Just days after settling with the Department of Justice (DOJ), ticketing company Live Nation is again under fire after internal messages between employees revealed bragging about taking advantage of ticket buyers.
In message exchanges from 2022, two regional directors of ticketing for Live Nation amphitheaters, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, boasted about the prices they were able to get away with charging customers for ancillary fees, including things like parking, lawn chair rentals, and VIP access, with Baker writing, I gouge them on ancil prices.
In one exchange, Weinhold shared how he was able to charge $250 for VIP parking at a venue. These people are so stupid, Baker replied. I almost feel bad taking advantage of them.
In another series of messages, Baker says he charges customers $50 to park in the grass and $60 for closer grass.
Robbing them blind baby, he added. Thats how we do it.
The DOJs antitrust trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster began this month, with the government alleging that Live Nations control of Ticketmaster was monopolizing the ticketing industry and leading to unfair pricing for consumers. Last week, Live Nation filed a request for the judge to exclude six sets of Baker and Weinholds messages from the trial, arguing that they would unfairly bias the jury.
The DOJ and attorneys general for the states suing Live Nation opposed the request, and several media organizations later petitioned for the documents to be unsealed.
On Monday, the DOJ and Live Nation reached a surprise settlement, letting the company retain ownership of Ticketmasterbut despite a legal win for Live Nation, the Baker and Weinhold messages have dealt another blow to the brands reputation.
In a statement to Fast Company, Live Nation condemned Weinhold and Bakers conduct, adding that its own executives were unaware of the exchange prior to the trial documents being unsealed.
The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate, reads the statement. Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly.
A spokesperson for Live Nation emphasized that Baker and Weinholds behavior was against company policy, and that their pricing exceeded limits put in place to protect ticket buyers.
We are digging into it now that we are aware, the spokesperson added. This is not at all an acceptable way to behave or talk, and important to note that these are not executives.
At a recent AI summit in New Delhi, Sam Altman warned that early versions of superintelligence could arrive by 2028, that AI could be weaponized to create novel pathogens, and that democratic societies need to act before they are overtaken by the technology they have built. These concerns are widely shared across the industry. Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel laureate known as the godfather of AI, has warned that creating digital beings more intelligent than ourselves poses a genuine existential threat. Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, devoted much of his book The Coming Wave to the argument that AIs fusion with synthetic biology could put the tools to engineer a deadly pandemic within reach of a single individual. These are not warnings about a distant future. Last week, a clash over who controls AI and on what terms led to a complete collapse in the companys relationship with the Pentagon.
When politicians and business leaders try to make sense of issues like these, they are often tempted to look to the pharmaceutical industry for a regulatory model. Senator Richard Blumenthalone of the few legislators actively pushing for meaningful AI regulationhas proposed that the way the U.S. government regulates the pharmaceutical industry can serve as a model for AI oversight. The analogy makes intuitive sense. The pharma model shows that strict licensing and oversight of potentially dangerous emerging technologies can limit threats without placing undue restrictions on innovation.
The instinctive attraction of this approach isnt confined to legislators. Many companies are applying the same logic internallywhether consciously or notmanaging AI risk through stage-gate reviews, pre-deployment testing, and post-launch monitoring. The pharma model, in other words, is already the de facto governance framework for much of the industry. The problem is that its the wrong frameworkand the differences are not just technical but existential.
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Three disanalogies that matter
Pharmaceutical regulation works because the barriers to entry are high, the product is physical and controllable, and the development cycle is slow enough for oversight to keep pace. None of these conditions hold for AI.
First, barriers to entry are very different. Bringing a new drug to market costs an average of $1.1 billion, according to a 2020 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The infrastructure alonelaboratories, clinical trial networks, manufacturing facilitieslimits production to a relatively small number of identifiable companies that regulators can monitor. AI has no equivalent friction. Capable models can be built for a fraction of that cost, fine-tuned on consumer hardware, and deployed globally from a laptop. The universe of actors a regulator would need to track is not a handful of identifiable companiesit is potentially anyone, anywhere.
Second, a pharmaceutical product is physical. Manufacturing it requires raw materials, specialized equipment, and distribution logistics. All of this creates friction that regulators can exploit by imposing oversight checkpoints. But code has no such friction. Once released, an AI models weights can be copied number-for-number and shared across borders far more quickly than any physical weapon or industrial system. Its marginal cost of replication is effectively zero. And you cannot recall software the way you recall a contaminated drug. Once it is in the wild, it stays in the wild.
Even capabilities that are delivered purely through access to the cloud are vulnerable to replication and thus to the breaking of corporate or regulatory guardrails. In just the last month, Anthropic disclosed that three Chinese AI labsDeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMaxhad used 24,000 accounts to generate over 16 million exchanges with Claude, extracting its most advanced capabilities through a technique called distillation. The Chinese labs did not need to infiltrate a supply chain or build expensive factories. They only needed API access and carefully crafted prompts, routed through proxy networks designed to evade detection. There is no pharmaceutical equivalent of this replicability.
The final crucial disanalogy is speed. The pharma approval pipeline assumes that a product will go through years of controlled testing before it reaches the public. But AI models evolve on software timelines. Capabilities improve not only through hardware gains but through software updates, new training methods, and frequent model releases that can produce meaningful jumps in weeks rather than years. Anthropic, for instance, shipped two major Claude releases within ten weeks. The iteration cycle is so fast that by the time any pharma-style approval process could hope to evaluate a model, that model would already be obsolete replaced by something far more powerful for which the evaluation process had not even begun.
Why test, deploy, monitor doesnt work
The problem isnt confined to government. The same pharma-shaped thinking that distorts regulatory frameworks has taken root inside organizationsand it leaves them exposed for the same reasons.
Pharma-type risks are familiar: a product might have harmful side effects, so you test it before deployment, monitor it afterward, and pull it back if something goes wrong. Even without an external regulator, many companies are applying this logic to AI internally, managing risk via the familiar means of stage-gate reviews, pre-deployment testing, and post-launch monitoring. It feels responsible. It feels sufficient.
This is precisely the danger.
Of course, stage-gate reviews and pre-deployment testing are not worthless. They catch real errors, enforce discipline, and create apaper trail that demonstrates due diligence to boards and regulators. Any organization that has implemented them is better off than one that has done nothing. But these frameworks create a false sense of coverage. The risk they manage is the risk they were designed forproduct defects, adverse effects, quality-control failures. AIs risk profile has a different shape entirely. It is defined by the potential for irreversibility, rapid proliferation, and misuse. Not every AI-driven outcome will trigger these risks. But unlike a defective product, you cannot issue a recall once the damage is done.
This combination of potential threats means that the familiar toolkit of managed risk simply doesnt fitand organizations that believe it does are accepting exposures they havent mapped. It is precisely to meet these challenges that we developed the OPEN and CARE frameworks for managing AI innovation and risk. The CARE framework, in particular, provides a structured methodology for governing AI risk and is the foundation for the recommendations that follow.
Build governance for AI risk
The CARE framework works through four stages: Catastrophize, identifying what could go wrong; Assess, prioritizing those risks; Regulate, implementing controls; and Exit, planning for when those controls fail. Applied to your organizations AI exposure, the framework points toward five immediate actions.
1. Surface your shadow AI exposure. Ask your direct reports one question: what AI tools are you using that werent provided by the company? The answers will tell you how large the gap is between the AI your organization officially uses and the AI your people are actually relying on.
2. Map your irreversibility pointsand your fallbacks. Identify the AI-dependent processes where a failure would be irreversible or highly damaging, such as automated customer communications, AI-assisted code pushed to production, algorithmic hiring screens. Ask whether your current safeguards assume you can catch and correct errors before they reach the outside world. If they do, redesign themand build explicit fallback procedures for when they fail anyway.
3. Lock down your data exposure. Every AI tool your organization touches is a data pipeline running in both directions. Classify your data into tierspublic, internal, confidential, restrictedand map which AI tools are authorized for each tier. Audit your vendor agreements for training-data clauses. The moment proprietary data enters a third-party system, your ability to recall it is gone.
4. Red team for misuse, not just malfunction. Red teaming for malfunction asks What if this breaks? Red-teaming for misuse asks What if this works exactly as intended and someone uses it for the wrong purpose? As the CARE frameworks Catastrophize phase emphasizes, you need both.
5. Assign clear executive ownership. None of the above matters if accountability is diffused across committees. Designate a single executive who owns AI risk the way your CFO owns financial risk. That person needs authority, budget, and a direct line to the board.
The real stakes
For decades, pharma-style regulation has been one of the most successful bets in business: a framework that protects the public without strangling the industry. But the model is insufficient for AI.
At the governmental level, serious people are reaching for serious solutions. Sam Altmans call at the New Delhi summit for an international regulatory body modeled on the International Atomic Energy Agency reflects a clearer-eyed view of what kind of technology this isone that demands oversight frameworks commensurate with its actual risk profile, not models borrowed from industries that dont share its characteristics.
Business leaders should follow the same path. The category of problem that governments are grappling with at the international level is the same category of problem you are grappling with inside your organization. Design your governance accordinglyfor the technology you actually have, not the one you wish you were dealing with.
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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here.
AI pioneer pulls in a cool billion to launch his world model AI company
Yann LeCun, one of the pioneers of AI and Metas former chief AI scientist, has long argued that large language models alone will not produce AI systems that outperform humans at most tasks. LeCun says todays transformer-based large language models are useful enough to be applied in valuable ways, but he also believes they are unlikely to achieve the general or human-level intelligence needed to perform many high-value tasks now reserved for human brains. He has found no shortage of AI commentators on X who disagree with him. Now he and his investors are placing a big bet that hes right.
LeCuns new company, Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), says its building a new breed of AI systems that understand the world, have persistent memory, can reason and plan, and are controllable and safe. The company said Wednesday that it raised a $1.03 billion funding round from a group of investors including Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, also threw in.
AMI is likely to build models, or systems of models, that can train on a wider variety of data than todays LLMs. LeCun believes that AI systems need more than an understanding of words to truly understand and navigate the real world. They need to model the world in a very different wayone that starts with an ability to represent spatial data and develop a native understanding of physics. The AI would also need a very different architecture to structure all that high-bandwidth data. LeCun is in good company in this view: World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li and UC Berkeley robotics lab director Pieter Abbeel are among those researching and building world models.)
Even during his tenure at Meta, LeCun was working on (and writing papers about) these concepts. Now hell need to attract enough top research talent to flesh out those theories and build the models. Since LeCun is something like royalty in AI circles, I suspect hell attract the people he needs to take a good shot at functioning world models.
A week after launch, OpenAIs GPT-5.4 is getting good reviews
Generative models continue to improve, and the cadence of those improvements appears to be accelerating. Most recently, OpenAI released its newest model, GPT-5.4, which it says combines advances in reasoning, coding, and agentic workflows.
Now that ChatGPT users and software developers have had a chance to try the model, some themes are emerging about its strengths and weaknesses relative to other frontier systems. My impression is that the reception has been mixed, based on comments from users, developers, and researchers on X. Many say the model is more project-oriented, meaning it is better able to understand and orchestrate general information work tasks, including those involving autonomous agents. On the other hand, some critics say GPT-5.4 is not a big enough leap forward in intelligence. Others argue the model is less adept at creative tasks, such as user interface design, than earlier GPT models.
But most people would agree that GPT-5.4 is a big enough improvement to keep OpenAI at least on pace with its rival Anthropic, whose newest model, Claude Opus 4.6 got glowing reviewsespecially for the agentic improvements it brought to the Claude Code tool. Note that OpenAIs GPT-3.5-Codex model, launched in early February, brought similarly impressive improvements to OpenAIs Codex coding tool.
The release of new versions of the base models now seem to affect the popularity of the consumer chatbots they power. After Google released its breakthrough Gemini 3 models last year, the Gemini chatbot saw big gains in usership. After Anthropics release of Opus 4.6 in February its Claude chatbot went to number one on the Apple Stores free apps ranking for the first time. After the release of GPT-5.4, the ChatGPT retook the number one spot. Tick-tock, Tick-tock.
Its becoming clear that flagship AI models from the major labs are being built and trained to power agents, not just chatbots. That is, they are getting better at performing tasks rather than simply talking, whether that means operating a computer, researching on the web, or planning large projects. This shift from chatbots to agents will likely become more pronounced with future models, especially as the chatbot interface evolves to look more like a workspace.
Amazon puts some organizational guardrails around AI coding tool use
AI coding tools have had the most impact of any application of generative AI so far. They can dramatically speed up code production. But there are side effects. The Financial Times reported this week that Amazons AWS cloud division held a large meeting of its engineers after a series of service outages, at least two of which were reportedly caused by code alterations made by an AI coding tool, and one of which was linked to Amazons Kiro coding tool. Amazon says it will now require junior and mid-level engineers to obtain more senior-level sign-off for AI-assisted code changes.
Since the explosion in the use of AI coding tools began last year, software engineers have been arguing about how much human oversight the tools require. The tools are improving, as are the AI models underneath them, but they still write code that ends up causing bugs, sometimes discovered long after the code was written.
Amazon says its outages stemmed from user error rather than an AI failure. The company also said that AI coding tools can amplify existing engineering weaknesses such as weak safeguards, poor documentation, and bypassed review processes. Thats more than PR talk. Ive heard from a number of developers that engineers, especially younger ones, can lean too heavily on the tools, expect too much from them, and end up lowering their usual software development hygiene practices. I think we need to be clear that it is not magic, Replit CEO Amjad Masad said of coding tools during an interview last summer. The problem often leads to a lack of proper code validation, security testing, and documentation.
I suspect that both the tools and their users will have to change. The tools must shift toward proactively pushing human engineers toward better testing and validation practices, while human coders will continue to learn what their AI coding partners can and cannot do.
More AI coverage from Fast Company:
ChatGP Edu feature reveals researchers project metadata across universities
Googles Gemini AI wants to do the busywork in Docs and Sheets
Anthropics Pentagon showdown is drawing Silicon Valley into a larger fight
AI agents are coming for government. How one big city is letting them in
Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
Personal networking can help grow your business, but it can also help you grow as a person and a leader. The key is in how you view it. For some, it is a necessary evilcollecting names and LinkedIn connections like a dance card. For others, it is no gameit is getting to know someone on a genuine basis, even if it will never help them. We asked our Fast Company Impact Council members about the role personal networking plays in their own growth strategies. Not surprisingly, many had thoughts about it, and those thoughts are insightful.
1. PRESSURE-TEST IDEAS
Personal networking is how I pressure-test ideas, spot patterns early, and learn from leaders navigating similar change. In an AI-driven world, no one has all the answers. Candid conversations with CHROs, CEOs, technologists, and emerging talent sharpen my judgment and expand my perspective. I view my network as a learning community that accelerates adaptation and keeps my leadership grounded in real experience. Jacqui Canney, ServiceNow
2. CONTRIBUTION COMPOUNDS
Im not a traditional networker. Im just genuinely curious about people. My philosophy is simple: Add more value than you take in every interaction. If you approach relationships that way, the network builds itself. Some of that value comes back to you. Some of it doesnt, and thats fine. The goal isnt extraction. Its contribution. Over time, that compounds. Elery Pfeffer, Nift
3. TALENT RECRUITMENT
My top priority as CEO is talent recruitment. The best executive talent isnt found on job boards like Indeed; its built through genuine personal relationships where trust and cultural fit are already established. Investing time in meaningful networking is one of the highest-ROI activities one can do. Jeff Peel, Tactacam
4. TRUST, INSIGHT, AND REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCES
Personal networking plays a significant role in my growth strategy because trust, insight, and real-world experiences are three of the mostimportant elementsof any relationship. In a field like organization design, these relationshipfundamentalsaremission critical. Showing upin person at conferences and industry gatherings is nonnegotiable forme becauseit opens doors to new connections, perspectives, and insights in ways that digital channels do not. Ultimately, staying close to decisionmakers and emerging trends through these networks helps us continually evolve how we drive impact and deliver results. Alice Mann, Mann Partners
5. IQ PLUS EQ
Personal networking is our most durable growth lever. Clients are hiring people, and they are choosing based on conviction and chemistry. Our differentiation is IQ plus EQ, especially in a landscape where AI makes solutions feel interchangeable. We invest intentionally in the rooms where real connection happens: small dinners, curated summits, repeat moments in the same cities. We show up to exchange ideas and not to pitch. The business follows the trust. Peter Smart, Fantasy
6. EXPOSURE, NOT TRANSACTION
I don’t think of networking the way most people frame it. It’s not transactional. It’s exposure. I want to be around people who think differently than I do. Different industries, countries, backgrounds. That’s where growth comes from. I’ve learned as much from a restaurant owner in San Sebastián or a founder in Stockholm as I have from music executives. Patterns are everywhere if you’re paying attention. The best ideas come from applying something from one world to another. If I stay in one circle too long, my thinking narrows. Relationships keep that from happening. They stretch you in ways that are hard to measure but very real. Logan Mulvey, GoDigital Music
7. YOUR NETWORK AND REPUTATION ARE KEY
Weve moved from a knowledge economy to a network economy really fast, just in the past few years. When intelligence is unlimited (aka GenAI), who you know and your reputation among your peers is all you have left. The word networking comes with baggage because you have to be invited into the room first, and navigate the room with ease. Both things are harder for minorities, and yet all the more important. Thats where the benefits of a network like Fast Company Impact Council multiply. Hala Hanna, MIT Solve
8. A COLLECTIVE BRAIN TRUST
As a leader, you’re paid to have great judgment, not to have all the right ideas yourself. You get that from a diverse network of people. I see it as the critical second piece of leadership, acting as a counterweight to technology. While AI is a huge focus, the value of human connection hasn’t changed in thousands of years. I view my network as a collective brain trust. My global background taught me that a widerapertureacross roles, countries, and industriesdefinitely leads tobetter judgment. Ultimately, human connection remains the foundation of good judgment. Tony Grimminck, Scribd, Inc.
9. BUILD TRUST AND DEMONSTRATE VALUE
Personal networking is a muscle and it’s one I try and use every day to grow and nurture relationships. Whether it’s reaching out to an old colleague, having a virtual meet and greet with someone new, or attending an event, I show up with curiosity and genuine interest in what people are working on. My goal is to give, not to add them to my pipeline. By showing up as myself, with care, I build trust and demonstrate value, and business often follows. Randi Lee, Lucas Advisory
10. CONNECTING OTHERS AS A PUZZLE
Personal networking is foundational to my growth strategy. I am a connector at heart and see it as a puzzle: Who should know each other and how can I empower them? Networking is not transactional. It is about building long-term relationships rooted in trust, generosity, and shared value. When you consistently show up for others, opportunities follow. Do not be afraid to reach out. There will be rejection. Develop thick skin, recover quickly, and stay humble. Resilience without ego is the differentiator. Meredith Rosenberg, NU Advisory Partners
11. ONE GENUINE CONNECTION AT A TIME
Go to events you are actually interested in, that will have like-minded people having discussions you can meaningfully contribute to. It’s far better to make one genuine connectiondare I say a friendthan to indiscriminately gather 1,000 new LinkedIn contacts. Lindsey Witmer Collins, WLCM Studio
12. PEER COMMUNITIES
Personal networking plays a meaningful role in my growth strategy. The right peer community sharpens perspective and strengthens decision-making. Ive been a member of YPO for nearly five years, which has been invaluable for supporting and learning alongside other founders. Im also part of networks like Pear and Founders Club, where we share insights, support one another, and grow together within the industry. Ben Jeffries, Influencer
13. BUILD LONG-TERM TRUST ACROSS INDUSTRIES
Personal networking is not transactional for us, it is relational. Growth comes from long-term trust built across industries, from healthcare to consumer goods. We invest in conversations, not pitches, sharing ideas, research, and perspective generously. Those relationships often reveal unmet needs before they become formal briefs. For a design brand rooted in humanism, networking is simply an extension of our practice: listening first, adding value, and building partnerships that endure. Ben Wintner, Michael Graves Design
14. GROW BY REFERRAL
As CEO and chief recruiter, this is my full-time focus. We grow by referral, reviewing and screening all who are referred to us who sync with our values of transparency, trust, kindness, generosity of spirit, gratitude, no politics or religion, and paying it forward, as well as sharing domain expertise. Larraine Segil, Exceptional Women Alliance
15. BE KIND, SELFLESS, AND AUTHENTIC
There is nothing in business thats more powerful than your network (for good or bad). Always be kind, selfless, and authentic and seek out others doing the same. This will lead to both an incredible life and fulfilling career. Life is far too short to spend time with assholes and narcissists. William H. Dodge, P-U-B-L-I-C
16. DONT OPERATE IN A SILO
Networking isnt about what you can extract, its about what you can contribute. No business challenge is truly new; someone, somewhere has solved a version of it before. A strong network shortens reaction time, prevents reinvention, and builds collective intelligence. Youre only as strong as the people you can rely on, otherwise youre operating in a silo in an interconnected economy. Emily Kortlang, Yerba Madre
17. RELATIONAL TRANSACTIONS
Our growth strategyhas always centered onrelational transactions, notfinancialtransactions, because the first project should always be the first of manywith that client.Conceptually, we are always working totransition fromtraditional marketing to an attraction strategy, because our best workand our cultureshould be so compelling that clients actively seek us out. Steven McKay, DLR Group
18. PLAY THE LONG GAME
Play the long game in relationship building. Take the meeting, do the call, go to the event. Ninety percent of the time youll be glad you did. These relationships help close deals, recruit talent, and attract partnerships in the medium and long term. Michael Tannenbaum, Figure
19. APPROACH WITH CURIOSITY
I approach networking with genuine curiosity and a willingness to learn, leaving ego at the door. If you come into a conversation with the sole intent of convincing or selling someone, it rarely works. The most meaningful and fruitful connections come when you focus on listening and learning. Just like our partnership with Second Cityit all started with a casual conversation at a Fast Company event! Nathan Friedman, Understood.org
Electric freight has reached a critical inflection point. The long-standing question about whether electric trucks can reliably handle long-haul duty cycles has been answered.
Several heavy-duty battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have proved that zero-emission trucks can meet real work freight demands by completing single-charge journeys making corridor freight transportation a reality. Long-term forecasts for medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks and charging infrastructure also remain optimistic as original equipment manufacturers roll out new nameplates and next-generation platforms.
But performance alone will not define the next chapter. Energy availability, infrastructure readiness, capital discipline, and the ability to align electrification with real business objectives are now shaping how the market evolves.
The next phase of electric freight will be defined by pragmatism over hype. Three trends stand out.
1. The industry is entering a smarter, right-sized era.
2. Economics will remain the central challenge, with upfront entry costs emerging as the most immediate barrier.
3. Megawatt charging is poised to move from concept to commercial reality.
The next two years will test which companies have built sustainable businesses, with sound economics, repeat customers, and scalable operations.
Market realities are reshaping how electric freight infrastructure gets built
The groundwork for electric freight has already been laid. Across North America, multiple companies now have medium- and heavy-duty charging sites up and running, proving that the technical capability exists to support zero-emission trucking at scale.
Globally, more than 89,000 electric trucks were sold in the first half of 2025, up 140% from the same period in 2024, largely thanks to China and Europe, according to a report by Smart Freight Centre and BloombergNEF. China accounted for almost 80,000 of those, with sales in Europe making up most of the balance. That progress has also reinforced a broader industry understanding that the era of build it and they will come is giving way to a more demand-driven approach.
An indicator of this is that market projections for electric trucking have effectively shifted about two years later than expected, and infrastructure development needs to adjust accordingly. This will not ultimately have a negative long-term impact, but it will be crucial for the industry and for companies that adapt to ensure lasting success. With grid constraints, interconnection delays, and rising power demand becoming more visible across major freight corridors, infrastructure planning must also account for real-world energy limitations and not just vehicle adoption forecasts. To achieve long-term viability, the focus must shift to building smarter and at the pace of real demand.
This shift is already influencing how new charging hubs are being planned across key freight corridors. Along the I-15 and I-10 corridors, developers are prioritizing fewer chargers, streamlined amenities, and scalable designs that maintain corridor coverage while aligning more closely with todays market realities. Many sites are also exploring combinations of grid power, on-site renewable generation, and emerging flexible interconnection models to navigate local utility constraints and improve long-term resilience. This approach is likely to become more common across the industry, particularly in the near term, and thats a positive development as it creates the financial and operational runway and stability needed to prepare for what comes next.
Megawatt charging becomes a reality in 2026
As electric truck models with higher power requirements begin to reach commercial readiness, the next phase of freight electrification will be defined by megawatt-level charging infrastructure. The trucking industry will need high-power charging infrastructure that can support the energy demands of the largest commercial vehicles and reduce charging times for fleets operating on tight schedules, according to a 2026 outlook report.
Mercedes-Benz, MAN and Volvo vehicles are set to accept the megawatt charging standard , and recent industry reporting indicates that Teslas Semi program is progressing toward volume production in 2026 with plans for new megachargers capable of delivering the high power necessary for larger battery packs.
To meet this shift, we will likely see infrastructure developers future-proof their charging operations by developing sites with charging demands of the next phase of electrification in mind, rather than built to todays standards alone.
Some of todays leading heavy-duty charging sites are being designed with flexibility at their core, using underground trenching systems that allow for future upgrades to megawatt-scale charging without extensive reconstruction. This is particularly important given the billions of dollars being invested in charging technology that could evolve significantly before infrastructure assets are fully depreciated. This approach ensures that infrastructure remains relevant and scalable as heavy-duty EV adoption and vehicle capabilities grow. As the next phase of electrification takes shape, designing and locating charging infrastructure with long-term energy capacity in mind will be critical to keeping freight moving efficiently for decades to come.
Redefining an industry through resilience
If the first chapter of electric freight was defined by investor momentum and genuine ambition, the next will be defined by accountability.
Government incentives and early capital played an essential role in accelerating pilot programs and proving technical feasibility. But as public funding becomes more limited and private capital grows more selective, the industry is entering a new phase where infrastructure providers and fleet operators alike must demonstrate disciplined growth, operational efficiency, and consistent customer value. This shift is healthy.
Fleet electrification must function as a durable business model. That means minimizing soft costs, improving asset utilization, aligning infrastructure with real freight demand, and solving for energy constraints in practical, scalable ways. It also means supporting shippers that are under increasing pressure to meet ESG and climate commitments, while ensuring that carriers can remain competitive in amarket that transports more than 70% of the nations goods.
The companies that succeed in this environment will not be those that built the fastest or expanded the most aggressively, but those that built at the pace of demand, with resilient energy strategies, flexible infrastructure design, and a clear path to long-term returns. With this, the next several years will reveal which players have built businesses designed to sustain in the energy transition.
As these shifts take hold, a more resilient, efficient, and scalable zero-emission freight ecosystem is beginning to emergeone that is also restoring confidence across the investment community as market fundamentals stabilize and clearer paths to utilization and returns come into focusdesigned not just to withstand volatility, but to mature through it and deliver durable, long-term impact.
Patrick Macdonald-King is CEO of Greenlane.
The ancient world understood that leaders who act without self-knowledge create chaos. Consider that at the entrance to the Oracle of Delphi was the following inscription: “Know thyself.” Socrates further imbued meaning into this tenet by declaring that his wisdom came from knowing that he knew nothing. Later, Stoics like Marcus Aurelius argued that self-knowledge meant acknowledging what was actually within your control. The throughline across millennia is clear: cultivating inner clarity helps us navigate external uncertainty.
But here’s what the ancients also understood: self-knowledge isn’t a solitary pursuit. We come to know ourselves through relationships, and we can only meet others as deeply as we’ve met ourselves. The leader who hasn’t examined their own fears, assumptions, and blind spots will inevitably project those shadows onto their teams. Inner work enables outer connection.
This ancient wisdom has never been more urgent. Here’s an irony worth sitting with: the more AI dominates our workplaces, the more desperately we crave authentic human connection. As leaders scramble to implement the latest automation tools, the real competitive advantage is hiding in plain sightand it has nothing to do with technology.
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I call it “Inside Out” leadership, and it’s becoming the secret weapon for organizations serious about attracting and keeping top talent.
What does this look like in practice? A few years ago, a CIO at a global law firm hired me to help his executive leadership team normalize curiosity. I was impressed. It’s not every day that a high-powered law firm wants to invest in helping its team pause, in order to make questions feel more like the catalyst for innovation, instead of cause for getting your wrist slapped. This CIO was exhibiting Inside Out leadership: he had done his own inner work first, which gave him the clarity and courage to create conditions for his team to do the same.
The two dimensions of inside out work
Inside Out leadership operates on two critical dimensions. First, it’s about how leaders show upembracing vulnerability, practicing continuous self-inquiry, and reflecting that openness outward to their teams. Second, it’s about creating environments where employees feel not just permitted but encouraged to bring their whole selves to work.
This isn’t soft, feel-good leadership fluff. It’s strategic infrastructure for the AI eraand the numbers bear this out. Gallup research reveals that disengaged employees cost organizations 18% of their annual salary in lost productivity. Meanwhile, McKinsey found that companies in the top quartile for employee experience report 25% higher profitability than their peers. The connection between inner work and bottom-line results isn’t philosophical; it’s mathematical.
As routine tasks get automated, the uniquely human abilities to connect, empathize, and collaborate become your organization’s most valuableand irreplaceableassets. Leaders who ignore this reality aren’t just missing an opportunity; they’re hemorrhaging resources. Workplace wellness studies show that burnout alone costs U.S. employers approximately $300 billion annually. Inside Out leadership isn’t a wellness perk to offer when budgets allowit’s economic infrastructure that organizations can’t afford to neglect.
Three pillars that make it work
People: Authenticity as strategy. Start team meetings with a “Life Update” round where people share one personal highlight from their week. Create “Story Circles” where team members share pivotal moments from their journeys. These aren’t time-wasters; they’re trust-builders that compound over time.
Process: The power of play. One of the most counterintuitive aspects of Inside Out work is its emphasis on play. Transform brainstorming sessions into “Solution Safaris” where teams physically move around the office collecting and building on ideas. Use improvisation exercises to kick off strategy meetings. Play naturally encourages negotiation, collaboration, and curiosityskills that are increasingly valuable as AI handles the routine.
Place: The premium of presence. In our increasingly virtual world, face-to-face interaction has become a luxury good. Smart organizations leverage this scarcity by making in-person events premium experiences. Design “No-Tech Tuesdays” where certain meetings go device-free. Institute “Walking One-on-Ones” that take conversations outside traditional office settings. These aren’t perksthey’re competitive differentiators.
The path forward
Start small. Pick one team as your pilot group. Document both quantitative metrics (engagement scores, retention rates) and qualitative feedback. Identify “Inside Out Champions” who can help spread these practices throughout your organization.
The organizations that will thrive in the AI era won’t be those with the most advanced technology. They’ll be those that best combine technological capabilities with deeply human connections. Inside Out leadership isn’t just a philosophyit’s a blueprint for building organizations that can attract, retain, and inspire the best talent in an increasingly automated world.
The future belongs to leaders brave enough to work from the inside out.
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When Kevin Ketels bought an electric 2026 Chevrolet Blazer last year, he wasn’t thinking about the cost of gas. He just thought EVs were better and “wanted to be part of the future.” Now that the Iran war is spiking prices at the pump, the Detroit man is happy he is no longer filling up his 11-year-old gas-powered SUV.“Electricity can go up, but it won’t go up nearly as much as gas will and it won’t go up nearly as fast, either,” said Ketels, 55, an assistant professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University.Experts say prolonged high gas prices may drive some EV interest and sales, especially if drivers assume their electricity prices won’t be affected by the crises.But many factors influence consumer EV purchases and electricity rates.
Are EV owners truly insulated from price hikes?
Drivers of gas-powered vehicles are much more vulnerable to fluctuating prices that result from global conflict than those who charge their cars. The national average for a gallon of regular gas this week was $3.57, up from $2.94 a month ago, according to AAA.Meanwhile, “residential electricity prices are regulated and are much less volatile than gasoline prices,” said University of California, Davis economics professor Erich Muehlegger. “As a result, EV owners are largely unaffected by oil price shocks.”But experts say electricity prices have been increasing nationally for a variety of reasons, including surging power demand from new data centers.“This is an inflationary event,” Holt Edwards, principal in Bracewell’s Policy Resolution Group, said of the war. “Is this the driver in electricity prices? I think probably not. But it’s certainly a contributing factor.”To what extent oil and gas conflicts could translate to the electricity sector is yet to be seen.
What about how different grids are powered?
When it comes to the electricity an EV owner is tapping, much of the cost depends on which sources of electricity are in a local grid’s power mix, experts say.Because regulators set residential electricity prices annually, most households are sheltered from month-to-month changes in natural gas costs. Though experts say higher natural gas prices can increase the cost of generating electricity, natural gas prices haven’t risen as quickly or as much as oil prices have recently.Those are just two of many energy sources including coal, nuclear and renewables that power the electric grid.“The energy component varies depending on the energy you’re using and the price of the energy that you’re using to generate electricity,” said Pierpaolo Cazzola, an energy expert at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “What happens is that in the U.S., the variation of the price of the energy component is smaller than it is elsewhere.”The experts said persistent war could affect electricity bills in the future. And that is all the more reason for countries to transition to clean power, they said.“Clean power and electrification combined is what provides the most security,” said Euan Graham, an analyst at energy think tank Ember.Michael B. Klein, a 56-year-old software developer in Evanston, Illinois, has driven EVs for the past eight years to save on fuel costs and because of environmental concerns.Every time electrical grid efficiency improves especially as renewables are added “I get that benefit no matter what,” said Klein, who drives a Chevy Bolt. “They can improve the efficiency of gas engines, but you have to get a new car in order to reap the benefit of that.”
So will EV demand rise?
Several experts say high gasoline prices are a strong driver of EV sales, particularly if high prices persist. Drivers also consider more gasoline-efficient hybrid vehicles during these times.Car-shopping resource Edmunds analyzed consumer shopping data for the week starting March 2, after the Iran war had begun. They found that interest in hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery EVs accounted for 22.4% of all vehicle research activity on their site that week, up from 20.7% the previous week. Analysts also looked back at the last major nationwide fuel price surges in 2022, and they saw that consideration of electrified vehicles rose sharply then, too.But whether this means more EV purchases depends on whether buyers expect to save not just now but in the future, experts say.Adding to the complexity: A sudden increase in EV demand could drive up prices, Graham said.“I think the real step change would be in whether this causes governments to shift tax, tariff policies around EVs,” Graham said. Doing so would help reduce fossil fuel dependence, he said.
Does driving electric really save money?
Pretty much.People who buy EVs have a “really substantial” gas savings over the life of their vehicles even without government tax credits, said Peter Zalzal, an attorney with Environmental Defense Fund.“We’re talking about thousands and thousands of dollars” in savings, Zalzal said. “And as gas prices increase, those savings are only greater. Fuel costs are a big piece of overall vehicle costs, and increases in fuel prices have significant impacts on people.”However, the upfront cost of a new EV is still more than that of a gasoline-powered vehicle; new EVs sold for an average of $55,300 last month, while new vehicles overall sold for an average $49,353, according to auto-buying resource Kelley Blue Book. Some experts also expressed national security concerns with EVs because China dominates significant parts of the EV supply chain.Ketels, the EV owner and professor, said he believes EVs and renewable energy should be a strategic priority for individuals and the U.S. because they could be produced domestically “and we don’t have those fluctuations and those worries.”But because the federal government has withdrawn many incentives for both, “it puts us at a disadvantage globally,” Ketels said. “I think it’s been a terrible mistake to withdraw these incentives and to attack the sustainable energy industry,” and the war “is just making it that much more obvious.”
Read more of AP’s climate coverage.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Alexa St. John and Tammy Webber, Associated Press
Dollar Generals fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 earnings report shows some successesthough you wouldnt know that by the reaction of its stock.
Shares of Dollar General Corp (NYSE: DG) fell more than 6% in premarket trading on Thursday following the reports early-morning release.
And yet the discount retailer’s financial results include figures such as a 5.9% increase year-over-year (YOY) in quarter-four, with net sales increasing to $10.9 billion. Its 2025 net sales saw a similar jump of 5.2% YOY to $42.7 billion.
Same-store sales also rose 4.3% YOY in the last quarter and 3% YOY for 2025.
Notably, Dollar General did predict slower growth for 2026. It expects net sales to increase between 3.7% and 4.2% over the year, while it estimates same store sales to grow 2.2% to 2.7%.
Dollar General store closures
The 2025 report is free of one ominous announcement that loomed over last years results: additional store closures.
In its fiscal 2024 fourth-quarter report, Dollar General announced that it would shutter 96 of its namesake stores and 45 PopShelf locations, a retail chain the company owns.
The 141 store closures followed 117 other shutterings throughout the year.
This time around there are, at least, no additional store closure announcements, and in fact Dollar General ended the year with a net gain in stores.
Dollar General shuttered 290 stores across the two brands in 2025 (which the 141 announced would be included in). But it opened 589 locations.
As of January 30, 2026, Dollar General had a total count of 20,893 stores, compared to 20,594 at the same time last year.
At publication, Dollar General stock was down more than 7% in early Thursday trading.
A widening war in Iran has halted oil tankers, made targets of refineries and spooked investors worried about the cascading impact of spiking energy prices.In response, the International Energy Agency agreed on Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, with the Paris-based organization pledging to make 400 million barrels of oil available from its member nations’ stockpiles. The announcement marked a shift in momentum in government response to the war upending the flow of oil, with other global leaders previously indicating reluctance to tap into stockpiles.Here is a look at the energy supplies that countries hold and when they tap them:
Many countries have reserves of oil
Since war erupted in the Middle East on Feb. 28 with the U.S. and Israel’s joint attacks on Iran, the flow of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has all but stopped, cutting off a vital passageway where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil sails through on a typical day. Major producers in the region like Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also cut production because they are running out of storage space. And Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.That has sent prices soaring with dramatic swings almost every day. On Monday, Brent crude oil the international standard surged to as high as nearly $120 a barrel, before falling to under $90 after President Donald Trump suggested the war could be near an end. But attacks have continued to escalate since, pushing prices back to about $100 a barrel.Countries around the world hold vast quantities of oil that they can use in the event of a crisis.Because oil is a global commodity and flooding the market with a sudden stream of new supply has international implications, countries often talk to one another before tapping reserves. That includes coordinating with the IEA, an organization created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. It has 32 members including Germany, Austria and Japan, all of whom confirmed Wednesday that they would be tapping parts of their reserves. The U.S., Mexico, Australia and other major countries are also part of the IEA.IEA members currently hold over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The largest-ever previous collective release of emergency stocks by IEA member countries was 182.7 million barrels following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Each of the IEA member countries promises to have a reserve at least equivalent to what they import in a 90-day period. The U.S. exports more than it imports, maintaining its own reserve known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve despite there being no requirement. But for other countries, tapping their reserves means that they will eventually need to replenish what was removed.“Because of that, countries tend to keep reserves for a last-resort scenario, should the disruption be prolonged,” said Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University’s Hydrogen Initiative.
Timing a release is tricky
Opting to use oil reserves is never a simple calculation, particularly when linked to a war with constantly shifting parameters and no clear timeline.When nations tap into strategic reserves in situations like the war in Iran, the oil is sold into the global marketplace, theoretically increasing supply and thus, lowering prices.“The key question on drawing down these reserves remains one of, ‘How long will this conflict last?'” said Tom Seng, an energy finance professor at Texas Christian University. “And, more importantly, ‘How long will the Strait of Hormuz remain blocked?'”Oil reserves have been tapped when the market has faced major disruption in the past, including wars in Iraq, Libya and, most recently, in Ukraine.Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said it’s not a matter of whether the current conflict is serious enough to merit intervention, but whether the precise moment has arrived.“The price is up but it could get worse,” Medlock said. “What happens if this drags on for two, three months? Then you run into a situation where you lose your buffer.”
Shift in discussions and the impact on prices
Before Wednesday, countries were reticent to tap reserves. Over the weekend, Trump downplayed the idea of turning to the U.S. reserve, maintaining that supplies were ample and prices would soon fall.But that’s changed. On Wednesday, the president told WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati his administration would tap into the SPR “a little bit” to bring down prices. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright later confirmed the U.S. would release 172 million barrels as part of the IEA’s effort.Representatives from the Group of Seven major industrialized powers previously held off on using strategic reserves earlier this week, too. But G7 nations also joined the IEA effort. French President Emmanuel Macron praised Wednesday’s decision and noted the amount pledged by the G7 nations alone comprises 70% of the total, including 14.5 million barrels from France.Talk of tapping into national reserves helped ease energy markets earlier this week. But crude prices actually ticked up after the withdrawal was confirmed Wednesday, with Brent rising 4.8% to settle at $91.98. That is far higher than the roughly $70 it was selling for before the war started less than two weeks ago.Analysts maintain the IEA’s release of 400 million barrels is a short-term bridge, making up for just a few weeks of lost supply.
Matt Sedensky and Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press
Shares in Bumble Inc. (Nasdaq: BMBL), maker of the Bumble dating app, are surging this morning after the company announced its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results.
The stock price bounce will be a relief to investors in dating companies, an industry that has suffered severely in recent years due to so-called swipe fatigue among users.
Heres what you need to know about Bumbles earnings and why its stock is surging this morning.
Bumble beats on Q4 revenue
Today, Bumble reported its Q4 2025 results. And on the surface, those results werent great. As a matter of fact, just purely based on a year-over-year comparison, many of the companys most important metrics were down across the board, including:
Total Revenue: $224.2 million, down 14.3% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Bumble App Revenue: $181.0 million, down 14.8%
Badoo App and Other Revenue: $43.2 million, down 12.4%
Total Paying Users: 3.3 million, down 20.5%
Net loss: $611.1 million (versus a Net profit of $9.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
Still, despite these poor year-over-year results, BMBL shares are popping this morningand there are two main reasons why.
Bumble beats revenue expectations, and embraces AI
The most immediate reason for Bumbles premarket stock bump is the companys total revenue of $224.2 million for the quarter.
Yes, that sum is down more than 14% from the $261.6 million in revenue during the same quarter a year earlier, but critically, it still beat analysts relatively low expectations.
As Reuters points out, analysts had expected Bumble to bring in $221.3 million in total revenue for the quarter. Bumble ended up beating this figure by nearly $3 million.
And while that $3 million sum is relatively small, it signals to investors that things werent as bad in the quarter as many analysts expected.
But investors are also likely feeling optimistic about another Bumble announcement today. On the companys earnings call, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd revealed that Bumble is revamping the app while also adding new AI tools to help users find more relevant matches.
Wolfe Herd said that Bumble 2.0 will deliver a new experience designed to help address dating app users dissatisfaction.
This dissatisfaction is usually referred to as swipe fatigue, and it has turned many younger people off dating apps in recent years. Those users have grown tired of the endless swipes that turn individuals into commodities and often lead to few real-world meetups.
Bumble 2.0 introduces a chapter-based structure designed to help members tell their stories more authentically and understand one another more deeply, Wolfe Herd said on the call, according to a PitchBook transcript. This will enable them to see matches with stronger compatibility signals, build confidence in the experience, and get to meaningful in real life dates more quickly.
Additionally, Wolfe Herd said the company is embracing artificial intelligence, announcing a new AI chatbot that is in development, called Bee.
The chatbot is designed to interact with Bumble users to find out about their likes, interests, and dating objectives, and then use that information to better match them with other users who share the same interests and goals.
Bee, Wolfe Herd told analysts, is designed to become a personal dating assistant and matchmaker, learning members’ values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions through private conversations, then using those insights to identify mutual compatibility to find better dates with a higher degree of confidence and relevance.
Bumble 2.0 and Bee are expected to roll out sometime in 2026.
Some users in the key Gen Z age demographic have expressed skepticism about whether AI features will ultimately improve the dating app experience, as Fast Company reported last year.
Still, as artificial intelligence is all the rage in the tech industry, investors are likely pleased to know that Bumble isnt sitting on the sidelines in the AI era.
Bumble stock has had a horrible recent run
After Bumbles Q4 results were announced, the price of the companys shares surged.
As of this writing in premarket trading, BMBL shares are up over 23% to $3.51. Yesterday, the companys shares closed at $2.84.
However, despite the massive stock price jump today, BMBL shares have had a horrible run in recent years. As of yesterday, the closing price of BMBL shares has fallen more than 41% over the past 12 months. And over the past five years, the companys stock price has collapsed by more than 95%.
In March 2021, BMBL shares had traded over $74 apiece.
But Bumble isnt the only dating app to see its stock price crash. Over the past year, Match Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MTCH), owner of Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and more, has seen its shares decline about 2.4%. But over the past five years, the companys shares have declined a staggering 80%.
Likewise, shares of dating app maker Hello Group Inc. (Nasdaq: MOMO) have declined by more than 63% over the past five years. The only major dating app to be up over that five-year timeframe is Grindr Inc. (NYSE: GRND), whose shares have risen more than 19% over the period.
The declines of these major dating app makers coincide with increasing dissatisfaction among dating app users, who frequently argue that the apps have become too expensive and that matches are fewer and farther between.
While investors may be rewarding Bumble today, the company will need to address this user disillusionment if it is to successfully turn around its business.
