Plus: What Explains This Week's Big Jobs Revision |
Good morning,
Larry Ellison is coming for Elon Musk’s crown as the world’s richest person.The Oracle chairman became nearly $100 billion richer Wednesday—the biggest single-day gain ever—as shares of the cloud computing giant rallied. Ellison briefly became the second-ever person to cross the $400 billion mark, before falling back down to $388 billion by late afternoon. Oracle’s stock surged 36%, largely on the company’s projection that cloud infrastructure revenue, primarily to power AI, will skyrocket. There’s a key reason Ellison benefits so much from Oracle’s gain: stock buybacks, which the company has spent $142 billion on since 2011. As a result, Ellison’s stake nearly doubled to 41% in that time.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
|
| Conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk died at age 31 on Wednesday after he was shot at an event at Utah Valley University. Kirk was a prominent voice in culture wars on college campuses and hosted a popular daily radio show and podcast. Utah and federal law enforcement authorities are still searching for the shooter as of Thursday morning, after two people were detained and later released. MORE: The fatal shooting drew bipartisan condemnation from lawmakers and public figures, with President Donald Trump saying that nobody “understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Kirk,” while California Governor Gavin Newsom said the killing was “sick and reprehensible,” adding that he admired Kirk’s “passion and commitment to debate.” |
|
 | | Photo by Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images |
|
| | | |
|
|
| The U.S. job market just got a big rewrite. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the economy added 911,000 fewer jobs in the year ending March 2025 than previously thought—the largest downward revision on record. The timing isn’t ideal, as the agency itself has been under fire. President Donald Trump accused former commissioner Erika McEntarfer of manipulating data during the 2024 election and has said the BLS “rigged” its numbers. He replaced her with Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, a move Democrats condemned. But the explanation for the correction has to do with small businesses. Nonfarm payrolls (the proper name for the official monthly jobs number) aren’t an actual count of every worker. It’s a survey of employers. The BLS asks firms how many people are on their payrolls. The survey then gets adjusted to try to capture the parts of the labor market the survey misses. Introduced in 2003, the birth-death model uses historical patterns to estimate how many new firms are likely opening or closing each month. It works well in normal times. But not all times are normal. And for the last two years, it has looked out of step with reality. Census Bureau data show that before 2020, Americans were filing about 300,000 new business applications a month. The number was steady for years, but then the pandemic hit. Since then, filings have averaged more than 400,000 a month. Some months have been higher. People want to work from home, and more are willing to try entrepreneurship. New tools, including AI, make it easier to start. |
|
|
| “The jobs report is one of the most watched economic indicators,” says Forbes senior reporter Brandon Kochkodin. “Big revisions shake confidence in the numbers and can move markets. They also provide fodder for political fights. Understanding what drives the revisions can help you make sense of the noise.” |
|
|
| The buy-now, pay-later hype has made its way to Wall Street, as Swedish firm Klarna surged in its IPO on Wednesday. The company, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $52, up 30% from its IPO price, is the first of three high-profile fintech firms aiming to go public this week. In a surprisingly positive development in the fight against inflation, wholesale prices fell in August after Wall Street expected an increase, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a note, Comerica Bank’s chief economist Bill Adams said wholesalers and retailers have been “slow to pass on the costs of tariffs” to consumers—but President Donald Trump celebrated the report while reiterating calls for the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates. |
|
| WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP |
|
| Melinda French Gates announced Wednesday at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit that she is backing a $100 million partnership to address women’s health, targeting long-underfunded research on conditions like cardiovascular disease, women’s mental health and autoimmune disorders. The need is clear: Just 1% of global health research beyond cancer focuses on conditions unique to women. |
|
| Jared Kushner’s brother Josh has been one of the most active investors in AI through his firm Thrive Capital, and now Jared is getting in on the action by cofounding AI startup Brain Co. The firm, which aims to help big corporations and governments use AI to improve their operations, announced Wednesday it had emerged from stealth and raised $30 million in its Series A funding round. |
|
| Presented by ServiceNow | | Bad CRM was then. This is ServiceNow. |  | On the ServiceNow AI Platform, AI is built in—not bolted on. Supercharged with AI agents, it brings your organization together. Because CRM for the AI era isn’t about managing customers—it's about seamlessly connecting the entire business to delight them.
| |
|
| South Korean nationals who were detained after a raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia last week were released early on Thursday, a day later than initially planned, as South Korean officials claimed that President Donald Trump “wanted to explore whether they could stay in the U.S. to continue working and training American workers.” However, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun turned down the offer, saying the detained individuals were “extremely shocked and exhausted.” As ICE ramps up for an agent hiring surge, the agency has acquired a slew of new armor, drones and weaponry, records show. The military-grade gear ranges from Glock handguns to an AI-powered drone for “surveillance,” as the Trump Administration has promised to carry out more mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. |
|
| Amazon’s robotaxi unit Zoox is now offering free rides to the public in Las Vegas, as it aims to compete with the autonomous ride-hail service from Alphabet’s Waymo. It’s a big step for the company, which was acquired by Amazon in 2020: |
|
Five | The number of locations around the city that Zoox vehicles will pick up and drop off passengers | |
| $1.2 billion | The price Amazon paid to acquire Zoox | |
| The end of 2024 | When Zoox started building up its fleet of robotaxis at a 220,000-square-foot factory in California |
|
| As the job market continues to weaken, young people are feeling the effects the most. But to stand out in a crowded field, consider skipping LinkedIn and instead opt for the niche job boards where recruiters actually hunt. Rewrite your résumé for each role, and be sure to share your salary expectations with prospective employers up front—especially if you’re short on time. |
|
| GAMES | | QUIZ | | Uber will offer a few unconventional rides starting next year after its acquisition of a firm for $125 million. Which of the following is one of the types of vehicles that users will be able to ride in? | |
|
|
|
