Federal regulators on Friday announced penalties for former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) for allegedly manipulating and trading on prediction markets about whether he would attend the 2026 State of the Union address.
Why it matters: Prediction markets and regulators are under pressure to crack down on insider trading, particularly by athletes and political officials.
Delaware court fights over M&A are ordinary. Unless the parties are fighting over dozens of dolphins.
Driving the news: Creditors for The Dolphin Company, once one of the world's largest aquatic park operators, have asked a bankruptcy court judge for permission to sell its Mexican assets for $20 million to the company's current management.
Included would be 87 bottlenose dolphins, plus eight manatees, and six sea lions.
The data center boom is driving the earnings of staid industrial companies in addition to the makers of chips and servers.
Why it matters: The newfound importance of AI to producers of paint, asphalt and industrial cable, among others, mirrors the buildout's growing role as a driver of the "real economy."
The AI job apocalypse may need a rebrand — a new white paper finds that rather than triggering full-scale job losses, the new technology is slowing wage growth, especially among lower-paying occupations.
Why it matters: In other words, you get to keep your job, but you'll make less money doing it.
Microsoft had a great Thursday — its stock rose 16%, the biggest jump for the tech giant in nearly two decades.
The resulting surge in market cap — $450 billion — was apparently the biggest one-day gain in stock market history, per Bloomberg's analysis.
Between the lines: Investors were grooving on the company's latest earnings report and the powerful growth of the Azure cloud computing business — a sign that its AI investments are paying off.
The bottom line: The cloud business is making it rain over in Redmond, Washington.
Data: Brunswick Group and Echelon Insights; Chart: Sara Wise/Axios
CEOs face an increasingly skeptical American public that's laser-focused on affordability and fairness, according to polling from the Brunswick Group and Echelon Insights provided first to Axios.
Why it matters: With the midterms less than 100 days away, the results show corporate leaders need to build trust through consistency and neutrality — rather than trying to chase political headwinds.
A series of dangerous heat waves this summer — including one that has left 17 states under an emergency federal order — are putting the electric grid under an intense real-world stress test.
Why it matters: Successive summer heat waves are forcing utilities to rethink how they prepare the grid for longer and more frequent periods of extreme stress.
The way your work shows up in a digital-dominated world is changing lightning fast, starting with the total collapse of Google Search traffic.
Why it matters: Google has basically stopped sending people to websites (including our site) for answers and information. Instead, it's using AI to answer them on its platform, in its words.
Taco Bell sales have fallen sharply since the national cyclospora outbreak, but the company's executives said they're already noticing signs of a rebound.
Why it matters: Health officials have identified more than 11,000 confirmed or suspected cases of the parasite, which can cause "explosive" diarrhea.
Amazon's AI cloud business soared in the second quarter, driving far higher revenue than expected, though the company's free cash flow also turned negative as it invests heavily in the business.
Amazon shares surged 9.4% in after-hours trading.
Why it matters: The surging AI economy — centered around cloud companies like Amazon, hyperscalers and data center investments — is booming, even as questions are mounting about whether it's sustainable.
Jersey Mike's, the sub chain bought just last year by Blackstone, raised $1 billion in its IPO and today began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Why it matters: It's a rare 2026 bright spot for a restaurant industry that's been beset by high food costs and a recent parasite outbreak, even though its opening trades were below the IPO price.
Situational Awareness, an AI-focused hedge fund founded by a former OpenAI researcher, has sold all of its public equities portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel, a source tells Axios.
Why it matters: This comes amidst a recent sell-off in AI stocks, particularly chipmakers.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang both turned to X this month for major AI announcements — evidence that, nearly four years after Elon Musk's takeover, it's still the platform of choice for many leaders.
Why it matters: For communicators, the most important audience isn't always the largest one — it's the one most likely to influence headlines, markets and policy.
Michelle Baker leads the public affairs practice at FTP, formerly Forbes-Tate Partners, overseeing bipartisan federal and state advocacy, digital strategy, research and insight, and design.
Why it matters: As a leader at one of D.C.'s top lobbying firms, Baker advises clients on navigating the capital's unpredictable political environment.
Scale AI has hired Google Cloud COO Francis deSouza as CEO, year after Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang left the AI infrastructure company for Meta.
Why it matters: Scale hired someone who spent years selling AI and cloud services to enterprises, signaling the firm sees itself as an enterprise AI company rather than a data management firm.
The U.S. economy grew at a 1.5% annualized rate in the second quarter, the government said on Thursday, capturing a three-month stretch shaped by the Middle East conflict and a surge in energy prices.
Why it matters: Consumer spending and business investment fueled by AI spending remained the economy's standout growth engines in the spring.
As AI expenses bite, Meta's second-quarter free cash flow fell to its lowest since just before the social media giant launched its layoff-laden "year of efficiency," the company reported Wednesday.
The big picture: The AI boom is transforming major tech giants from asset-light, cash-spewing behemoths into indebted owners of a sprawling fleet of super-expensive data centers. And nobody knows whether those data centers will eventually turn out to be profitable investments.
The Iran war has revealed China's enormous power over global oil prices, thanks to its position as the world's largest buyer.
Why it matters: China's reaction to the oil shock — by substantially withdrawing from buying on world markets — helped prevent the worst of the price spikes that experts thought would follow from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Pointing across a 3D mockup in the Oval Office, President Trump unveiled his $22.5 billion overhaul of Dulles Airport on Wednesday, promising to turn what he called a "horribly thought of" gateway into "maybe the best."
Why it matters: The massive plan replaces aging concourses, adding millions of square feet of new capacity to serve more passengers and international destinations.
Pope Leo XIV plans to visit the U.S. "soon," the Chicago-born pontiff said in an interview with NBC News that aired Wednesday evening.
The big picture: The first U.S.-born pope told NBC's Tom Llamas during the interview that he loves "so many things" about America as he revealed he was just looking at his calendar for the next couple of years and confirmed people will see him in the U.S. "soon."
