and OpenAI are hurting Google's core business. Search revenue hit a record $54 billion, up 12% year over year. This growth indicates healthy advertising demand, as users engage with Google's AI Overviews feature, which puts a convenient summary at the top of a search query. Another key indicator of Google's competitive position is strong growth in the cloud business. Google Cloud has been gaining share in a $348 billion cloud market, according to Synergy Research. Revenue hit $13.6 billion in Q2, up 32% year over year. Google Cloud continues to show impressive margin improvements, with operating income increasing from $1.2 billion in Q2 2024 to $2.8 billion in the recent quarter. These results indicate that Alphabet stock is undervalued. Despite prospects for double-digit earnings growth in the coming years, you can buy the stock at a forward P/E of just 20, which looks like a steal for this Magnificent Seven company. The stock seems in the process of being revalued by the market and might be trading at a higher P/E entering 2026, so it may outperform market averages. Do the experts think Nvidia is a buy right now? The Motley Fool's expert analyst team, drawing on years of investing experience and deep analysis of thousands of stocks, leverages our proprietary Moneyball AI investing database to uncover top opportunities. They've just revealed their to buy now — did Nvidia make the list? When our Stock Advisor analyst team has a stock recommendation, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor's total average return is up 1,041% vs. just 183% for the S&P — that is beating the market by 858.71%!* Imagine if you were a Stock Advisor member when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 28, 2025 John Ballard has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 Top Stocks That Could Dominate the Rest of 2025 was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Meta's year of bold 'superintelligence' bets unlikely to pump profits
By Jaspreet Singh and Aditya Soni (Reuters) -It's crunch time for Mark Zuckerberg as he pulls out all the stops to stay relevant in Silicon Valley's intensifying advanced artificial intelligence race. The Meta CEO has sparked a billion-dollar talent war, aggressively poaching researchers from rivals including OpenAI. But as Meta's spending rises, so does the pressure it faces to deliver returns. For the second quarter, though, Wall Street is bracing for disappointment as the company is set to report its slowest profit growth in two years on Wednesday, rising by 11.5% to $15.01 billion, as operating costs jump nearly 9%. Revenue, too, likely grew at its slowest pace in seven quarters in that period, up an expected 14.7% to $44.80 billion, according to an average analyst estimate from LSEG. While Zuckerberg is no stranger to high-stakes pursuits - Meta's augmented-reality unit has burned more than $60 billion since 2020 - his latest push comes with added urgency because of the underwhelming performance of the company's large language Llama 4 model. He recently pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to build massive AI data centers and shelled out $14.3 billion for a stake in startup Scale AI, poaching its 28-year-old billionaire CEO Alexandr Wang, even as Meta continued to lay off people. Investors have largely backed Zuckerberg's frenzied pursuit of superintelligence - a hypothetical concept where AI surpasses human intelligence in every possible way - pushing the company's stock up more than a fifth so far this year. But they will watch if Meta further increases its capital expenditure for the year after boosting it in April. Alphabet also upped the ante last week, increasing its annual capex forecast by 13% to $85 billion due to surging demand for its AI-powered Google Cloud services. "We view rising capex as positive given... Meta can become a one-stop shop for many marketing departments," said Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, which holds Meta shares. Lagging efforts from Alphabet's Google DeepMind and OpenAI, Meta launched a Superintelligence Lab last month that will work in parallel to Meta AI, the company's established AI research division, led by deep learning pioneer, Yann LeCun. To differentiate its efforts, Zuckerberg has promised to release Meta's AI work as open source and touted that superintelligence can become a mainstream consumer product through devices like Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, rather than a purely enterprise-focused technology. The strategy plays to Meta's strengths, analysts say, pointing to its more than 3-billion strong social media user base and engagement gains in recent years, driven by AI-enhanced content targeting. Still, Meta's mainstay advertising market is under threat from advertisers pulling back spending in the face of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and tough competition from Chinese-owned TikTok, whose U.S. ban now seems unlikely. Some advertisers may have leaned on proven platforms such as Meta amid the uncertainty, but that will not shield the company from questions over its superintelligence ambitions and how they fit into its broader business strategy, said Minda Smiley, senior analyst at eMarketer. "While Meta has seen massive gains from incorporating AI into its ad platform and algorithms, its attempts to directly compete with the likes of OpenAI are proving to be more challenging while costing it billions of dollars." Questions remain about when superintelligence can be achieved, a timeline Zuckerberg admits is uncertain. Meta's LeCun is also a known skeptic of the large language model path to superintelligence. "Meta's AI strategy today is more cohesive than in 2023, but there's still a sense the company is still searching for direction," MoffettNathanson analysts said. Sign in to access your portfolio
