As venues adopt new security technology and fans wear cameras, attending a live event can come with privacy concerns.
Why it matters: Safety has always been a concern at large gatherings. But technology is giving venues more powerful ways to identify and track who's inside.
Sports have become one of the most lucrative forms of live entertainment in the country, thanks to the extraordinary media rights fees they command over other categories.
Why it matters: Even as game attendance continues to climb, media rights now account for far more sports revenue than tickets.
Admission prices for movies, theaters and concerts in the U.S. have jumped more than 41% since January 2016, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Why it matters: That's just the ticket. Fans may complain about higher costs, but they're still showing up and spending for travel, food and other expenses.
Tesla applied for a permit to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis in Clark County, Nevada, but got approval from the state for just 10.
Why it matters: CEO Elon Musk has bet the company on autonomy, robots and AI, but state and federal regulators will have the final say on how quickly those ambitions are realized.
The big picture:College dorms are becoming customized, social-media-ready micro-apartments, but the market looks wildly different depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line your campus sits.
American consumers have powered the economy forward this year. In July, they took a breather.
Why it matters: While the underlying trend in consumer demand appears solid, retail sales hit an air pocket last month, suggesting a bumpier path ahead for overall growth.
Combined with a weak jobs report last week and twosubdued inflation readings this week, it points to the Federal Reserve having room to be patient on potential interest rate increases this fall.
Disney's new documentary goes behind the scenes of a strategy the company has spent decades perfecting — translating its films for theme parks.
Why it matters: That business is becoming even more important to Disney as it aims to build higher-margin flywheels, just as consumer demand for in-person experiences is booming.
The Treasury Department this week scrapped a key part of a federal anti-corruption law that required anonymous shell companies and other firms to disclose their owners.
Why it matters: The move is the latest example of how it's becoming harder to get information about the financial system, even as the ascendance of AI makes it seemingly easier to learn anything you want to know.
Big Tech's massive data center spending binge hasn't put too much of a dent in a core gauge of corporate investing prowess.
Why it matters: This number, return on invested capital — or ROIC, to balance sheet fanboys — aims to tell investors how good a company is at making money on all the cash that it has sunk into acquisitions, equipment and plants and other capital.
Zoom in: Profit margins don't incorporate the costs of investing in factories and equipment needed to create or sustain a company. For that you need to look at returns, percentages that tell you what a business makes once you take these expenses — and in the case of AI massive expenses — into account.
A wave of top OpenAI executives — including Sam Altman's top deputy, a longtime chief operating officer and the chief revenue officer — has left in the span of a month as the company retools its leadership ahead of an expected IPO.
Why it matters: Co-founder Greg Brockman is getting more involved across every level of the company to build out a leadership team he hopes will catapult OpenAI past Anthropic in enterprise adoption, according to a source familiar with the matter.
