Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Oracle shares fell 2% Monday following the company’s announcement it planned to raise upwards to $50 billion in 2026. Funding rounds of that size are no longer unusual. The surge in AI investment and the growing need for cloud capacity and data centers have pushed many companies to seek massive financing. But Oracle’s recent run has been unusually volatile. Just a few months ago, its shares jumped 40% in a single day, briefly making CEO Larry Ellison the world’s richest person (ahead of Elon Musk). That spike came after Oracle reported a 359% increase in its remaining performance obligation (RPO, which are expected revenues based on customer commitments). That was…

Elon Musk is merging his rocket maker SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a deal that changes what a future SpaceX IPO represents. After rumors surfaced last week, Musk confirmed the move Monday in a SpaceX blog post, calling the combined company “the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth,” spanning AI, rockets, space-based internet, and his social media platform, X. Public records filed in Nevada and obtained by CNBC show the deal was completed February 2, with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. listed as the managing member of X.AI Holdings. Bloomberg reports that the merged company is expected to price s…

I hold the key to the Ferrari in my hand. I press it, like a puzzle piece, into a notch by my right hip. Yellow fades from the key as the hue enters the shifter and the dashboard comes to life with a wave of yellow. I’m enchanted. My foot can’t wait to slam down on the pedal. The only thing I’m missing is . . . the entire rest of the car. Even for a legendary automaker launching its first EV, it was a preposterous pitch: Ferrari’s big car reveal would not show the car. And it wouldn’t show the car’s interior, either. Instead, journalists were asked to fly—some of them halfway across the world—to scope out a steering wheel, a few chunks of dashboard, a center conso…

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block Inc, is not only laying off nearly half of the company’s workforce, but he wants investors to think he’s an AI-focused trailblazer for doing so. In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Dorsey shared that Block’s workforce is shrinking from over 10,000 people to just below 6,000 people, with some employees entering consultation. Dorsey credits “intelligence tools” with motivating the change, explaining that these tools and a “significantly smaller team” will allow the company to be better and do more. Block owns fintech brands such as the Square point-of-sale system, Cash App, and Afterpay, along with the music streaming service Ti…

Target Corporation on Tuesday reported its all-important fourth-quarter results, which run from the key holiday shopping season in November through January. Unfortunately for the company, its results were, at best, a mixed bag. Yet despite the underwhelming earnings report, shares in the company are currently rising. Here’s what you need to know. Target’s Q4 2025 at a glance Before the opening bell this morning, Target reported its fourth-quarter earnings, which ended on January 31. Out of all the earnings periods Target reports over the year, Q4 is the most important because it covers the holiday shopping season when consumers are traditionally most will…

Anyone who knows me knows I’m an optimistic, joy-seeking, recovering workaholic committed to leading a joyful rebellion against stress and burnout. So when friends started tagging me in posts about U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu’s joyful gold medal win at the Winter Olympics in Milan, I paid attention. Because this isn’t just a sports story. It’s a leadership story. When Liu stepped away from competitive figure skating at the height of her career, it wasn’t because she lacked grit. It was because pushing harder was costing her joy. That choice runs against everything we tend to praise in high performers: Push through. Power through. Never quit. In an interview with …

Over the last 50 years, the chasm between average worker pay and CEO compensation has cracked wide open. Between 1978 and 2024, chief executive pay spiked by 1,094%, according to the Economic Policy Institute—which means the average CEO earns 281 times the average worker. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive research organization, captures how this disparity persists across some of the largest companies in the country and how the low-wage workers they employ are forced to rely on public benefits. The report drew on the S&P 500 and tallied a list of 20 companies that have been dubbed the “Low-Wage 20,” which includes some of the u…

U.S. figure skating champion Alysa Liu captivated audiences during the 2026 Winter Olympics. Now, the young skater is offering some life advice. The 20-year-old won two gold medals in the recent Milan-Cortina games, charmed crowds with her style, cheered on her competitors, and offered her refreshing take on skating for joy, rather than medals. Liu told Today.com she had some nontraditional advice about pushing kids to continue to play sports, even when they want to quit. To put it simply, the Olympian said: “Don’t.” “It does not work,” she explained. “The kid knows himself pretty well, and it’s just never good to force anything.” While Liu’s advice is s…

The numbers on a new patriotic Pennsylvania license plate were designed to be easy to read, but they’ve actually introduced a new point of confusion. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced the “Let Freedom Ring” specialty license plate last summer to promote the commonwealth’s role in America’s founding 250 years ago. The cream-colored plate depicts a dark blue Liberty Bell in the background, along with the previously mentioned slogan and commonwealth’s name in red. None of that is at issue, though: The problem is the style of the zero. The number has a slash through its counter to prevent confusion with the letter O. Now, however, Pennsylvania toll came…

The job market is tough right now: AI résumé filters, the rise of ghost jobs, and waves of industry-wide layoffs. Many workers cling tightly to their jobs in this environment, a phenomenon known as “job hugging.” But a surprising number of mid-career millennials aren’t scrambling to avoid redundancy. Instead, they admit they’d prefer an external push out the door because the alternative—voluntarily navigating a chaotic job market—feels far too risky. And experts say it’s a trend that should leave the cohort right below millennials worried. A recent survey of 2,000 Gen Z and millennial workers in the US by online education platform ELVTR found that 37% of mill…

United Airlines might kick you off a flight if you don’t use headphones to listen to devices Blasting music, your favorite podcast, or your bestie’s TMI voicemail for all to hear can be an annoying experience for those nearby. But one airline isn’t just looking down on passengers who allow sounds from their devices to be overheard by those around them. They’re kicking them off planes. In a newly released policy, United Airlines said it would ban passengers who don’t abide by its new headphone rule. The airline added the rule to its Contract of Carriage, which passengers agree to when buying a plane ticket. Under the Refusal of Transport category, which lists reasons why…

New York is the latest state to consider a bill that would prohibit AI chatbots from dispensing advice that licensed professionals would normally give, such as medical or legal advice. The bill would also allow people who believe they were harmed by such advice to sue the operator of the chatbot. Senate Bill S7263, introduced by Democratic state Senator Kristen Gonzalez, passed out of a technology committee on a 6–0 vote last week and now advances to a reading on the floor of the Senate. Interestingly, the bill requires operators to clearly label their chatbots as AI, but stipulates that such a label isn’t enough to shield them from lawsuits under the statute. The…

Issey Miyake’s latest design is a pair of sunglasses inspired by the art of pottery. The glasses, called “Uroko,” are part of Miyake‘s Spring Summer 2026 collection, Dancing Texture. Rather than the typical two-lens structure, they feature eight separate lenses that curve around the temples like a trippy optical illusion. While the design itself reads futuristic, the texture of the frames is almost organic—like a relic of an ancient advanced society. They’re set to debut on Miyake’s website in mid-March for $680. Each piece of the Dancing Texture collection, which includes structured garments alongside billowing, patterned textiles, pulls inspiration from the …

The deadline to claim the Super Early rate for Fast Company’s Brands That Matter is this Friday. Rates go up March 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET. This is the sixth year that Fast Company will be honoring brands that have turned their marketing and branding strategies into cultural relevance for their core audience. It will also mark the third year that Brands That Matter will recognize CMOs of the Year—the marketers who are propelling their organizations to new heights through their ambitious, effective leadership, thoughtful and creative executives who are finding effective ways to keep their brands top of mind for consumers. For 2026, there are two exciting new recognit…

Xbox employees and players can rest assured that the console’s future is safe from the threat of artificial intelligence, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says. That’s per an internal Q&A with incoming Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Windows Central reported Sunday. Xbox—along with Nintendo’s consoles and Sony’s PlayStation line—has rounded out the big three video game consoles for decades. But last month, there were rumors of its demise: Xbox cofounder Seamus Blackley speculated that Microsoft is “sunsetting” the company’s main player in the video game industry because it wasn’t an AI focus for Microsoft. Longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer resigned last month, and Sharma, who was …