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In a rural corner of Louisiana, Meta is building one of the world’s largest data centers, a $10 billion behemoth as big as 70 football fields that will consume more power in a day than the entire city of New Orleans at the peak of summer. While the colossal project is impossible to miss in Richland Parish, a farming community of 20,000 residents, not everything is visible, including how much the social media giant will pay toward the more than $3 billion in new electricity infrastructure needed to power the facility. Watchdogs have warned that in the rush to capitalize on the AI-driven data center boom, some states are allowing massive tech companies to direct exp…

Former President Bill Clinton opened the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative Wednesday with a list of things that worry him. “It would be irresponsible, almost jarring, for us to take off and not acknowledge the traumatic rise in political violence that we’ve seen in our country,” Clinton said about the shooting deaths of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. “We’re pulling further and further away from one another.” Clinton said he worried about the dismantling of domestic and foreign assistance programs, “the war on science and public health,” cuts to education, trade wars, and be…

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, which means many entrepreneurs’ minds are turning towards beach getaways, lakeside camping trips, or lazy days at the pool with the kids. These kinds of water-based activities are a great way to relax and stay cool. But according to fascinating research in neuroscience, swimming isn’t just a fun vacation activity. It actually has special brain benefits that other forms of exercise just can’t match. Not just another form of exercise It will surprise exactly no one that exercise is good for your brain. (If this is news to you, here are some studies for you to get up to speed.) Swimming is, obviously, a …

Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and other former top economic officials appointed by presidents of both parties urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to preserve the Federal Reserve’s political independence and allow Lisa Cook to remain as a central bank governor for now. The justices are weighing an emergency appeal from the administration to remove Cook while her lawsuit challenging her firing by Republican President Donald The President proceeds through the courts. The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed board, which was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a s…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on the terms of Nvidia’s investment in OpenAI, in which the GPU maker gets guaranteed chip sales, an equity stake, and likely a product road map for years to come. I also look at the industry’s fixation on huge models and the quiet appeal of small ones. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and f…

If you think Jimmy Kimmel’s return to late night television this week spells the end of that whole saga, well, think again: A group of investors is demanding that Walt Disney share information about why he was suspended in the first place. Lawyers representing the American Federation of Teachers, Reporters Without Borders and other groups of Disney shareholders sent a letter to the entertainment giant on Wednesday requesting internal documents and communications related to the decision to remove Kimmel from the air. Kimmel was suspended by ABC “indefinitely” last week related to comments he made about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The group of …

A newly released report from Senate Democrats alleges the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has “copied Americans’ sensitive Social Security and employment data into a cloud database without any verified security controls,” and is “operating outside federal law, with unchecked access to Americans’ personal data” at the Social Security Administration (SSA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). DOGE was initially led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The report, released on Thursday by U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI)—a ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee—found DOGE is “worki…

Accenture beat fourth-quarter revenue estimates and unveiled a six‑month, $865 million restructuring to realign its workforce and operations for rising demand in digital and AI services. The restructuring program highlights the broader trend of companies adapting their workforce and operations to meet growing demand for digital and AI services, while using restructuring to cut costs and funnel savings into training and operational efficiency. The plan includes severance and selected divestitures, with savings redirected to staff training and operational efficiency. The Dublin-based company expects about $250 million in charges in the November quarter, on top o…

An uptick in consumer spending helped the U.S. economy expand at a surprising 3.8% from April through June, the government reported in a dramatic upgrade of its previous estimate of second-quarter growth. U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded in the spring from a 0.6% first-quarter drop caused by fallout from President Donald The President’s trade wars, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The department had previously estimated second-quarter growth at 3.3%, and forecasters had expected a repeat of that figure. The first-quarter GDP drop, the first retreat of the U.S. economy in three years, was mainly caused by a s…

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained sluggish in August, even as a late-summer slide in mortgage rates brought home loan borrowing costs to a 10-month low. Existing home sales slipped 0.2% last month from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the slowest sales pace since June. Sales rose 1.8% compared with August last year. The latest sales figure topped the 3.96 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. The national median sales price increased 2% in August from a year earlier to $422,600. That’s the 26th consecutive month that home prices have r…

Want to switch to Apple Music because you can’t find your favorite indie band on Spotify? Or maybe you’re on Amazon Music but saw a new subscriber offer on Tidal that’s too good to pass up. There are a variety of reasons to change music providers. But if you’re thinking about it, and you’re worried about losing your library of saved songs and personalized playlists, fear not: there are ways to bring all of it with you. Many music streaming services don’t make it obvious — often burying instructions deep in FAQs and making the process arduous — but they do offer options to help migrate your collection. Apple made it easier last month when it quietly rolled out …

Along the White House’s West Wing Colonnade, portraits of every U.S. president since George Washington hang side-by-side in gilded frames. Every president, that is, except Joe Biden, whose visage has been swapped for an image of an autopen. The new portrait display was unveiled on September 24, when the White House posted images of the updated West Wing to X. The post included a header image zoomed in on Biden’s spot in the lineup, which shows a black-and-white image of an autopen signing the words “Joseph R Biden Jr.” It’s in reference to a controversy, ignited earlier this year by members of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, who claimed that Biden’s t…

Most people do not put New York City and golf together, nor do they consider the game to be a team sport. The 2025 Ryder Cup is challenging these views. The competition will be held just outside of the Big Apple at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, New York. From Friday, September 26, through Sunday, September 28, 12 Americans and 12 European men will go head-to-head. Let’s take a look at the history and format before covering how to tune in for every stroke and birdie. The history of the Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is named after its patron, Sam Ryder, a British businessman and golf enthusiast. He fell in love with the sport after taking it …

Amazon reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday over whether the e-commerce giant used “deceptive methods” to sign up consumers for Prime subscriptions, then made it “exceedingly difficult” to cancel. The agency argued Amazon enrolled millions of customers in Prime subscriptions without their consent, and knowingly made it difficult for consumers to get out of the agreement. That settlement, which comes just three days into the civil trial in federal court in Seattle, included a whopping $1 billion civil penalty, the highest in history, and a $1.5 billion fund to refund Prime users harmed by the deceptive enrollment pra…

The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it was extending an order limiting operations at Newark Liberty International Airport through October 24, 2026. The order, which limits the rate of arrivals and departures, follows comments from the New Jersey airport’s operator and airlines on extending flight limits to help address congestion at one of three main airports serving New York City. Newark is a major hub for United Airlines. —Jasper Ward, Reuters View the full article

Despite years of congressional hearings, lawsuits, academic research, whistleblowers and testimony from parents and teenagers about the dangers of Instagram, Meta’s wildly popular app has failed to protect children from harm, with “woefully ineffective” safety measures, according to a new report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups. Meta’s efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have long been met with criticism that the changes don’t go far enough. Now, the report published Thursday, from Bejar, the Cybersecurity For Democracy at New York University and Northeastern University, the Molly Rose Found…

As the dust settles on a botched logo redesign that turned it into a political and cultural flashpoint this summer, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is no doubt looking to put 2025 behind it. In the meantime, the restaurant company has also trimmed its physical footprint as it looks to 2026. Reporting its fourth-quarter financial results earlier this month, Cracker Barrel revealed the planned closure of 14 Maple Street Biscuit Company locations. That amounts to roughly 21% of its company-owned stores for the fast-casual brand, which Cracker Barrel acquired in 2019 for $36 million. The company is projecting revenue for fiscal 2026 of $3.35 billion to $3.45 bi…

Reports Wednesday that Apple has held talks with Intel about a possible strategic investment sent shockwaves through the stock market. Intel shares shot up. Apple, the reports said, had begun the talks—initiated by Intel—even before the The President administration made its controversial announcement that it would buy an $8.9 billion share in the chip maker. The government’s move had the effect of attracting more investment in Intel, however. U.S.-based Nvidia said it would invest $5 billion and Japan’s Softbank said it would invest $2 billion. Intel is a special case. The storied U.S. chip maker has fallen on hard times after missing the chance to supply the chi…

A few years ago, I read an article that changed how I think about bourbon. It wasn’t about distilling or aging. It was about bread. Bread Is Broken by Ferris Jabr explores how modern industrial farming stripped grains of their flavor and nutritional value in exchange for higher yield, longer shelf life, and cost efficiency. As I read, I kept wondering if flavor has been lost in wheat; what does that mean for the wheat in our whisky? So, I called Dr. David Van Sanford, a wheat breeder at the University of Kentucky, to ask if anyone had studied how farming practices impact flavor. He paused and said, “You’re the first person who’s ever asked me that.” That one q…

Early in my career, a boss encouraged me to leave a stable operations role for a position in sales. They noticed my natural persuasiveness in communication and approach to problems, skills they believed could translate into success in a completely different discipline. It felt like a gamble. I was trading a steady income for compensation directly tied to performance and sales volume. And, I would be venturing into a role where I had no prior experience. But I ultimately took the leap, and that shift changed the entire trajectory of my career. That experience taught me to embrace discomfort and trust in my capacity to grow. It also revealed something fundamental …

According to a recent study conducted by the global consulting firm, EY, 97% of respondents reported that it is important for companies to act with integrity. Many companies tout integrity as a core principle of their organizations in an attempt to reassure customers, employees, and the wider public that their organization “plays by the rules.” By some estimates, integrity is ranked as one of the most cited corporate core values, with over 80% of companies listing integrity as a core value. But simply including integrity on your list of core values and mounting that list on a plaque on a wall (as many companies do) won’t positively influence your culture unless your c…

The latest wave of tech layoffs doesn’t have to be a step backward—it can be a launchpad. If you’ve spent years shipping products, debugging systems, and partnering with go-to-market teams, you already have what many founders don’t: domain insight and a network. Pair that with AI “employees,” (role-specific software agents trained on your company’s data that can perform defined tasks like drafting on-brand content, qualifying leads, and updating CRMs) and your severance becomes seed capital for a lean, scalable company. What’s different now is that the traditional barriers to starting a business have collapsed. The math is transformative: What once required $500,000 …

I was one of the millions of people who lost someone to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the nonstop news about the “new normal,” my grief felt invisible. I took shallow solace in my phone and turned to social media to numb me from the reality that I now lived in: a world without my dad. One day, while mindlessly scrolling, I came across the r/Squishmallow subreddit, where a girl had posted her collection of more than 100 round plush toys. They were called Squishmallows—round stuffed animals invented in 2017 that have become one of the most popular toy lines in the world, with more than 100 million sold each year. I was hypnotized. I expected that my dive into the S…

Almost as soon as the first iPad was announced, a range of competitors sprung up in an attempt to become the “iPad killer.” Devices like the Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, and HP TouchPad all put another spin on the formula but couldn’t come close to the iPad’s blend of performance and App Store dominance. Android tablets are still around today, of course, but most manufacturers don’t push them too hard. They’re all fine at doing tablet things like watching videos, and they’re all worse than the iPad when it comes to the app ecosystem. In recent years I’ve used some great hardware from Xiaomi in particular that I still wouldn’t outright recommend over an iPad. …

It’s Sunday night. Before kids, this was the time to nurse a mimosa hangover and zone out to The Sopranos. Now? It’s a very different playbook. Sunday evenings feel less like a gentle exhale from the weekend and more like staging a Broadway play with a cast that hasn’t rehearsed and refuses to put on pants. You are simultaneously the chef, chauffeur, hairdresser, homework coach, and emotional support animal. For parents, the Sunday Scaries don’t whisper “your inbox is waiting.” They shout: Did you wash the soccer uniform? Are there enough snacks for afterschool? Is the social studies project due tomorrow or Wednesday? Ugh! Did I RSVP for that birthday pa…