Axios

Gen Z largely entered the workforce as remote and hybrid work went mainstream.

Why it matters: Early career professionals are hungry for mentorship and real connections (even friends) on top of flexibility and work-life balance. With Gen Z expected to overtake Baby Boomers in the workplace this year, those preferences are reshaping the modern workplace.

A well-funded project to modify Solano County's master plan will soon begin gathering signatures to get on November's ballot.

Why it matters: If successful, this will be a significant step towards the project's ultimate goal of building an entirely new city. California Forever's architects — and the Silicon Valley billionaires funding it — believe their plan will cure the Bay Area's land use woes.

Sam Altman's AI dream has a mind-boggling price tag, according to the WSJ: Somewhere between $5 trillion and $7 trillion.

Why it matters: Such numbers are preposterous. The fact that they're being talked about with anything approaching a straight face is indicative of the degree to which the broader AI discourse has become unmoored from reality.

Japan and the UK are both in recession — but the former's stock market is on a tear, while the latter's has been going nowhere for years.

Why it matters: It's a salutary reminder that economic health and stock market performance are two entirely different things.

Lyft's fourth-quarter earnings release was supposed to be a high point for the company, with losses being slashed to just $26 million from $588 million a year previously. Instead, it turned into a farce.

Why it matters: A typo sent the company's shares on a wild ride in after-hours trading.

Federal regulators are poised to ban the impersonation of anyone, aiming to thwart scams in an AI-driven world.

Why it matters: An imminent onslaught of deepfake video and audio is creating a sense of urgency to protect consumers.

📺 Paramount Global and Comcast have discussed a partnership between Paramount+ and Peacock. (WSJ)

🪙 Coinbase shares surged after the crypto exchange delivered its first quarterly profit in two years. (Axios)

🎬 Former CNN boss Jeff Zucker's RedBird IMI is acquiring film and TV producer All3Media, known for "Fleabag," "Undercover Boss" and "Squid Game: The Challenge." (Axios)

DraftKings yesterday plunked down a $750 million bet that a lottery app will help it win the fierce battle for customers in its own core business, Axios' Pete Gannon writes.

Catch up fast: The sports-betting giant said yesterday it would buy Jackpocket, a company that allows users to buy state lottery tickets from their phones.

In one sense the rationale is simple — DraftKings can branch into the massive U.S. lottery industry.

• But "more importantly" (its words), the deal is about acquiring customers cheaply, who will drive increased value on DraftKings' sportsbook and iGaming business.

What they're saying: "It's a very efficient way to acquire customers in mass," DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said on a conference call about the deal. "And we know from overlap analysis that those customers will cross-sell very effectively" to higher spend on DraftKings' core businesses.

"Housing is becoming a luxury good."

For months, wholesale price jumps have been outright benign — a sign that milder price increases were in the pipeline for consumers.

The big picture: That changed in January, as producer prices came in hot. One surprising reason: the gangbusters stock market.

As tech layoffs continue, more employers are worried about firings going viral in TikTok videos.

Why it matters: A little anxiety around conducting firings is a good thing — while cuts may be necessary for the bottom line or to appease shareholders, they also come with internal blowback and other hidden costs.