Wednesday, September 10, 2025

CEOs at Brainstorm Tech in Park City reveal what’s holding them back in AI and trade

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on what CEOs are saying at Brainstorm Tech in Park City, Utah.
The big story: Poland shoots down Russian drones as Trump criticizes Israel’s strike in Doha.
The markets: Up, up, up!
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning from Park City in Utah, where we’re about to start the final day of Brainstorm Tech. You can watch the livestream here. I loved speaking with Interstellar Lab’s Barbara Belvisi and Vast CEO Max Haot about living “off-planet”—watch our conversation here—and I’ll share more about the impact of AI in manufacturing from Honeywell and Caterpillar. Today, though, I want to share the perspective of founders and business leaders on the impact of geopolitics on business from a conversation led by my colleague Jeff John Roberts. Here’s a taste of what they had to say:

Shoaib Makani, Founder and CEO of Motive: “We use contract manufacturers across Asia. These tariffs are not, paradoxically, high enough for us to nearshore. You’d have to get to 50%-plus for it to make sense for us to move our supply chains to North America. Even if we were at that threshold, we don’t have the manufacturing capacity to bring the vast majority of electronics here.”

Jennifer Ives, Vice President, Artificial Intelligence, Partnership for Public Service: “We’ve seen such a bringing together of industry and public sector leaders to figure out how to approach this. There really isn’t enough thoughtful conversation around regulation and guardrails … I hear, on one side, regulate, regulate and, on the other, deregulate. There is a happy medium.”

John W. Mitchell, President and CEO, Global Electronics Association: “Companies need consistency to make plans and move forward. They’re moving to other countries because they’ll give us a 10-year plan and they’ll follow it. We have a government in this country that changes every four years and they tend to undo everything that happened the previous four years. That’s not a very reliable environment in which to build.”

Ben Van Roo, Cofounder and CEO, Legion Intelligence: “The government isn’t thinking enough about digital agents. In the not-so-distant future, digital agents will be doing intelligence gathering, offensive-defensive cyber … Do we have 5,000 agents working on your behalf?”

Peter Wilczynski, Chief Product Officer, Maxar Intelligence: “The more complicated the system is, the more the actual constraint is labor and really well-trained human capital. It’s not just robots printing out big physical objects … When you look at the cost of a satellite or complex system, it’s denominated in dollars but most of the cost is in labor hours.”

Landon Mossburg, CEO, Peak Energy: “There’s a mentality that AI is the future and, as long as we win on that, we’re going to win. You look at Deep Seek and at how fast China is progressing. It seems quite easy to either steal parts of that technology or reengineer it yourself. On the flip side, how fast are we catching up on manufacturing polysilicon or solar panels or batteries or robots or drones? Who’s going to manufacture more drones? Is it going to be us? I doubt it.”

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Poland shoots down Russian drones

Russia has repeatedly violated Polish airspace in its drone attacks on Ukraine, Polish PM Donald Tusk said. Poland temporarily shut down its airspace to all aircraft, essentially closing all its airports. Experts say the violations may be Putin’s way of deliberately testing NATO’s resolve to fight back against Russian aggression. Also yesterday: President Trump asked the EU to impose 100% tariffs on Russia and India in hopes of pressuring Moscow on Ukraine.

Trump unhappy at Doha strike

The White House criticised Israel for its missile strike on a meeting of Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, yesterday. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals,” the administration said. Long read: The WSJ has a great story about the strategy and tactics behind the strike.

Meta knew kids were looking at porn on its platforms, whistleblower says

“Meta cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the safety or use of its products,” former Meta employee Cayce Savage told the Senate. She alleges that Meta shut down internal research showing that Meta knew kids were being exposed to sexual content in its VR environments.

Job number revisions cut 911,000 from data

Revised job numbers released on Thursday indicate that, from March 2024 to March 2025, the U.S. added 911,00 fewer jobs than reported. The revision casts an even bigger shadow over an already struggling labor market and is a boost to President Donald Trump’s efforts to prompt the Fed to cut rates.

Apple holds “Awe Dropping” event

Apple held its “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday, unveiling eight new products as the company lags behind rivals in terms of AI integration. Here’s the next generation of products that Apple is leading with, including the new iPhone Air.

Epstein book contains a joke about Trump buying a woman

The book of mementoes compiled by Jeffrey Epstein’s friends for his 50th birthday contains a photo of a fake check from Donald Trump to Epstein and a message underneath it explaining that it commemorates a time when Epstein “sells fully depreciated [name redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500.” The woman dated both men, the NYT reported.

Elsewhere: A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump from firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook while her lawsuit against him proceeds … Novo Nordisk laid off 9,000 workers in order to boost profits … There is tension inside Meta between the new staff hired with massive compensation packages for its AI unit and pre-existing employees who are paid less, the WSJ says.