The software company that you may only recognize from “your session timed out” screens has suddenly emerged as a major winner of the AI boom. This week, Oracle announced hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of contracted revenue from cloud deals with AI giants.

Best day ever (almost)! Oracle’s stock skyrocketed as much as 43% yesterday morning before pulling back to close up 36%. That still represented its biggest single-day gain in more than 30 years, after its dispatch that left analysts “in shock,” per CNBC.

• Oracle is expecting to rake in $455 billion over the next few years for contracts booked last quarter—a fourfold increase from the same time last year.
• That’ll skyrocket its cloud infrastructure revenue from $10 billion last fiscal year to $144 billion by 2030, Oracle projected.
• Most of the payday will come from OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The ChatGPT maker will pay $300 billion over the next five years for Oracle’s cloud computing services.

…as long as AI isn’t a bubble. OpenAI’s revenue is currently less than one-fifth of the amount that it would owe Oracle on average each year, the WSJ noted. Oracle’s future collections mostly depend on ChatGPT taking over the world continuing its exponential growth. Oracle also has contracts with other AI leaders, including xAI and Meta.

Oracle’s co-founder one-upped Elon

The jackpot-like outlook briefly made co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison our planet’s richest person for the first time, Bloomberg reported.

• Since Ellison owns 41% of Oracle shares, yesterday’s morning jump added over $100 billion to his net worth, pushing it a few yards past Elon Musk’s to $393 billion.
• It was the largest single-day wealth increase Bloomberg has ever recorded.

Meet our potential future overlord: In 2012, Ellison bought the sixth-largest island in Hawaii for $300 million to make it more of a playground for the super-rich, which included building a Nobu almost immediately, according to Bloomberg. He’s also dropped millions on Republican political candidates, the University of Michigan’s football program, and a historic Oxford pub.—ML

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk fatally shot at Utah college event. Kirk, 31, died yesterday after being shot while speaking onstage at an event at Utah Valley University. He hosted a popular podcast, was a staunch ally of President Trump, and, as a teenager in 2012, founded Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization now active at over 3,500 college campuses. The assassination was the latest in a recent wave of political violence and was condemned by lawmakers from both parties. An initial suspect in the shooting was released from custody last night after being interrogated by law enforcement, according to FBI Director Kash Patel. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump, who ordered flags to be flown at half mast through Sunday, wrote on social media.

NATO held talks after Russian drones shot down in Poland. After Polish and Dutch jets shot down Russian drones over Poland amid Russia’s aerial bombardment of neighboring Ukraine, NATO members held talks yesterday to discuss the implications. Article 5 of the treaty that created the defense alliance, which calls on members to guarantee each other’s security, is the best known, but the talks were held under Article 4, which allows members to raise their security concerns for discussion—without automatically prompting a response. Russia said it did not intend to attack targets in Poland after EU leaders condemned the incursion. Poland’s prime minister said, “This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.”

Judge says Lisa Cook can stay at Fed for now; Trump appeals. With the Federal Reserve’s interest rate-setting meeting scheduled for next week, we’re starting to get a better sense of who will be there. Late Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the removal of Fed Governor Lisa Cook while her lawsuit challenging President Trump’s decision to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud plays out, leaving her free to participate in the upcoming meeting. However, President Trump filed an appeal yesterday. Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee voted to recommend that the full Senate approve Trump’s nominee Stephen Miran for the Fed governor’s seat left vacant when Adriana Kugler abruptly resigned last month. The Fed is expected to cut rates at the meeting, as the president has urged in his bid for greater control.—AR

Would you ride inside a Zoox? If it looked quite like a box, would you, could you, with a fox? You’ll get the chance to answer if you find yourself in Las Vegas, where Amazon’s autonomous driving unit rolled out its robotaxis to the public yesterday for the first time as the competition among cabs with no drivers heats up.

To start, Zoox taxis will ferry people between specific attractions on the strip, and it’ll be free until Amazon secures regulatory approval to charge for rides.

Crowded lane

Amazon is far from the only tech company hoping to dominate the robotaxi race. So far, Alphabet’s Waymo has pulled ahead with ride-hailing options in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, and a partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. And Tesla began a pilot of its robotaxis in Austin in June.

What makes Zoox stand out? Besides its Seussian name (which is actually an abbreviation of zooxanthellae, a type of algae that spurs coral growth), Zoox is a purpose-built autonomous car rather than a traditional vehicle modified for self-driving. It has no driver controls and only inward-facing seats.

Looking ahead…other robotaxis may have a head start, but Zoox wants Vegas to be just the beginning. The company plans to expand to other cities soon, including San Francisco, Austin, and Miami.—AR

The next influencer video you watch may include them saying: “Come with me as I file my taxes.” That’s because the “no tax on tips” provision that covers jobs like bartenders, servers, and casino dealers in President Trump’s megabill will also apply to digital creators.

The deduction is capped at $25,000 for any single filers making up to $150,000 per year, which is great news for anyone who says “like and subscribe” for a living:

• Most creators earn below the $150,000 mark, per the Creative Class Group.
• A 2024 study from the Creative Class Group showed that more than a quarter of US-based influencers with at least 100,000 followers reported earning tips.
• Digital creators reported a 40% increase in tips in 2024 over the previous year, according to a report from eMarketer.

Defining moment: Creators typically make money through subscriptions or advertising deals, although many platforms like TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube, also offer tipping options. The new law may lead creators to rethink how they ask fans to support them, since tips are eligible for the deduction and subscription revenue is not.

Adults in the room: No one may stand to benefit more than creators on adult sites like OnlyFans, who often rely on “tip menus” for custom content, Creators Guild of America president Daniel Abas told Bloomberg. However, after Bloomberg published its article, a Treasury Department official said that further guidance was forthcoming to exclude tips collected in connection with “illegal activity, prostitution, or pornography.”—DL

The best investment you ever made might be sitting in a dusty binder in your parents’ basement. The Wall Street Journal reports that Pokémon cards are crushing the S&P 500 and even some high-flying tech stocks when it comes to ROI:

• The trading cards have seen a monthly cumulative return of ~3,821% since 2004, per Card Ladder, which tracks trading card values.
• The S&P 500 climbed 483% over that period, while Meta has gone up 1,844% since going public in 2012. (But if you had the foresight to buy Nvidia in 1999, which is now also a member of the Magnificent Seven, you’d still be the biggest winner with 443,225% growth.)

Cards featuring Charizard and friends also have a key advantage over the other popular collectible—baseball cards—which is that they’re not tied to real people whose actions might impact the card’s value. But that doesn’t mean feeling like a Trainer with a full Poké Ball is always a straight line to financial success. Though rare cards have sold for millions of dollars, the price of cards is unregulated and potentially unstable.—AR