The Trump administrations widespread cancellation and freezing of clean energy funding is also hitting essential work to improve the nations power grid. That includes investments in grid modernization, energy storage, and efforts to protect communities from outages during extreme weather and cyberattacks. Ending these projects leaves Americans vulnerable to more frequent and longer-lasting power outages.
The Department of Energy has defended the cancellations, saying that the projects did not adequately advance the nations energy needs, were not economically viable and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars. Yet before any funds are actually released through these programs, each grant must pass evaluations based on the departments standards. Those include rigorous assessments of technical merits, potential risks, and cost-benefit analysesall designed to ensure alignment with national energy priorities and responsible stewardship of public funds.
I am an associate professor studying sustainability, with over 15 years of experience in energy systems reliability and resilience. In the past, I also served as a Department of Energy program manager focused on grid resilience. I know that many of these canceled grants were foundational investments in the science and infrastructure necessary to keep the lights on, especially when the grid is under stress.
The dollar-value estimates vary, and some of the money has already been spent. A list of canceled projects maintained by energy analysis company Yardsale totals about US$5 billion. An Oct. 2, 2025, announcement from the department touts $7.5 billion in cuts to 321 awards across 223 projects. Additional documents leaked to Politico reportedly identified additional awards under review. Some media reports suggest the full value of at-risk commitments may reach $24 billiona figure that has not been publicly confirmed or refuted by the Trump administration.
These were not speculative ventures. And some of them were competitively awarded projects that the department funded specifically to enhance grid efficiency, reliability and resilience.
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Grid improvement funding
For years, the federal government has been criticized for investing too little in the nations electricity grid. The long-term planningand spendingrequired to ensure the grid reliably serves the public often falls victim to short-term political cycles and shifting priorities across both parties.
But these recent cuts come amid increasingly frequent extreme weather, increased cybersecurity threats to the systems that keep the lights on, and aging grid equipment that is nearing the end of its life.
These projects sought to make the grid more reliable so it can withstand storms, hackers, accidents, and other problems.
National laboratories
In addition to those project cancellations, President Donald Trumps proposed budget for 2026 contains deep cuts to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a primary funding source for several national laboratories, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which may face widespread layoffs.
Among other work, these labs conduct fundamental grid-related research like developing and testing ways to send more electricity over existing power lines, creating computational models to simulate how the U.S. grid responds to extreme weather or cyberattacks, and analyzing real-time operational data to identify vulnerabilities and enhance reliability.
These efforts are necessary to design, operate, and manage the grid, and to figure out how best to integrate new technologies.
Grid resilience and modernization
Some of the projects that have lost funding sought to upgrade grid management including improved sensing of real-time voltage and frequency changes in the electricity sent to homes and businesses.
That program, the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program, also funded efforts to automate grid operations, allowing faster response to outages or changes in output from power plants. It also supported developing microgridslocalized systems that can operate independently during outages. The canceled projects in that program, estimated to total $7246 million, were in 24 states.
For example, a $19.5 million project in the Upper Midwest would have installed smart sensors and software to detect overloaded power lines or equipment failures, helping people respond faster to outages and prevent blackouts.
A $50 million project in California would have boosted the capacity of existing subtransmission lines, improving power stability and grid flexibility by installing a smart substation, without needing new transmission corridors.
Microgrid projects in New York, New Mexico, and Hawaii would have kept essential services running during disasters, cyberattacks and planned power outages.
Another canceled project included $11 million to help utilities in 12 states use electric school buses as backup batteries, delivering power during emergencies and peak demand, like on hot summer days.
Several transmission projects were also canceled, including a $464 million effort in the Midwest to coordinate multiple grid connections from new generation sites.
Long-duration energy storage
The grid must meet demand at all times, even when wind and solar generation is low or when extreme weather downs power lines. A key element of that stability involves storing massive amounts of electricity for when its needed.
One canceled project would have spent $70 million turning retired coal plants in Minnesota and Colorado into buildings holding iron-air batteries capable of powering several thousand homes for as many as four days.
Rural and remote energy systems
Another terminated program sought to help people who live in rural or remote places, who are often served by just one or two power lines rather than a grid that can reroute power around an interruption.
A $30 million small-scale bioenergy project would have helped three rural California communities convert forest and agricultural waste into electricity.
Not all of the terminated initiatives were explicitly designed for resilience. Some would have strengthened grid stability as a byproduct of their main goals. The rollback of $1.2 billion in hydrogen hub investments, for example, undermines projects that would have paired industrial decarbonization with large-scale energy storage to balance renewable power. Similarly, several canceled industrial modernization projects, such as hybrid electric furnaces and low-carbon cement plants, were structured to manage power demand and integrate clean energy, to improve grid stability and flexibility.
The reliability paradox
The administration has said that these cuts will save money. In practice, however, they shift spending from prevention of extended outages to recovery from them.
Without advances in technology and equipment, grid operators face more frequent outages, longer restoration times, and rising maintenance costs. Without investment in systems that can withstand storms or hackers, taxpayers and ratepayers will ultimately bear the costs of repairing the damage.
Some of the projects now on hold were intended to allow hospitals, schools and emergency centers to reduce blackout risks and speed power restoration. These are essential reliability and public safety functions, not partisan initiatives.
Canceling programs to improve the grid leaves utilities and their customers dependent on emergency stopgapsdiesel generators, rolling blackouts, and reactive maintenanceinstead of forward-looking solutions.
Roshanak (Roshi) Nateghi is an associate professor of sustainability at Georgetown University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
A momentous week in the technology sector made it clear there is no sign the boom in building artificial intelligence infrastructure is slowing despite the bubble talk.
Nvidia, whose processors are the AI revolution’s backbone, became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market value. Microsoft and OpenAI inked a deal enhancing the ChatGPT maker’s fundraising ability and OpenAI promptly started laying groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at $1 trillion.
Amazon said it would cut 14,000 corporate jobs, just days before its cloud unit posted its strongest growth in nearly three years.
These developments, along with numerous earnings calls and interviews with executives, make clear that AI has cemented itself as the single biggest catalyst for global corporate investment and the engine of the market rally, even as some question the sustainability of both.
Spending without ending
Soaring revenue at Microsoft, Alphabet, and other technology giants was expected. But more than 100 non-tech global companies noted data centers on quarterly calls this week, including Honeywell, turbine maker GE Vernova, and heavy equipment maker Caterpillar.
Sales in Caterpillar’s division that supplies data centers jumped 31% in its most recent quarter. “We’re definitely really excited about the prime power opportunity with data centers,” CEO Joseph Creed said this week.
The AI supply chain now spans power, industrials and cooling technology, and investors are looking at the entire ecosystem rather than just core tech,” said Ayako Yoshioka, portfolio manager at Wealth Enhancement Group.
Goldman Sachs estimates global AI-related infrastructure spending could reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030. Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet are expected to spend roughly $350 billion combined this year.
AI investment is propping up global trade, with about 60% of U.S. data-center capex spent on imported IT equipment, according to Oxford Economics, much of it semiconductors from Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam.
At least two dozen companies representing more than $21 trillion in combined market value reported quarterly earnings or spoke with Reuters about AI in recent days. Many, including Procter & Gamble and Boliden, noted that the hoped-for productivity gains, though uneven, are beginning to show.
“We strongly believe the future contribution of artificial intelligence within R&D, within developing innovation, will steadily increase,” Schindler CEO Paolo Compagna told Reuters, though he said AI’s impact is yet to be seen. The Swiss lift and escalator maker raised its annual margin forecast last week.
Year-over-year revenue growth in the U.S. tech sector is up more than 15%, outpacing all other sectors, according to LSEG data.
Apple said it was significantly increasing AI investment and Amazon projected capital spending of $125 billion in 2025.
Worries about overvaluation
Since ChatGPTs debut in 2022, global equity values have climbed 46%, or $46 trillion. One-third of that gain has come from AI-linked companies, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
Analysts warn of a quickening replacement cycle for servers, accelerators and chips as each new generation delivers exponential performance gains. The useful life of AI chips is shrinking to five years or less, forcing companies to write down assets faster and replace them sooner,” said UBS semiconductor analyst Tim Arcuri.
The surge in AI-related spending has widened the gap between investment and returns, with a Reuters analysis showing that sales-to-capex ratios at major tech firms have fallen sharply as outlays on chips and data centers grow faster than revenue. Capital expenditures represent a larger chunk of cash generated by operating activities for some companies, causing some investor concern.
If progress hasnt been made toward monetization within three years, the market will start asking hard questions,” said Sumali Sanyal, senior portfolio manager at investment firm Xponance.
Microsoft reported a record $35 billion in capex in its most recent quarter and projected higher spending, prompting Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler to ask whether the company was spending into a bubble. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood responded that AI-related demand still outpaces Microsoft’s spending. “I thought we were going to catch up. We are not,” she said.
Some companies are financing AI projects with debt. Oracles $18 billion bond sale last month was one of the largest ever for a tech company, and it looks set to be surpassed by an up to $30 billion bond sale from Meta Platforms. News of its largest ever bond sale knocked Meta’s shares down 11% on Thursday.
Still, many economists say the AI cycle is far from exhausted. Goldman estimates AI investment is currently less than 1% of U.S. GDP, far below peaks of 2% to 5% seen during the electricity and dot-com booms.
We are in the early innings and the pace of AI innovation is the fastest we have seen in decades, said Nick Evans, portfolio manager at Polar Capital Technology Trust.
Akash Sriram, Sriparna Roy, Sneha SK, Puyaan Singh, Jessica DiNapoli, and Bernadette Hogg
The day after the jewelry heist at the Louvre in Paris, officials from across Washington’s world-famous museums were already talking, assessing and planning how to bolster their own security.“We went over a review of the incident,” said Doug Beaver, security specialist at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, who said he participated in Zoom talks with nearby institutions including the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. “Then we developed a game plan on that second day out, and started putting things in place on Days 3, 4 and 5.”Similar conversations are happening at museums across the globe, as those tasked with securing art ask: “Could that happen here?” One California museum knows the answer is yespolice are investigating the theft of more than 1,000 items just before the Louvre heist.At the same time, many were acknowledging the inherent, even painful tension in their task: Museums are meant to help people engage with artnot to distance them from it.“The biggest thing in museums is the visitor experience,” Beaver said. “We want visitors to come back. We don’t want them to feel as though they’re in a fortress or a restrictive environment.”It’s an issue many are grappling withmost of all, of course, the Louvre, whose director, Laurence des Cars, has acknowledged “a terrible failure” of security measures.It was crystallized in a letter of support for the Louvre and its beleaguered leader, from 57 museums across the globe. “Museums are places of transmission and wonder,” said the letter, which appeared in Le Monde. “Museums are not strongholds nor are they secret vaults.” It said the very essence of museums “lies in their openness and accessibility.”
Aging security systems
A number of museums declined to comment on the Louvre heist when contacted by The Associated Press, to avoid not only discussing security but also criticizing the Louvre at a sensitive time.French police have acknowledged major security gaps: Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers Wednesday that aging systems had left the museum weakened.François Chatillon, France’s chief architect of historical monuments, noted nonetheless that many museums, especially in Europe, are in historic buildings that were not constructed with the goal of securing art. The Louvre, after all, was a royal palacea medieval one at that.“Faced with the intrusion of criminals, we must find solutions, but not in a hasty manner,” Chatillon told Le Monde. “We’re not going to put armored doors and windows everywhere because there was this burglary.”The architect added that demands on museums come from many places. “Security, conservation, adaptation to climate changethey are all legitimate.”
Prioritizing protection
Even within security, there are competing priorities, noted attorney Nicholas O’Donnell, an expert in global art law and editor of the Art Law Report, a blog on legal issues in the museum and arts communities.“You’re always fighting the last war in security,” said O’Donnell. For example, he noted museums have lately been focusing security measures on “the very frequent and regrettable trend of people attacking the art itself to draw attention to themselves.”O’Donnell also noted that the initial response of Louvre security guards was to protect visitors from possible violence. “That’s an appropriate first priority, because you don’t know who these people are.”But perhaps the greatest battle, O’Donnell said, is to find a balance between security and enjoyment.“You want people interacting with the art,” he said. “Look at the ‘Mona Lisa’ right around the corner (from the jewels). It’s not a terribly satisfying experience anymore. You can’t get very close to it, the glass . . . reflects back at you, and you can barely see it.”O’Donnell says he’s certain that museums everywhere are reevaluating security, fearing copycat crimes. Indeed, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin’s state museums and was hit hard by a brazen robbery in 2017, said it was using the Louvre heist “as an opportunity to review the security architecture of our institutions.” It called for international cooperation, and investments in technology and personnel.
Creating a balance
Beaver, in Washington, predicts the Paris heist will spur museums to implement new measures. One area that he’s focused on, and has discussed with other museums, is managing the access of construction teams, which he says has often been loose. The Louvre thieves dressed as workers, in bright yellow vests.It’s all about creating a “necessary balance” between security and accessibility, Beaver says. “Our goal isn’t to eliminate risk, it’s to really manage it intelligently.”Soon after he took the security post in 2014, Beaver said that he refashioned the museum’s security and notably added a weapons detection system. He also limited what visitors could carry in, banning bottles of liquid.He said, though, that the reaction from visitors had been mixedsome wanting more security, and others feeling it was too restrictive.Robert Carotenuto, who worked in security for about 15 years at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art running the command center, says museums have become increasingly diligent at screening visitors, as they try to thwart protesters. But that approach alone doesn’t resolve risks on the perimeterthe Paris thieves were able to park their truck right outside the museum.“If you’re just going to focus on one risk, like protesters . . . your security system is going to have a lapse somewhere,” he said. “You can stop the protesters . . . but then you’re not going to pay attention to people who are phony workers breaking into the side of your building.”
The magic of museums
Patrick Bringley also worked at the Met, as a security guard from 2008 to 2019 an experience that led to a book and an off-Broadway show, “All the Beauty in the World.”“Museums are wonderful because they are accessible,” he said. “They’re these places that will put things that are thousands of years old and incomprehensibly beautiful in front of visitorssometimes even without a pane of glass. That’s really special.”The tragedy of the Louvre heist, Bringley said, is that such events make it harder for museums to display all their beauty in a welcoming way.“Art should be inviting,” Bringley said. “But when people break that public trust, the Louvre is going to have to step up their procedures, and it will just become a little less magical in the museum.”
R.J. Rico and Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press
The behavioral health sector is at a crossroads. The landscape is shifting rapidly, and for many, it feels harder than ever to plan. The One Big Beautiful Bill is a sweeping piece of legislation that redefines Medicaid eligibility and coincides with a broader restructuring of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump administration.
Combined, these changes have introduced new questions about sustainability, staffing, and service delivery. While some details are still in flux, the direction is crystal clear: Providers will need to adapt.
To help make sense of whats changing, I recently joined a discussion with Chuck Ingoglia, CEO of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, and Monica Oss, CEO of OPEN MINDS. We looked at where the policy is headed and how agencies can prepare.
Here are three key takeaways for leaders preparing for the road ahead.
1. Medicaid work requirements will create operational challenges
Some states have previously tested work requirementsmost notably in 2018-2019, Arkansas implemented work requirements, which led to widespread disenrollments. However, recent changes mark the first time such mandates are being implemented program-wide in Medicaid expansion states for able-bodied adults without dependents. Individuals with serious mental illness or substance use disorders are expected to be exempt, but the definitions and enforcement mechanisms are still being developed.
That ambiguity is already affecting planning. Behavioral health agencies are asking: How will we know which clients are exempt? What documentation will be required? Whos responsible for tracking compliance, and what happens if a claim is denied?
From a technology standpoint, these changes raise important infrastructure questions. Intake processes may need to capture new data points. Eligibility logic may need to be updated more frequently. Payer rules could vary by state or change mid-year.
To paraphrase Monica Oss: Weve seen versions of this before. And what history tells us is that these requirements often reduce coverage without improving outcomes. So, nows the time to figure out how youll track compliance, support clients who might be affected, and safeguard your revenue cycle from gaps in eligibility.
2. Federal funding streams are changing but not vanishing
The legislation coincides with administrative proposals to restructure the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and consolidate federal public health agencies. There are changes HHS introduced in the proposed budget that still require Congressional approval. At the same time, the bill eliminates several behavioral health-specific grants that many safety net providers have long relied on to fund crisis response, peer support, housing navigation, and early intervention programs. As Chuck Ingoglia noted during our discussion, Behavioral health wasnt targeted in this legislation. But we werent protected either. We got caught in the middle.
While new funding channels like the Rural Health Fund will become available, they will largely flow through the states, introducing more variation in program design, oversight, and eligibility. Behavioral health providers will need to align their operations and reporting practices with new criteria faster than ever before.
To avoid being squeezed, agencies must be both grant-ready and advocacy-ready. That means tracking state-level implementation plans, understanding how policy changes affect your population, and demonstrating the value and outcomes of your services, often on short timelines.
3. Compliance and outcomes reporting are under the microscope
In todays funding environment, outcomes reporting has become a compliance imperative. As grant criteria evolve and value-based payment models accelerate, behavioral health providers are being asked to deliver not just care, but proof of impact.
Funding decisions, whether from public sources, private payers, or foundations, are increasingly tied to demonstrable outcomes. But outcomes can mean different things to different stakeholders. To stay competitive, behavioral health organizations need to clearly report clinical progress, service utilization, payer mix, and program effectivenessoften in real time. Health plans want data tied to value-based payment models. Grantmakers want evidence of community impact. State agencies want metrics aligned with the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set)and/or Medicaid Section 1115 waiver goals.
The ability to pull this data quickly and reliably often depends on whether core systems, like your electronic health records, are structured to support it. That includes things such as: built-in outcomes tracking at the point of care, integration with financial and billing systems, and custom reporting dashboards that reflect funder-specific metrics. Organizations that rely on manual reporting or siloed systems will likely struggle to meet new requirements. In a tight funding environment, that can be the difference between receiving a grant or being ineligible.
WHATS NEXT
The days of treating technology as an optional line item are over. Leaders are recognizing that their ability to stay flexiblefinancially, clinically, and operationally often hinges on the strength of their systems.
At a minimum, organizations need tools that can adapt to policy changes, support mobile and hybrid teams, and simplify administrative work for already stretched staff. That includes:
Automating documentation to reduce clinician burnout, streamlining workflows as billing rules shift.
Equipping leadership with real-time dashboards for decision-making.,
Improving client communication through reminders, forms, and follow-ups.
When work requirements roll out, systems will need to flag at-risk clients, adjust claims logic, and document exemption statuses.
When state rules change, workflows may need to flex without requiring a system overhaul. When staffing is tight, onboarding and training must be faster and more intuitive. What were seeing from agencies that are weathering this moment well is that theyve invested in infrastructure designed for change, not just compliance.
Theres no question that the next few years will bring significant changes. But behavioral health remains a bipartisan priority, and there is still room to plan, adjust, and advocate. That means having the right systems, the right partnerships, and the right information to make decisions in real time.
Josh Schoeller is the CEO of Qualifacts.
Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia plans to supply hundreds of thousands of its graphics processing units for projects with South Korean businesses and the government to advance the country’s artificial intelligence infrastructure and technologies.The plan was announced Friday by the government, Nvidia, and some of South Korea’s biggest companies, including chipmakers Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and auto giant Hyundai Motor, after President Lee Jae Myung met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.At a news conference, Huang said he hopes to export Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on loosening U.S. chip restrictions as the two leaders pledged to reduce trade tensions.However, he acknowledged that it was up to Trump to decide, and said there were no current plans to sell the next generation Blackwell chips to China.Huang has gotten rockstar treatment reminiscent of Apple’s Steve Jobs since arriving in South Korea on Thursday to attend meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju. As APEC host, South Korea is using the gathering of world leaders to showcase its ambitions in AI.According to Lee’s office and the companies, Nvidia will supply around 260,000 GPUs to support South Korea’s AI computing and manufacturing capabilities.About 50,000 of the GPUs will be used to support a government project to build a national cloud computing center for AI and Nvidia will provide the same number of GPUs each to Samsung and SK to help them enhance their manufacturing processes through AI and accelerate the development of advanced semiconductors.Hyundai and Nvidia said they plan to collaborate on developing technologies related to self-driving cars, smart factories and robotics, a process that will be powered by 50,000 of Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell GPUs.Speaking to business leaders, Huang highlighted how AI and advanced computing are driving a profound transformation across industries, adding to the need for more infrastructure and capacity. South Korea’s strengths in software, technical expertise and manufacturing give it an edge, he said.“When you combine software, AI technology, and manufacturing, you have the opportunity to really take advantage of robotics,” which is the future of AI, Huang said.
Nvidia featured in Trump-Xi talks
Santa Clara-based Nvidia, whose GPU chips power much of the global AI industry, featured in talks Thursday between Trump and Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, where the leaders agreed to take steps to ease their escalating trade war.Following the meeting, Trump said he discussed sales of computer chips to China. Trump and former President Joe Biden have imposed restrictions on China’s access to the most advanced chips, including those used for AI. Trump said China will speak with Nvidia about purchasing their chips, but not the company’s latest Blackwell AI chips.Nvidia has argued that U.S. export controls hinder American competitiveness in one of the world’s largest technology markets and warned that such limits could push other countries toward China’s AI technology. Talking to reporters in South Korea, Huang said he hopes to eventually sell Blackwell chips to China, “but that’s a decision for the president to make.”“We’re always hoping to return to China,” Huang said. “It’s in the best interest of the United States, it’s in the best interests of China. And so I’m hopeful that both governments will arrive at a conclusion someday where Nvidia’s technology could be exported to China.”Huang acknowledged U.S. security concerns about Nvidia technology being used by China’s military but argued that China already has ample AI capabilities, making the use of Nvidia chips for military purposes largely unnecessary.In August, Trump announced a deal with Nvidia and AMD, another chipmaker, to lift export controls on sales of advanced chips to China in exchange for a 15% cut of the revenue, despite concerns among national security experts that such chips will end up in the hands of Chinese military and intelligence services.Nvidia earlier this week confirmed that it has become the first $5 trillion company, just three months after the company broke through the $4 trillion mark. The milestone underscores the upheaval driven by the AI craze, widely seen as the biggest technological shift since Apple co-founder Jobs unveiled the first iPhone 18 years ago.But there are also concerns over a potential AI bubble. Officials at the Bank of England warned earlier this month that tech stock prices fueled by the AI boom could collapse, and the head of the International Monetary Fund has issued a similar warning.
Huang joins Samsung, Hyundai chiefs for fried chicken and beer
Hundreds of people, including reporters, gathered at a restaurant in southern Seoul on Thursday as Huang, dressed casually in a black T-shirt just hours after arriving in South Korea, shared fried chicken and beer with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Executive Chair Euisun Chung. The tech executives clinked glasses, took bomb shots, and at one point, Huang stepped outside to hand baskets of chicken and fried cheese to the crowd waiting outside.The three later took the stage before hundreds of cheering fans at a nearby gaming festival, where Huang said Korea’s gaming scene aided Nvidia’s early success back when it mainly made graphics cards for gamers.
Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press
Apple delivered financial results during its summertime quarter that exceeded analyst projections, despite being caught in the crosshairs of a global trade war at the same time the trendsetting company is scrambling to catch up to its Big Tech peers in the artificial intelligence race.The performance announced Thursday was driven largely by strong initial demand for its iPhone 17 lineup that went on sale last month.Although the iPhone 17 lacks the AI wizardry featured in rival devices recently introduced by Samsung and Google, Apple spruced up its latest models with a redesign highlighted by a sleek “liquid glass” appearance on the display screens.Apple also largely maintained its pricing on its latest iPhones, despite being squeezed by the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on the U.S. devices that the company mostly makes in India and China. The tariffs cost Apple $1.1 billion during the past quarter and are expected to cost another $1.4 billion during the final three months of the year.The formula apparently was enough to win over consumers, particularly in the United States and Europe, helping to produce iPhone sales totaling $49 billion during the July-September period, a 6% increase from the same time last year. That was slightly below the 8% jump in iPhone sales that had been anticipated by analysts, and less than the 13% bump in sales during the April-June period.IDC estimates that 58.6 million iPhones were sold worldwide in the July-September quarter, putting Apple second behind Samsung at 61.4 million of their Android-powered phones sold worldwide in the quarter.Buoyed by the iPhone results, Apple earned $27.5 billion, or $1.85 per share, nearly doubling its profit from a year ago. Revenue climbed 8% from a year ago to $102.5 billion. Both the earnings and revenue eclipsed the analyst forecasts that steer the stock market.Apple shares surged 3% in extended trading after the numbers came out.In a conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook indicated his belief that the iPhone 17 lineup will continue to do well, predicting even more of the devices will be sold during the final three months of the year. “As we head into the holiday season with our most powerful lineup ever, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come,” Cook said. He cited the iPhone 17’s popularity in most parts of the world except China, where sales of the device dipped by 4% from a year ago.The Cupertino, California, company expects its iPhone sales to increase at least 10% from last year’s holiday season, according to projections provided by Apple’s chief financial officer, Kevan Parekh. Total revenue is expected to rise at a similar rate.Apple’s stock has been on a tear since a report earlier this month from the research firm International Data Corp. telegraphed the quarterly results with a preliminary analysis that concluded the company had set a new July-September record for iPhone sales. The rally catapulted Apple’s market value above $4 trillion for the first time earlier this week and now the stage is set for the shares to hit another new high during Friday’s regular trading session.But Apple has been widely seen as a laggard in the AI craze, one of the reasons that Nvidia a chipmaker whose processors power the technology became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion earlier this week.Apple had promised a wide array of AI features would be rolling out on last year’s iPhone models, but was only able to deliver a few of them. The missing upgrades included a smarter and more versatile version of its frequently flummoxed Siri virtual assistant a makeover that Apple now doesn’t expect to complete until next year.But Apple has a long history of late starts when technology starts to head in another direction before it finally catches up and emerges as a front-runner.If Apple can pull it off again by eventually implanting more AI features on the iPhone, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives believes those breakthroughs could boost the company’s market share by another $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, translating into $75 to $100 per share.
Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
Who saw this coming? Bettors, apparently.
Coinbase Global, one of the largest crypto exchanges on the market, announced its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursdaya relatively benign event by most measures.
But it wasnt the revenue or profit numbers that caught many peoples attention. It was some specific comments and words spoken by CEO and cofounder Brian Armstrong.
Armstrong, near the end of Coinbases earnings call, squeezed in a last-second barrage of keywords.
I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call, and I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3 to make sure we get those in before the end of the call.
While that may not have meant a lot to most listeners, Armstrong was actually saying specific words that bettors on prediction markets had wagered he would say.
Prediction market bettors on platforms such as Kalshi had made bets that Armstrong or other Coinbase executives would say certain keywords during the call, and up until that point, they had not.
So by saying those words at the end of the call, Armstrong handed some bettors a win. That also meant that he handed others a loss.
Unorthodox? You bet, but its all part of a burgeoning new world where sports betting is legal in many states, and American adults can make online bets on almost anything theyd likefrom the outcomes of presidential elections to, in this case, what executives of publicly traded companies will say during an earnings call.
While it seems clear that there are going to be a lot of opportunities to rig or manipulate wagers such as these, this is likely the first time that the CEO of a large, public company has gone out of their way to decide the outcome of a wager in such a way.
Fast Company has reached out to Coinbase for further comment, but has yet to receive a response.
After the call, Armstrong replied via X to say, lol this was funhappened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat.
One X user called out exactly what appeared to have happened: At the end of the Coinbase earnings call today, Brian Armstrong pulled up the mention market and rattled off all the words that weren’t said yet, summing it up as, What a wild time to be alive.
Shares of Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) were up around 3.5% in early trading on Friday, with the stock up more than 27% year to date.
Amazon posted higher fiscal third quarter profit and sales compared with a year ago, fueled by accelerating growth in its cloud computing business and strong spending by its customers looking for low prices at a time when inflation is resurging.The results, announced Thursday, beat Wall Street expectations. The company’s prominent cloud computing arm also surpassed analysts’ expectations, rising 20%. But Amazon issued a cautious sales outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter.Shares, however, soared nearly 13% in after-hours trading.Analysts are analyzing Amazon’s results, along with other retailers’ earnings performances, to get insight into how shoppers are spending heading into the holiday season and how the online behemoth is managing cost increases from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.But Amazon, based in Seattle, is also under pressure to shore up confidence among investors that its computing arm Amazon Web Services is just as powerful as Microsoft’s Azure and Google’s Google Cloud platform. Amazon delivered better-than-expected 20% growth for AWS, following a 17.5% growth in the fiscal second quarter. Andy Jassy, president and CEO of Amazon, noted in a statement that AWS is growing at a pace it hasn’t seen since 2022.Last week Amazon grappled with a massive outage of AWS after a problem disrupted internet use around the world for most of the day, taking down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms.Jassy also noted Amazon is seeing strong momentum and growth across Amazon as artificial intelligence drives “meaningful improvements in every corner of our business.”Jassy also pointed out that in stores, Amazon continues to realize the benefits of innovating in its fulfillment network, and it’s on track to deliver to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever again this year, expand same-day delivery of perishable groceries to over 2,300 communities by end of year, and double the number of rural communities with access to Amazon’s same-day and next-day delivery.Amazon is rapidly automating its warehouses, raising big questions on how many workers it will need in the future.In fact, Amazon announced on Tuesday that it’s cutting about 14,000 corporate jobs as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence and cuts costs elsewhere. Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts were notified Tuesday. Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of about 1.56 million. The cuts amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce.Jassy told analysts that the announcement on job cuts wasn’t “really financially driven and it’s not even really AI driven.”“It’s culture,” he said. “And if you grow as fast as we did for several years, the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.”Late last month, Amazon unveiled a new robotics system being tested in South Carolina for its warehouses that coordinates multiple arms to perform picking, stowing, and consolidating tasks simultaneously. This technology effectively collapses three assembly lines into one, the company said.Amazon is also testing an AI agent that helps human managers deploy workers and avoid bottlenecks. The system allows operators to spend less time analyzing dashboards and more time coaching teams, creating safer work environments, the company said.Amazon’s strategies seem to be powering its latest results.Amazon posted net income of $21.12 billion, or $1.95 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That’s up from $15.33 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year ago.Analysts had expected $1.57 per share for the quarter, according to FactSet.Amazon’s sales rose to $180.2 billion, up from $158.88 billion in the year ago period.Analysts had expected $177.91 billion, according to FactSet.The number of items that Amazon sold in the latest period increased 11%, the company said.In late July, Jassy touted its more than 2 million sellers in its third-party marketplace, all with different strategies of whether to pass on higher costs to shoppers. He also told analysts that it hadn’t seen “diminishing demand nor prices meaningful appreciating.”Amazon said it expects sales for the fiscal fourth quarter to be in the range of $206 billion to $213 billion.
Anne D’Innocenzio, AP Business Writer
A deadly outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to prepared pasta meals is continuing to spread across the United States.
Since September 25, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified three new states with infections, bringing the total number to 18 states.
The agencies first reported food recalls associated with the outbreak in June.
In the last month, seven new cases have been identified, alongside six new hospitalizations. That brings their respective totals to 27 cases and 25 hospitalizations since the outbreak began.
Two more deaths have also been reported, with six deaths recorded in total. There is also one reported instance of fetal loss during a pregnancy-associated illness.
Where has the Listeria outbreak spread?
The outbreak is widespread, with states largely reporting infections in the West, Southeast, and Midwest regions. The CDC has produced a map of where Listeria cases have occurred. Below is a full list of all impacted states:
California
Florida
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
North Carolina
Nevada
Ohio
Oregon
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
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Which products have been impacted?
At least nine different prepared meal products have been recalled in the wake of this outbreak, with major retailers such as Kroger, Trader Joes, and Albertsons being among those that have recalled products.
Used-by dates on recalled products now extend to as recent as this week. The FDA has a full list of impacted products along with product images on its website.
What Listeria symptoms should I look out for?
The outbreak was first discovered in August 2024, but the number of new cases reported as part of the outbreak has increased over the last several weeks, according to a timeline on the CDC website.
According to the FDA, a person who becomes infected by Listeria-contaminated food will normally begin exhibiting symptoms within two weeks. However, signs can appear up to 10 weeks later.
Mild symptoms of a Listeria infection, known as listeriosis, include:
Fever
Muscle aches
Nausea
Tiredness
Vomiting
A severe form of listeriosis can bring symptoms such as:
Confusion
Convulsions
Headache
Loss of balance
Stiff neck
Individuals who are pregnant, 65 and older, or have weakened immune systems are at greater risk. The CDC directs people to call a healthcare provider immediately if you experience any of the above symptoms after consuming affected foods.
Beyond not eating any of the recalled foods you might have purchased, the CDC also says to clean anything that might have touched these foods. These areas could be in the refrigerator, containers, or surfaces. Listeria can live in a fridge and easily spread to other foods or surfaces.
What else is there to know?
The investigation is ongoing, so its possible that more products will be added to the listeria recall. Watch the FDAs and CDCs dedicated pages for any updates.
Think about the last time you made a purchase using your phone. Maybe you were at a coffee shop and when your turn came, you opened your payment app, tapped your phone on the payment device, grabbed your cappuccino, and were done. Quick and easy.
Maybe too quick and easy.
Did the coffee shop miss a chance to engage with you? Did Mastercard miss an opportunity to show how their brand made this priceless moment possible? Did you miss an opportunity to teach your 8-year-old daughter a lesson on the value of money?
As business leaders in an increasingly digital landscape, weve learned to treat friction as a dirty word. Remove friction at all costs is the rallying cry of every customer experience and user experience design team.
But what have we lost in the quest to reduce cart abandonments or boost transaction speed?
By putting speed and efficiency above all else, are we missing opportunities to build connections between consumers and brandsand perhaps each other? Have we lost the space to reflect on the quality of a product, or the substance of an experience? Are we unable to take a moment to think about a choice we just made and wonder whether there are better ones?
Not all friction is bad
Friction, in any of its many forms, can be a positive forcefor teaching, adding value, creating deeper engagement, and fostering human connection. A process thats too quick and simple may not offer enough choice, lead to poorly informed decisions, or might even erode trust. An experience with the right kind of friction in the right amount can prove more valuable in the long run.
Theres a well-known behavioral science principle commonly known as the IKEA effect. Referencing the global home furnishings giant, it refers to a phenomenon where consumers place more value on an item theyve invested time and energy in creating, which is why you refuse to throw away that $30 bookshelf you spent four hours putting together for your first apartment. The experience of building IKEA furniture is a form of friction that fosters ownership and personal value, even if the intrinsic value of the item is low.
To be fair, our obsession with frictionless experiences stems from a legitimate fear: In a world of infinite choice, a single moment of frustration can send a customer to a competitor. But this relentless pursuit of speed and simplicity often results in a sort of non-experience, a homogeneous market where every brand looks and feels the same.
The challenge is to find the right places to re-introduce friction, slowing the process to build and differentiate your brand, deepen customer relationships, or drive sales. You can start by dissecting your customer experiences and looking for three types of friction: imagined, demanded and created.
1. Imagined friction
In our push towards a frictionless world, many customer experience designers have removed frictions that were never really customer challenges. QR codes were introduced as a means of contactless ordering at restaurants during the pandemic and many still remain in use. The ongoing justification is that it saves costs, allows for changes, and reduces staffing requirements. While these might all be true, its no longer a customer need, or a friction point in restaurant dining experiences.
In reality, restaurant orders tend to be larger with physical menus because it allows for collaborative viewing and discussion between diners and provides servers an opportunity to upsell and encourage more human interaction between staff and guests. QR codes, on the other hand, only solve an imaginary friction, and have arguably made the restaurant experience poorer.
2. Demanded friction
Almost every hotel chain has introduced digital, keyless check-in that can be done from your phone prior to your arrival at the property. At the same time, most hotel chains will acknowledge that the adoption of these technologies has been underwhelming. Most guests prefer to wait in line to check in, wanting to make eye contact with a hotel employee, announcing their arrival to a human, and perhaps chatting their way to a room with a view. The friction of a human interaction adds a degree of value, comfort, and reassurance.
Brands should examine their customer journeys to discover points where efficiency and digitization remove essential customer connection points, including connection points customers actually demandeven if it means waiting in line after a six-hour flight!
3. Created friction
IKEA isnt the only brand creating friction to their benefit. With more than 1,000 stores, TJ Maxx is one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. It employs what it calls a treasure hunt strategy, making shoppers rifle through an enormous selection of roughly organized goods to find bargains.
The assortment constantly changes, and categories are merely notions: Youre very likely to find a soup ladle next to a decorative candle. But their loyalists, affectionately called Maxxinistas, fight through the friction to discover a hidden haul.
Reintroducing the right kind of friction
There are different kinds of friction: cognitive, emotional, and interactive. In our rush to make everything effortlessly interactive, weve brushed over the cognitive and emotionalthe humanaspects of friction.
But research shows that customers are drawn to brands that align with their identity and values, not just those that offer the quickest transaction. By viewing friction not as a flaw but as a featureor as a moment to be humanbrands can design experiences that are more intentional, more aligned to need and, ultimately, more valuable.
While no one would make the argument that the consumer experience world should make things slower, more difficult, or more inefficient, no one would suggest we design things to be less human. The trick is, and will be, to balance an increasingly digitized world with more humanity by creating more opportunities for attention, engagement, and connection.
Oscar Yuan is chief strategy + growth officer at Material.
