Plus: You’re Not Imagining It: AI Is Already Taking Tech Jobs |
Good morning,
Move over, stocks and bonds. Your next best investment might just be a plush doll with sharp teeth.Labubus, viral toys from Chinese company Pop Mart that typically sell in mystery boxes for $20 to $30, have been resold online for thousands of dollars, and a limited edition doll made in collaboration with shoe brand Vans could be the latest rendition to reach the five-figure mark. Labubus seem to be following in the footsteps of famous collectibles like Ty Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch dolls, but one expert appraiser told Forbes she thinks the trend is here to stay. Whether that’s true or not, Pop Mart is making a killing. The company expects a 350% year-over-year profit increase in the first half of 2025, while its founder Wang Ning joined the ranks of China’s top 10 richest for the first time in June.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaire leaders tied to the social media platform went on trial Wednesday in an $8 billion case over whether the heads of the company knowingly violated a privacy agreement. Plaintiffs allege Facebook—which later rebranded to Meta—allowed third-party apps to collect users’ data about their friends in defiance of a direct FTC order. The issue came to light in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which millions of users’ Facebook data was harvested through a third-party app, and that data was allegedly used to influence major political events. Several cryptocurrencies and related stocks surged amid regulatory optimism Wednesday, as President Donald Trump said most Republicans who defected on advancing pro-crypto legislation would now support the bills. That eventually happened Wednesday night, as the House advanced the bills after a number of conservative lawmakers dropped their opposition. Trump, whose businesses have become more involved with crypto, has pushed the legislation in recent weeks. |
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| Amid the rise of generative AI, many have feared it could replace human workers, and the tech industry is especially vulnerable. Now, CEOs are starting to admit it. Already, younger and more inexperienced programmers are seeing a drop in employment rate; the total number of employed entry-level developers from ages 18 to 25 has dropped “slightly” since 2022, after the launch of ChatGPT, said Ruyu Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Digital Economy Lab of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. Chen and her colleagues studied large-scale payroll data in the U.S. to examine generative AI’s impact on the workforce. It’s a small decline, but a significant development in the field of engineering in the tech industry, an occupation that has seemed synonymous with wealth and exorbitant salaries for more than a quarter century. Suddenly, after years of rhetoric about how AI will augment workers, rather than replace them, many tech CEOs have stopped mincing words. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment up to 20% within the next five years. |
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| Tech companies have started cutting jobs or freezing hiring explicitly due to AI and automation. At stalwart IBM, hundreds of human resources employees were replaced by AI in May, part of broader job cuts that terminated 8,000 employees. Also in May, Luis von Ahn, CEO of the language learning app Duolingo, said the company would stop using contractors for work that could be done by AI. Still, while the technology is beginning to take a toll on developers in the tech industry, it’s actually created more demand for engineers outside of tech, said Chen, because other sectors are adopting AI tools for the first time. |
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| President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Coca-Cola will switch its formulation in the U.S. to use cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, though the company did not explicitly confirm the change. The Corn Refiners Association, a trade body representing corn refiners in the country, pushed back against any change to Coke’s formulation, saying the move would cost thousands of jobs and “boost imports of foreign sugar.” In spite of the uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariffs, small business earnings are up 75% since January, a new report shows. That’s a sign that conditions are not yet worsening, though monthly earnings remain significantly lower than the levels seen in the past two years. |
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| As it spends billions to produce electric vehicle batteries, General Motors is partnering with Redwood Materials to use some of its cells for stationary energy storage systems for the power grid as well as AI data centers. GM is one of the fastest-growing sellers of electric vehicles in the U.S., but as the outlook worsens for EV sales, finding additional uses for battery cells beyond EVs would help the automaker maximize its investment in R&D and production of that technology. Hope Hydration, founded by Forbes Under 30 alum Jorge Richardson, is using advertising to fund free drinking water, setting up stations at events like Formula 1 races and SXSW that show ad campaigns to users as they refill their water bottles. Including its latest round closed this week, the company is armed with $26 million in total funding, which it hopes to use in part to expand to communities in need, like Flint, Michigan. |
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| President Donald Trump has tested the Federal Reserve’s historic independence, but he denied that he plans to fire chairman Jerome Powell Wednesday, despite reportedly discussing his removal with congressional Republicans a day earlier. Trump first appointed Powell in 2017, but he has recently criticized him over the central bank’s decisions not to lower interest rates, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a “formal process” to find a successor for Powell, whose term ends in May 2026, is underway. The Senate voted to approve a White House request to cancel $9 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting early on Thursday. If the legislation passes the House before Friday’s deadline, it would claw back $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—which helps fund PBS and NPR—and about $8 billion from aid programs like USAID.
Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was fired from her post at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday. Comey was the lead prosecutor in the high-profile cases against Jeffrey Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs. The reason behind Comey’s firing was not immediately clear, according to Politico, though President Trump also fired her father from his position at the FBI in 2017. |
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| The IRS Direct File program, which allows eligible taxpayers to file taxes directly with the IRS online for free, has come under fire from Republicans in Congress. And while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act didn’t eliminate Direct File, it’s likely on the way out: |
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90% | The share of respondents to a survey who ranked their experience with Direct File as “Excellent” or “Above Average” | |
| $90 million | The amount taxpayers filed to obtain in refunds in Direct File’s pilot program in 2024, saving an estimated $5.6 million in filing costs | |
| $15 million | The amount of money earmarked in the spending bill for a task force to review the cost and public opinions on public-private partnerships for free tax filing versus government-run programs |
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| As the modern workplace often calls on workers to be “always on,” a brief digital detox can help you restore energy, focus and work-life balance. Designate your bedroom a device-free zone, turn off non-essential notifications, and create specific times for checking email and social media. When the week is over, don’t just go back to old habits: Try and create a more intentional relationship with your devices. |
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