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Dont look now, but meme stock mania appears to be back with a vengeance this week. This time around, Beyond Meat, Inc. (Nasdaq: BYND) and Krispy Kreme, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNUT) are the two main stocks getting all the attention from meme investors. Heres what you need to know. Beyond Meat shares skyrocket again On Monday, Fast Company reported on the surging share price of Beyond Meat, the producer of plant-based meat alternatives. The company started the trading week by enjoying a stock price surge of more than 67% in premarket trading that day. But far from any change in the companys financial fundamentals, what seemed to be driving shares higher were short sellers and meme stock enthusiasts. Indeed, Beyond Meats business has been struggling in recent years as consumers have turned away from plant-based meat alternatives. More recently, Beyond Meat announced that its creditors had agreed to a debt swap, which will result in the issuance of 316 million new BYND shares, thereby diluting existing shares. But a struggling company in penny stock territory can be red meat to meme investors. For much of the past week, meme traders on Reddit and elsewhere have been pumping up the stockand it appears to be working. Yesterday, Beyond Meat shares rose a staggering 146% to close at $3.62 per share. And today in premarket trading, as of the time of this writing, BYND shares are up another 103% to $7.37. That puts Beyond Meat shares at a price they have not seen since 2024. It also puts Beyond Meats shares firmly in the green for this year. The stock began 2025 at around $4 per share, but that price had fallen to as low as 50 cents per share just last week, before meme stock traders decided to take a bite. One other contributing factor to Beyond Meats surge this week is that, as CNBC notes, the stock was added to Roundhill Investments Meme Stock ETF on Monday, cementing its place in the meme stock pantheon. Meme stock traders want dessert, too Krispy Kremes stock is also seeing some meme stock action this week. DNUT shares rose more than 13% yesterday to $3.71, and as of the time of this writing, in premarket trading this morning, the companys shares are up another 40% to $5.23 apiece. While those gains are a far cry from the ones BYND shares are experiencing, DNUT shares have more experience in the meme stock arena. Meme stock investors heavily traded DNUT shares earlier this year. Other factors that may be impacting interest in Krispy Kremes stock include the company’s recent international expansion in Spain, with additional countries, Brazil and Uzbekistan, planned before the end of the year. Investors likely hope that this expansion can help offset domestic sales issues. Still, despite its recent gains, DNUT shares remain significantly down from where they were at the beginning of this year. In January, the stock traded at more than $9.80 apiece. And as of yesterdays close, DNUT shares have fallen more than 67% over the past 12 months.
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E-Commerce
For many, picking up a controller at the end of a long day to neutralize some zombies or take on a side quest with a fairy is a way to unwind and escape from the demands of work. But it might also have some unexpected benefits that follow you from the character select screen and into the office. A new report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) finds that the motivations behind gaming go far beyond fun. While 66% of the more than 24,000 players in 21 countries surveyed say they play primarily for enjoyment, the majority credit gaming with developing real-world skills, like problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, and critical thinking. All useful transferable skills to play up in a job interview. (Maybe dont reveal you honed them playing Fortnite, though.) More than half the respondents say playing video games helps relieve stress (58%). Forty-five percent say playing video keeps their minds sharp, and nearly half (43%) of players say video games have positively influenced their education or career path. The player perspective is supported by scientific research, with many studies concluding that video games improve cognitive skills and decision-making, Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO, Entertainment Software Association, told Fast Company. A number of industries have already embraced interactive technologies for training employees, from medical treatments and surgery to astronautics and emergency response, says Pierre-Louis. I anticipate more will recognize gameplay as a way to engage with and develop their workforce in the near future.” Brain health experts are a bit divided as to whether some games, like Wordle, actually improve cognitive function. And while the ESA report is of course an industry one, theres other data out there that may support its findings. A 2022 study found that kids who play video games showed better impulse control and working memory than those who didnt. Another from 2021 found that playing video games does improve not only cognitive functions, but also mood and emotional well-being in elderly people. Another, from 2020 from University of Liechtenstein, found a strong correlation between video game skills and managerial ability. In fact, being adept at video games can significantly boost ones career, the researchers wrote. A literature review published in Procedia Computer Science, cited in the ESA report, also found that gaming can enhance perception, attentional control, and decision-making. Nurses and doctors, for example, who trained with simulation games showed improvements in both risk assessment and response time. These benefits arent limited to just life-or-death scenarios. Retailers have also turned to game-based tools to prepare employees for peak shopping events, the report notes. Sports teams use simulation tech to help athletes train. Across industries, gaming has become a quick fix to boost preparedness and improve team outcomes. Of course, spending hours gaming in the evening is not always the answer to your work woes. Sometimes its just a way to unwind after a long day. (There’s research that suggests mental health benefits of having hobbies, by the way.) But research has also previously found that gaming can actually hinder the amount of work young men do by 15 to 30 hours over the course of one year. And excessive gaming can be detrimental to mental health, or even spiral into addiction for some people. As companies struggle to maintain engaged employees, burnout is on the up. Who knows? Maybe a chill pastime in front of a glowing screen is just the thing to take the edge off. (Or, in some ways, may also give the edge you need to perform better at work.)
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E-Commerce
Anthropic insists that its getting along with the Trump administration just fine.In a new blog post published on October 21, the companys CEO, Dario Amodei, pushed back on what he called a recent uptick in inaccurate claims about Anthropic’s policy stances. His comments come after David Sacks, a prominent tech venture capitalist currently serving as the Trump administrations AI czar, accused Anthropic of having an agenda to backdoor Woke AI through state-level regulation and working with Democratic mega-donors. That narrative has since gained traction within online right-wing spaces. The comments also follow the White Houses release of an executive order specifically focused on combating woke AI earlier this year, though officials have yet to say how it will be enforced. Now Anthropic is defending its work on AI safety, which Amodei argued should prioritize policy over politics. He also doubled down on the company’s position on regulating AI on the state level, in absence of a national standard. Citing JD Vances comments on AI directly, Amodei pointed to several areas of agreement with the Trump administration, including to maximize applications that help people, like breakthroughs in medicine and disease prevention, while minimizing the harmful ones. The CEO also questioned the notion that Claude, the companys flagship chatbot, is more susceptible to political bias than other similar large language models. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have increasingly leveled accusations that the countrys leading AI companies are building biased AI models, echoing the accusations made against social media companies in recent years. In short, Anthropic wants to toe the line between sticking to its commitment to study AI safetysafeguarding against general artificial intelligence endangering the human species and society in all sorts of destabilizing waysand appeasing the professed concerns of the Trump administration. Thats all happening while the company attempts to scoop up more government work. Anthropic is committed to constructive engagement on matters of public policy. When we agree, we say so, wrote Amodei. When we dont, we propose an alternative for consideration. We do this because we are a public benefit corporation with a mission to ensure that AI benefits everyone, and because we want to maintain Americas lead in AI. Again, we believe we share those goals with the Trump administration, both sides of Congress, and the public. We are going to keep being honest and straightforward, and will stand up for the policies we believe are right. The stakes of this technology are too great for us to do otherwise. Federal contracts Amodei underscored that Anthropic already has myriad partnerships with the federal government, including a contract with the Pentagon and work with the Energy Departments national laboratory system. Along with competitors like OpenAI, Google, and xAI, Anthropic is also working with the General Services Administration to offer its enterprise Claude service to federal agencies at a discounted price. Anthropics work within the GSA seems to be unaffected by whatever might be happening within the Office of Science and Technology Policy, where Sacks serves as an adviser, a government official familiar with the matter told Fast Company. Last month, Democrats launched an ethics inquiry into the investor, who has received waivers that allow him to participate in the administration while maintaining some of his investments. Anthropic has gotten good feedback from the GSA about government use of the tool, a company spokesperson says. The AI developer also points to its ongoing partnership with Palantir on meeting Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) requirements, a wonky but critical cloud security review program used to offer technology across federal agencies. Palantir is a controversial technology contractor thats seen its business with both the defense and civilian sides of government grow in recent years. As part of that work, Palantir has already been cleared to provide its cloud technology to federal agencies. While Anthropic has been picking up government contracts, it appears to be falling behind OpenAI on independent FedRAMP authorization. This could be a game changer for OpenAI: Should OpenAI earn that accreditation, it wont need to work through another companylike Microsoftto offer its technology directly to the government. At that point, OpenAI would be a more freestanding government contractor, maintaining far more independence from other major cloud companies. The same government official told Fast Company that Anthropic has yet to share a plan for gaining accreditation for its systems through that program, or securing a sponsorship for review in another way. A spokesperson for the GSA declined to comment.
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E-Commerce
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