OpenAI’s valuation is rising as it shifts to a for-profit business

OpenAI’s valuation is rising as it shifts to a for-profit business


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Good morning,

Voters will soon cast their votes to decide which party controls Congress –Now you can bet on it, to.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling that had blocked Americans from betting on the outcome of congressional elections through the Kalshi prediction market. Federal regulators had sought to ban the bets, saying they would “jeopardize the integrity of the election.”

Kalshi is far from the only market for forecasts on politics and other topics. In July, Forbes reported that around $446 million was bet on the outcome of the presidential election on Polymarket.

Shortly after the court decision, 63% of bettors on Kalshi’s website predicted Democrats would take the House, while 37% said Republicans would win.

First

OpenAI closed a $6.6 billion funding round that valued the booming AI company at $157 billion. almost twice as high as the value of the company earlier this year as it plans to transition to a for-profit company. The company said the funding from Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Nvidia and long-time backer Microsoft will go toward its AI research, products and services, and computing capacity.

Crude oil prices, the have a major impact on gas pricesrose again on Wednesday as concerns about violence in the Middle East grew. Oil prices remain far cheaper than they were this summer, with international benchmark Brent crude 14% below its peak in July.

BUSINESS + FINANCE

Tesla shares slumped on Wednesday after reporting third-quarter car deliveries that narrowly beat analysts’ forecasts, but could not meet the most optimistic Wall Street expectations. Still, the 6% year-over-year quarterly shipment growth was a “small step in the right direction,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

Wealth + Entrepreneurship

The IT entrepreneur David Steward, alongside partner Jim Kavanaugh, is the majority owner of World Wide Technology richest black man in Americaand is one of only four Black members in the 2024 Richest Americans ranking. According to a 2019 study, Steward initially provided $250,000 in capital to start WWT in 1990 Forbes profile and has subsequently won top corporate clients such as Apple, Citi, Microsoft and the federal government.

Former shoe salesman Mitchell Morgan’s company Morgan Properties is… third largest homeowner in the countrywhich put him on the Forbes 400 for the first time with a net worth of $5.5 billion. He has achieved his success by investing in older homes in medium-sized cities and quickly renovating them to increase rental income.

TECH + INNOVATION

Unlike some Democrats in the House of Representatives, President Joe Biden is expected to sign a bipartisan bill that will limit federal oversight of qualified semiconductor projects in the United States “Unnecessary delays” could hinder construction from domestic microchip facilities.

Drew Crecente’s daughter was murdered 18 years ago, but on Wednesday he found out someone had created a chatbot using their name and yearbook photo on the Character AI platform. “A grieving father shouldn’t have to find out that his dead daughter is being used to make money as a chatbot on a website,” he said Forbes. Character AI said it has since removed the chatbot from the site for violating its policies.

MONEY + POLITICS

Former President Donald Trump fired his lawyers after the 2020 election and replaced them with Rudy Giuliani because he wanted to willing to “knowingly spread false claims of election fraud.” Special Counsel Jack Smith claimed in a filing that Trump tried to overturn the election. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung condemned Smith’s request as “full of falsehoods” and “unconstitutional.”

New York Mayor Eric Adams is “likely” to face additional charges, prosecutors said Wednesday, less than a week later after he was indicted on federal bribery and fraud charges. Adams, appearing in federal court in Manhattan during a hearing Wednesday, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

A federal judge has suspended a new California state law that cracks down on the law Using AI-generated deepfakes targeting political candidatesWeeks after the creator of an AI-altered campaign video in which he mocked Vice President Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit to block the legislation. In his ruling, the judge wrote that while fears of deepfakes may be justified, the law likely violates the First Amendment.

TRENDS + EXPLAINERS

President Joe Biden ordered 1,000 active-duty troops to help Providing food, water and other services to affected communities by Hurricane Helene, which devastated the south over the weekend. At least 175 people have died, hundreds are still missing and about 1.3 million people were still without power as of Wednesday afternoon.

MORE: The IRS will give individuals and businesses affected by the storm more time to file and pay taxes, including Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as parts of Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. This Taxpayers now have until May 1, 2025and on the whole nothing should have to be done to provide relief.

DAILY COVER STORY

This US company is profiting from the war in Ukraine with killer drones that fit in a backpack

TOPLINE The deadly Switchblade is central to the ambitions of AeroVironment CEO Wahid Nawabi The goal is to make the drone maker a multibillion-dollar company in the next three to five years, up from $717 million in revenue in fiscal 2024.

Switchblade is a loitering munition, an expensive type of disposable kamikaze drone that circles the battlefield waiting for a good opportunity to wipe out its target. Both the Russians and Ukrainians are using them in a war in which dense networks of anti-aircraft systems have marginalized fighter jets and bombers.

As of 2022, the US supplied Ukraine with 700 Switchblade 300s, a $50,000 missile small enough to be carried in a soldier’s backpack and fired with minimal effort. It has been quietly used by U.S. special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade to knock down “high-value” insurgents from up to 6 miles away.

The The Ukraine War was a busy laboratory for unmanned aircraft. This is where manufacturers test and improve their designs. AeroVironment got off to a rocky start against Russian electronic warfare, which has reportedly disabled many sophisticated Western drones, but the company now appears to be among the winners. (Nawabi says that modifications to overcome blockages and better training have increased Switchblade’s effectiveness rate to over 80%.)

Many companies are pursuing the opportunity: A study by the Vertical Flight Society last year counted 123 companies in 32 countries making disposable attack drones. But AeroVironment, which has quietly been the Defense Department’s primary supplier of small drones for the past two decades, may have the relationships, technology and industrial experience to better meet the U.S. military’s sudden desire for mass unmanned systems.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT “The Ukraine conflict has changed the way war is fought, and countries around the world are rushing to recover loitering munitions,” he says Forbes Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Bogaisky. “AeroVironment appears poised to meet the demands of the U.S. military and its allies.”

MORE The US military uses laser weapons in combat

FACTS + COMMENTS

A new study shows that college students who take short phone breaks during class score better on tests and use their phones less during lectures. The results are in the middle of the Debate about the use of mobile phones and its impact on academic success:

One minute: Participants who were given a one-minute phone break had the highest test scores and used their phones less during lectures

“The shorter the better”: The one-minute technology break was more effective than two or four minutes

About 72%: The share of high school teachers in the U.S. who said phone distractions were a “major problem” during class, Pew Research found

STRATEGY + SUCCESS

Are you dealing with a micromanager at work? Whether it’s your boss or not, there are psychologically oriented techniques to reduce the control and interference of someone who is excessively controlling: Try to strengthen your shared identity With the person, this can be as simple as using phrases like “we” and “us” when discussing goals. And be proactive, such as offering regular updates before the micromanager has a chance to ask.

VIDEO

QUIZ

A regional airport was closed Wednesday after an unexploded bomb, likely dropped by the United States during World War II, exploded under the runway, canceling dozens of flights but fortunately causing no injuries. Where did it happen?

A. Germany

E.g. Japan

C. Poland

D.LI

Check your answer.


Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.