Investors were confronted this past week with four difficult realities that may fundamentally change the way they think about AI the business vs. AI the technology, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes:

1. 💰 AI is too expensive, say CEOs and even Microsoft itself.
2. 🗑️ It's not paying off nearly as much as companies expected, per a new Bain study.
3. ⛅️ Infrastructure demand is strong — but not as strong as the most optimistic wanted, as Broadcom showed with its "weak" forecast.
4. 🏦 Financing that infrastructure is going to be more expensive for longer, with signs pointing to the Fed raising, not lowering, interest rates.

Why it matters: Those realities challenge assumptions that powered markets to historic heights over the past few years. It's hard to justify chip or memory stocks rising 1,000%+ in a year if the boom isn't what everyone assumed.

🔭 The big picture: The costs of AI are now. The profits are later — maybe. That "maybe" is what's making people nervous.

• AI the technology has a bright future. But AI the business is starting to look like a bottomless pit — especially amid news that even some of the world's biggest companies are rushing to sell historic (and dilutive) amounts of stock to justify their expansion.

By the numbers: The market sold off Friday amid those jitters, with the tech-laden Nasdaq having its worst day in 14 months.

• Broadcom's tepid outlook wiped $444 billion off its market cap alone in just two days.

🔎 Friction point: Tech selling off weighs down everything else.

• As charts expert Matt Cerminaro (a.k.a. "Chart Kid Matt") noted Friday, the S&P 500 was down more than 2%, even though the majority of stocks in the index were actually up on the day.
• The last time that happened? April 12, 2000, as the dot-com bubble was collapsing.

The bottom line: Every great new technology has its moment where the business behind it resets, even as the tech itself keeps advancing. We could be seeing the start of that moment for AI.

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Jim VandeHei's new weekly newsletter for CEOs, Axios C-Suite, opens with some of the intel he picked up behind the scenes this past week:

Ignore the Vance-isn't-running-for-POTUS speculation. He is.

• Yes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is surging in prediction markets (and sometimes in President Trump's mind). But Rubio is doing nothing in terms of prep (staff, donor chats, base appeasement). Vice President Vance is.
• If Rubio were to run, some in the MAGA base would torch him for the Iran war. Steve Bannon and others would try to blame Rubio, even though the attack was Trump's call, against the advice of Vance and others.

🛢️ Price shock: Lots of oil execs are back-channeling alarm to Trump and the White House that oil prices could soon surge again.

• Oil majors are depleting strategic reserves to hold down prices, but are running out of options.
• Their warning: $150+ per barrel is weeks away if the Strait of Hormuz isn't open.

📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Ask to join Jim's new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.

In his first sit-down interview since being fired from "60 Minutes," Scott Pelley told the N.Y. Times' Lulu Garcia-Navarro: "We can save this. It's possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News is on fire."

• "We need adult supervision," Pelley, 68, told Garcia-Navarro, co-host of NYT series "The Interview," during the hourlong conversation. "We have people who've been installed in these jobs who, through no fault of their own, have no experience in television."
• "They don't know what they're doing," he added. "And there's a subtle political bias that I've never seen at '60 Minutes' before, or at CBS News before. So that is my hope: a return to sanity."

📺 The backstory: Pelley was booted "for cause" this past week after dressing down Nick Bilton, the newly installed "60 Minutes" executive producer, during Bilton's contentious debut meeting with the staff.

• Bilton's appointment by CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss — and the firing of his predecessor, Tanya Simon, who'd been with CBS News for 30 years and is the daughter of the late "60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon — left anger and confusion among the broadcast's 80+ staffers.
• In a win for Weiss and Bilton, the 58-year-old show's three remaining correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — agreed Friday to stay.

🎤 For the first time, Pelley gave specifics behind his earlier accusation that he'd been "instructed … to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story."

• Discussing a February segment about the killings of two Minneapolis protesters by federal agents, Pelley told Garcia-Navarro that "about four hours after our deadline, Bari Weiss sends an email to my boss, Tanya Simon. Two of the things in the email include: Can we make the protesters look more violent? Now, I'm paraphrasing. I don't have the quote, but that's what was communicated to me. And the other thing: Renee Good's car. You need to describe her as driving TOWARD the officer."
• Pelley said no changes were made.

A CBS News spokesperson tells Axios: "In an email, Bari made four points in the course of editorial back-and-forth. They had no political motivation and were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair and accurate as possible. As is frequently the case in any newsroom that operates with collaboration, not everything she raised made it into the final piece."

• Watch/read the interview (guest link).

U.S. World War II veteran Hilbert "Hibby" Margol, age 102, arrives yesterday at the U.S. cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings.

• Fewer than 0.5% of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lays a wreath during a ceremony in Colleville-sur-Mer yesterday.

• Worthy read: The Atlantic spoke with 100-year-old D-Day survivor Joe Picard about preserving history (gift link).

The U.S.–Iran war is forcing FIFA to navigate a diplomatic and logistical mess even before the World Cup kicks off Thursday, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports.

• Iran has three guaranteed matches on U.S. soil in the group stage after FIFA declined the nation's request to move its games to stadiums in Canada or Mexico once the war started.
• Without overnight stays, the Iranian team will fly in from Mexico, clear customs, play a match and then fly back to Mexico the same day for each U.S.-based match.

While Iranian players, coaches, staff and immediate family are supposed to be exempt, members of the support staff and the head of the country's football federation were denied visas, the N.Y. Times reports.

• Iran's fans won't be allowed to travel to the U.S. at all.

Read on.

There's a growing six-figure club of colleges charging $100,000 or more for a single year of tuition.

• At least 16 schools, including Duke, Georgetown, UChicago, NYU, USC and Amherst, have crossed that benchmark, New York Magazine reports ($).

What to watch: 85 colleges were already charging more than $90,000 last year so look for more entrants into the six-figure club in the next few years.

The cheapest ticket to see the New York Knicks vs. the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden this week is $3,745 — 107 times as expensive as the Knicks' previous trip to the NBA Finals in 1999, Bruce Mehlman, author of Age of Disruption on Substack, notes in his excellent (and free) Six-Chart Sunday post.

• The Knicks announced yesterday that with President Trump attending Game 3 at Madison Square Garden tomorrow night, fans will go through TSA-style screening, and are advised to arrive two hours before tip-off.

Exclusive details: Chief Justice John Roberts officiated Friday's secret wedding of David Rubenstein, the investor and patriotic philanthropist, to Caryn Zucker, who's active on the boards of several New York City cultural institutions.

• Rubenstein is co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and an author and interviewer. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for his lavish support for preserving and restoring historic landmarks and artifacts.

The couple, who have been together 4½ years, wanted an intimate wedding with just their families. They began the day at the Supreme Court. A religious ceremony followed at the historic Sixth & I synagogue, officiated by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt. Then the small group gathered for lunch on the rooftop of the Hay-Adams hotel, where this photo was taken.

• Tony Powell, the photographer, wrote on Instagram: "Just photographed the best-kept wedding secret of the year. And when I say secret, I mean I didn't even find out it was a wedding until 15 minutes before it started."