Forbes Daily Briefing en © Forbes Media LLC The Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. The Daily Briefing is edited, produced and hosted by Kieran Meadows. https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/48de4b06-22e0-11f1-b1b9-8f4ed62929aa/image/cab87306f73aafd8cc1ea392c5e5b1f4.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress Forbes Daily Briefing no episodic Forbes The Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. The Daily Briefing is edited, produced and hosted by Kieran Meadows. The Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. The Daily Briefing is edited, produced and hosted by Kieran Meadows.




]]> Forbes thepodcasts@forbes.com British AI Chip Founder Becomes Europe’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaire In 2017, James Dacombe dropped out of high school to found brain monitoring startup CoMind. Four years later, he took a Thiel Fellowship to skip college and build his first startup. Now the 25-year-old is Europe’s youngest self-made billionaire thanks to his two-year-old chipmaking company Olix, as well as an undisclosed stake in CoMind—which he still runs separately.  Founded in 2024, Dacombe’s London-based Olix tripled its valuation in six months to $3.3 billion in early August, after raising $312 million from investors including NYC-based investment firm Fundomo, Nasdaq-listed chip designer Arm, American quant fund Hudson River Trading and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings. The UK government’s Sovereign AI fund also backed Olix in the round. The new round pushes Dacombe, who owns an estimated 30% of the company, into the three comma club. He also has a 12% stake in CoMind, which raised $102.5 million in August 2025 but did not disclose its valuation. Olix and CoMind did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment. Dacombe is one of eleven self-made billionaires in the world who have yet to turn 30 and one of just four from outside the U.S. By Alicia Park, Reporter and Iain Martin, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes In 2017, James Dacombe dropped out of high school to found brain monitoring startup CoMind. Four years later, he took a Thiel Fellowship to skip college and build his first startup. Now the 25-year-old is Europe’s youngest self-made billionaire thanks to his two-year-old chipmaking company Olix, as well as an undisclosed stake in CoMind—which he still runs separately.  Founded in 2024, Dacombe’s London-based Olix tripled its valuation in six months to $3.3 billion in early August, after raising $312 million from investors including NYC-based investment firm Fundomo, Nasdaq-listed chip designer Arm, American quant fund Hudson River Trading and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings. The UK government’s Sovereign AI fund also backed Olix in the round. The new round pushes Dacombe, who owns an estimated 30% of the company, into the three comma club. He also has a 12% stake in CoMind, which raised $102.5 million in August 2025 but did not disclose its valuation. Olix and CoMind did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment. Dacombe is one of eleven self-made billionaires in the world who have yet to turn 30 and one of just four from outside the U.S. By Alicia Park, Reporter and Iain Martin, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In 2017, James Dacombe dropped out of high school to found brain monitoring startup CoMind. Four years later, he took a Thiel Fellowship to skip college and build his first startup. Now the 25-year-old is Europe’s youngest self-made billionaire thanks to his two-year-old chipmaking company Olix, as well as an undisclosed stake in CoMind—which he still runs separately. 

Founded in 2024, Dacombe’s London-based Olix tripled its valuation in six months to $3.3 billion in early August, after raising $312 million from investors including NYC-based investment firm Fundomo, Nasdaq-listed chip designer Arm, American quant fund Hudson River Trading and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings. The UK government’s Sovereign AI fund also backed Olix in the round. The new round pushes Dacombe, who owns an estimated 30% of the company, into the three comma club. He also has a 12% stake in CoMind, which raised $102.5 million in August 2025 but did not disclose its valuation. Olix and CoMind did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.

Dacombe is one of eleven self-made billionaires in the world who have yet to turn 30 and one of just four from outside the U.S.

By Alicia Park,

Reporter

and Iain Martin,

Forbes Staff

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 413 no Bill Gates-Owned Four Seasons Resort Sued For $100 Million By Disgruntled Members The homeowners association of Four Seasons Resorts Nevis filed a lawsuit against Nevis Peak Holdings on Tuesday, August 11 in Delaware Chancery Court. Nevis Peak owns the luxury resort and surrounding property, which sits at the base of a volcanic mountain in Pinney’s Beach, a roughly three-mile stretch of beach on the Caribbean island—just north of Charlestown, Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace. Nevis Peak is owned by Cascade, the family office of Bill Gates, which bought the resort a decade ago. As of January 2022, Cascade also owns 71.25% of the Four Seasons, according to the suit. While Four Seasons manages the property, it wasn’t named as a defendant in the suit. He’s owned the Four Seasons with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, whose Kingdom Holding has a 23.75% stake, since 2007. According to the suit, each homeowner paid $100,000 to get in the door at Four Seasons Resort Nevis, the luxury Caribbean island resort long reported as a quiet retreat for such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep and Justin Trudeau. They then pay upwards of $13,000 a year to keep using the place, plus a management fee of 25% on any bills for work the resort does for them and another 15% for major construction. By Alicia Park, Reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes The homeowners association of Four Seasons Resorts Nevis filed a lawsuit against Nevis Peak Holdings on Tuesday, August 11 in Delaware Chancery Court. Nevis Peak owns the luxury resort and surrounding property, which sits at the base of a volcanic mountain in Pinney’s Beach, a roughly three-mile stretch of beach on the Caribbean island—just north of Charlestown, Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace. Nevis Peak is owned by Cascade, the family office of Bill Gates, which bought the resort a decade ago. As of January 2022, Cascade also owns 71.25% of the Four Seasons, according to the suit. While Four Seasons manages the property, it wasn’t named as a defendant in the suit. He’s owned the Four Seasons with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, whose Kingdom Holding has a 23.75% stake, since 2007. According to the suit, each homeowner paid $100,000 to get in the door at Four Seasons Resort Nevis, the luxury Caribbean island resort long reported as a quiet retreat for such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep and Justin Trudeau. They then pay upwards of $13,000 a year to keep using the place, plus a management fee of 25% on any bills for work the resort does for them and another 15% for major construction. By Alicia Park, Reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The homeowners association of Four Seasons Resorts Nevis filed a lawsuit against Nevis Peak Holdings on Tuesday, August 11 in Delaware Chancery Court. Nevis Peak owns the luxury resort and surrounding property, which sits at the base of a volcanic mountain in Pinney’s Beach, a roughly three-mile stretch of beach on the Caribbean island—just north of Charlestown, Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace.

Nevis Peak is owned by Cascade, the family office of Bill Gates, which bought the resort a decade ago. As of January 2022, Cascade also owns 71.25% of the Four Seasons, according to the suit. While Four Seasons manages the property, it wasn’t named as a defendant in the suit. He’s owned the Four Seasons with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, whose Kingdom Holding has a 23.75% stake, since 2007.

According to the suit, each homeowner paid $100,000 to get in the door at Four Seasons Resort Nevis, the luxury Caribbean island resort long reported as a quiet retreat for such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep and Justin Trudeau. They then pay upwards of $13,000 a year to keep using the place, plus a management fee of 25% on any bills for work the resort does for them and another 15% for major construction.

By Alicia Park,

Reporter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 387 no PTSD Helped Make Vietnam Vet Bob Parsons A Billionaire—But Also Nearly Destroyed Him Bob Parsons is navigating his golf cart through the twisting dry dirt road of the golf course he built in the Sonoran Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona, avoiding lizards, rabbits and giant saguaros. He stops near the ninth hole, named Catfish, which overlooks a manmade lake and surrounded by three million acres of preserved land. It cost Parsons hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and renovate Scottsdale National, which has two 18-hole courses and the “Bad Little Nine,” a punishingly difficult nine-hole par-three course. He points to the center of the lake where a small black hut sits with the words “Suggestion Box” painted in white.  “This is a marvelous spot to put a suggestion box,” the 75-year-old Parsons tells Forbes. “The vent is painted on. I guess you could try.” After all, Parsons did not become a billionaire by taking other people’s suggestions. He built his fortune thanks to his nonstop hustle, often working 60-plus hours straight. He sold his first company, Parsons Technology, which made personal finance and tax software, to Intuit for $64 million in 1994 (or about $165 million today). In 1997, he started domain name registrar GoDaddy and sold a 71% stake for $2.3 billion in 2011 (or $3.4 billion today). By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:00:00 -0000 full Forbes Bob Parsons is navigating his golf cart through the twisting dry dirt road of the golf course he built in the Sonoran Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona, avoiding lizards, rabbits and giant saguaros. He stops near the ninth hole, named Catfish, which overlooks a manmade lake and surrounded by three million acres of preserved land. It cost Parsons hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and renovate Scottsdale National, which has two 18-hole courses and the “Bad Little Nine,” a punishingly difficult nine-hole par-three course. He points to the center of the lake where a small black hut sits with the words “Suggestion Box” painted in white.  “This is a marvelous spot to put a suggestion box,” the 75-year-old Parsons tells Forbes. “The vent is painted on. I guess you could try.” After all, Parsons did not become a billionaire by taking other people’s suggestions. He built his fortune thanks to his nonstop hustle, often working 60-plus hours straight. He sold his first company, Parsons Technology, which made personal finance and tax software, to Intuit for $64 million in 1994 (or about $165 million today). In 1997, he started domain name registrar GoDaddy and sold a 71% stake for $2.3 billion in 2011 (or $3.4 billion today). By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Bob Parsons is navigating his golf cart through the twisting dry dirt road of the golf course he built in the Sonoran Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona, avoiding lizards, rabbits and giant saguaros. He stops near the ninth hole, named Catfish, which overlooks a manmade lake and surrounded by three million acres of preserved land. It cost Parsons hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and renovate Scottsdale National, which has two 18-hole courses and the “Bad Little Nine,” a punishingly difficult nine-hole par-three course. He points to the center of the lake where a small black hut sits with the words “Suggestion Box” painted in white. 

“This is a marvelous spot to put a suggestion box,” the 75-year-old Parsons tells Forbes. “The vent is painted on. I guess you could try.”

After all, Parsons did not become a billionaire by taking other people’s suggestions. He built his fortune thanks to his nonstop hustle, often working 60-plus hours straight. He sold his first company, Parsons Technology, which made personal finance and tax software, to Intuit for $64 million in 1994 (or about $165 million today). In 1997, he started domain name registrar GoDaddy and sold a 71% stake for $2.3 billion in 2011 (or $3.4 billion today).

By Will Yakowicz,

Forbes Staff.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 410 no Iron Vs Carbon: Funds Surge For Makers Of Batteries That Store Power For Days Form Energy, which makes iron-based batteries to hold electricity for days, said it raised $750 million to expand production. That follows a $550 million raise by rival Antora Energy to accelerate production of its thermal batteries made from carbon blocks that also hold power for at least 100 hours. Unsurprisingly, data center power demand underpins the investment spike. Form, which began shipping its iron-air batteries this year built at its Weirton, West Virginia, plant, said the latest round, led by T. Rowe Price, boosts its total funding to $2 billion. The company didn’t immediately provide a valuation figure with the latest funds, though Pitchbook estimates the deal values the Somerville, Massachusetts-based company at $4.3 billion. Sunnyvale, California-based Antora has raised $1 billion as of July 31 and is seeking a second plant beyond its current factory in Silicon Valley.  Both companies are focused on making batteries out of cheap, domestically available materials that can store power at much lower cost than shorter-term lithium-based battery chemistries, and that also have little to no risk of catching on fire. The technology is also ideal when paired with large-scale solar or wind farms, ensuring a steady supply of cheap, carbon-free energy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:00:00 -0000 full Forbes Form Energy, which makes iron-based batteries to hold electricity for days, said it raised $750 million to expand production. That follows a $550 million raise by rival Antora Energy to accelerate production of its thermal batteries made from carbon blocks that also hold power for at least 100 hours. Unsurprisingly, data center power demand underpins the investment spike. Form, which began shipping its iron-air batteries this year built at its Weirton, West Virginia, plant, said the latest round, led by T. Rowe Price, boosts its total funding to $2 billion. The company didn’t immediately provide a valuation figure with the latest funds, though Pitchbook estimates the deal values the Somerville, Massachusetts-based company at $4.3 billion. Sunnyvale, California-based Antora has raised $1 billion as of July 31 and is seeking a second plant beyond its current factory in Silicon Valley.  Both companies are focused on making batteries out of cheap, domestically available materials that can store power at much lower cost than shorter-term lithium-based battery chemistries, and that also have little to no risk of catching on fire. The technology is also ideal when paired with large-scale solar or wind farms, ensuring a steady supply of cheap, carbon-free energy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Form Energy, which makes iron-based batteries to hold electricity for days, said it raised $750 million to expand production. That follows a $550 million raise by rival Antora Energy to accelerate production of its thermal batteries made from carbon blocks that also hold power for at least 100 hours. Unsurprisingly, data center power demand underpins the investment spike.

Form, which began shipping its iron-air batteries this year built at its Weirton, West Virginia, plant, said the latest round, led by T. Rowe Price, boosts its total funding to $2 billion. The company didn’t immediately provide a valuation figure with the latest funds, though Pitchbook estimates the deal values the Somerville, Massachusetts-based company at $4.3 billion. Sunnyvale, California-based Antora has raised $1 billion as of July 31 and is seeking a second plant beyond its current factory in Silicon Valley. 

Both companies are focused on making batteries out of cheap, domestically available materials that can store power at much lower cost than shorter-term lithium-based battery chemistries, and that also have little to no risk of catching on fire. The technology is also ideal when paired with large-scale solar or wind farms, ensuring a steady supply of cheap, carbon-free energy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 417 no Why Every Major Bank Is Racing To Put Wall Street On The Blockchain Last week Wells Fargo, the country’s fourth-largest bank with about $2.3 trillion in assets, said it would offer tokenized deposits to corporate and commercial clients this fall. Not long ago, the announcement would have been written off as yet another blockchain trial balloon. Today, it looks more like keeping up with the competition. JPMorgan and Citigroup already operate similar services. JPMorgan’s Kinexys network processes more than $7 billion a day and has handled over $4 trillion since launch. Both banks along with Wells Fargo, Bank of America and more than a dozen other large lenders are also participating in an initiative operated by The Clearing House, a bank-owned payments company, like Zelle, that is developing a shared system for moving tokenized deposits between institutions. The market’s plumbing is moving in the same direction. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which clears and settles some $15 trillion in U.S. securities trades per day, processed its first live transactions using tokenized securities in July and plans to launch the service in October. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, introduced two tokenized money market products this month. By Nina Bambysheva, Deputy Editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes Last week Wells Fargo, the country’s fourth-largest bank with about $2.3 trillion in assets, said it would offer tokenized deposits to corporate and commercial clients this fall. Not long ago, the announcement would have been written off as yet another blockchain trial balloon. Today, it looks more like keeping up with the competition. JPMorgan and Citigroup already operate similar services. JPMorgan’s Kinexys network processes more than $7 billion a day and has handled over $4 trillion since launch. Both banks along with Wells Fargo, Bank of America and more than a dozen other large lenders are also participating in an initiative operated by The Clearing House, a bank-owned payments company, like Zelle, that is developing a shared system for moving tokenized deposits between institutions. The market’s plumbing is moving in the same direction. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which clears and settles some $15 trillion in U.S. securities trades per day, processed its first live transactions using tokenized securities in July and plans to launch the service in October. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, introduced two tokenized money market products this month. By Nina Bambysheva, Deputy Editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Last week Wells Fargo, the country’s fourth-largest bank with about $2.3 trillion in assets, said it would offer tokenized deposits to corporate and commercial clients this fall. Not long ago, the announcement would have been written off as yet another blockchain trial balloon. Today, it looks more like keeping up with the competition.

JPMorgan and Citigroup already operate similar services. JPMorgan’s Kinexys network processes more than $7 billion a day and has handled over $4 trillion since launch. Both banks along with Wells Fargo, Bank of America and more than a dozen other large lenders are also participating in an initiative operated by The Clearing House, a bank-owned payments company, like Zelle, that is developing a shared system for moving tokenized deposits between institutions.

The market’s plumbing is moving in the same direction. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which clears and settles some $15 trillion in U.S. securities trades per day, processed its first live transactions using tokenized securities in July and plans to launch the service in October. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, introduced two tokenized money market products this month.

By Nina Bambysheva,

Deputy Editor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 437 no How Private Credit’s Master Of Disaster Made An $800 Million Fortune Leonard Tannenbaum’s newest venture was supposed to be a sure thing. In 2020, after selling his previous company, Fifth Street, under a cloud of investor litigation and an SEC settlement, the veteran financier recast himself as a pioneering lender to underbanked cannabis firms. Weed was booming as Americans sat out the pandemic stressed and bored. But marijuana was illegal at the federal level, leaving most pot operations shut out of traditional banking.  Tannenbaum had the perfect Wall Street pitch: Become the dominant institutional lender to the fast-growing $19 billion industry by offering high yields to stock investors.  In early 2021, Tannenbaum and his third wife, Robyn, took their West Palm Beach, Florida–based AFC Gamma (later renamed Advanced Flower Capital) public as a mortgage REIT on the Nasdaq, raising $124 million. Within two years, thanks to successive stock offerings, AFC’s equity value rose to nearly $400 million, as did its loan book.  “What amazed me was there was no institutional lender in the space, no reputable lender,” said Tannenbaum on the From Pot to Popular podcast in 2022, part of a media blitz coordinated with his entrance into the sector. “This was a chance to be number one in the industry.” By John Hyatt, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes Leonard Tannenbaum’s newest venture was supposed to be a sure thing. In 2020, after selling his previous company, Fifth Street, under a cloud of investor litigation and an SEC settlement, the veteran financier recast himself as a pioneering lender to underbanked cannabis firms. Weed was booming as Americans sat out the pandemic stressed and bored. But marijuana was illegal at the federal level, leaving most pot operations shut out of traditional banking.  Tannenbaum had the perfect Wall Street pitch: Become the dominant institutional lender to the fast-growing $19 billion industry by offering high yields to stock investors.  In early 2021, Tannenbaum and his third wife, Robyn, took their West Palm Beach, Florida–based AFC Gamma (later renamed Advanced Flower Capital) public as a mortgage REIT on the Nasdaq, raising $124 million. Within two years, thanks to successive stock offerings, AFC’s equity value rose to nearly $400 million, as did its loan book.  “What amazed me was there was no institutional lender in the space, no reputable lender,” said Tannenbaum on the From Pot to Popular podcast in 2022, part of a media blitz coordinated with his entrance into the sector. “This was a chance to be number one in the industry.” By John Hyatt, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Leonard Tannenbaum’s newest venture was supposed to be a sure thing. In 2020, after selling his previous company, Fifth Street, under a cloud of investor litigation and an SEC settlement, the veteran financier recast himself as a pioneering lender to underbanked cannabis firms. Weed was booming as Americans sat out the pandemic stressed and bored. But marijuana was illegal at the federal level, leaving most pot operations shut out of traditional banking. 

Tannenbaum had the perfect Wall Street pitch: Become the dominant institutional lender to the fast-growing $19 billion industry by offering high yields to stock investors. 

In early 2021, Tannenbaum and his third wife, Robyn, took their West Palm Beach, Florida–based AFC Gamma (later renamed Advanced Flower Capital) public as a mortgage REIT on the Nasdaq, raising $124 million. Within two years, thanks to successive stock offerings, AFC’s equity value rose to nearly $400 million, as did its loan book. 

“What amazed me was there was no institutional lender in the space, no reputable lender,” said Tannenbaum on the From Pot to Popular podcast in 2022, part of a media blitz coordinated with his entrance into the sector. “This was a chance to be number one in the industry.”

By John Hyatt,

Forbes Staff

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 441 no The Los Angeles Lakers’ Record $12.5 Billion Sale Resets The Market For Sports Teams The news that billionaire venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger are buying a controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a record-breaking $12.5 billion valuation, first reported by ESPN on Wednesday morning, came as a shock in more ways than one. The deal breaks Walter’s own record for the purchase price of a professional sports team, less than a year after his $10 billion deal to take a control interest in the Lakers from the Buss family—who sold the team after 46 years—closed in October, and it once again resets the rest of the market for the rest of the NBA. This year has also included record-breaking team sale agreements in the NFL and MLB. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla led an investor group that agreed to buy the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion in August, and private equity manager José E. Feliciano’s family reached a deal in May to buy the San Diego Padres for $3.9 billion. By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 18 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes The news that billionaire venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger are buying a controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a record-breaking $12.5 billion valuation, first reported by ESPN on Wednesday morning, came as a shock in more ways than one. The deal breaks Walter’s own record for the purchase price of a professional sports team, less than a year after his $10 billion deal to take a control interest in the Lakers from the Buss family—who sold the team after 46 years—closed in October, and it once again resets the rest of the market for the rest of the NBA. This year has also included record-breaking team sale agreements in the NFL and MLB. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla led an investor group that agreed to buy the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion in August, and private equity manager José E. Feliciano’s family reached a deal in May to buy the San Diego Padres for $3.9 billion. By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The news that billionaire venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger are buying a controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a record-breaking $12.5 billion valuation, first reported by ESPN on Wednesday morning, came as a shock in more ways than one.

The deal breaks Walter’s own record for the purchase price of a professional sports team, less than a year after his $10 billion deal to take a control interest in the Lakers from the Buss family—who sold the team after 46 years—closed in October, and it once again resets the rest of the market for the rest of the NBA. This year has also included record-breaking team sale agreements in the NFL and MLB. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla led an investor group that agreed to buy the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion in August, and private equity manager José E. Feliciano’s family reached a deal in May to buy the San Diego Padres for $3.9 billion.

By Hank Tucker,

Forbes Staff

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 411 no AI's Latest Rocket Ship Is An Old School, 28-Year-Old Data Company Alex Bouzari isn’t one for the tech-founder uniform of khakis and a hoodie. Instead, he largely designs his own clothes. Think Willy Wonka on a bender: Regency-inspired suits, huge popped collars and crocodile-skin shoes.  The interior of his Paris pied-à-terre, a grand 19th-century apartment on a leafy avenue radiating off the Arc de Triomphe, is just as maximalist. Everything from the marbled carpets to the lime-green sofas and even the chinaware is the product of the 65-year-old French-Iranian émigré’s imagination. “I just love to design,” says Bouzari, the cofounder and CEO of data storage company DDN. “Over the years, I’ve developed this network of people who can translate my scribbles into things that can be made.” By Iain Martin, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes Alex Bouzari isn’t one for the tech-founder uniform of khakis and a hoodie. Instead, he largely designs his own clothes. Think Willy Wonka on a bender: Regency-inspired suits, huge popped collars and crocodile-skin shoes.  The interior of his Paris pied-à-terre, a grand 19th-century apartment on a leafy avenue radiating off the Arc de Triomphe, is just as maximalist. Everything from the marbled carpets to the lime-green sofas and even the chinaware is the product of the 65-year-old French-Iranian émigré’s imagination. “I just love to design,” says Bouzari, the cofounder and CEO of data storage company DDN. “Over the years, I’ve developed this network of people who can translate my scribbles into things that can be made.” By Iain Martin, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Alex Bouzari isn’t one for the tech-founder uniform of khakis and a hoodie. Instead, he largely designs his own clothes. Think Willy Wonka on a bender: Regency-inspired suits, huge popped collars and crocodile-skin shoes. 

The interior of his Paris pied-à-terre, a grand 19th-century apartment on a leafy avenue radiating off the Arc de Triomphe, is just as maximalist. Everything from the marbled carpets to the lime-green sofas and even the chinaware is the product of the 65-year-old French-Iranian émigré’s imagination. “I just love to design,” says Bouzari, the cofounder and CEO of data storage company DDN. “Over the years, I’ve developed this network of people who can translate my scribbles into things that can be made.”

By Iain Martin,

Forbes Staff

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 429 no Inside The 50 Over 50 List 2026 Earlier this year, an unsettling survey finding bounced around the internet: 70% of women say they feel increasingly invisible as they age. However, the sixth annual Forbes 50 Over 50 tells a very different story. Women across the country are doing some of their most ambitious, influential and powerful work after age 50. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes Earlier this year, an unsettling survey finding bounced around the internet: 70% of women say they feel increasingly invisible as they age. However, the sixth annual Forbes 50 Over 50 tells a very different story. Women across the country are doing some of their most ambitious, influential and powerful work after age 50. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Earlier this year, an unsettling survey finding bounced around the internet: 70% of women say they feel increasingly invisible as they age. However, the sixth annual Forbes 50 Over 50 tells a very different story. Women across the country are doing some of their most ambitious, influential and powerful work after age 50.

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]]> 408 no Meet The Billionaire Utah Couple Behind An E-Commerce Empire On September 19 last year, the husband-and-wife cofounders of e-commerce company Pattern, David Wright and Melanie Alder, walked up together to the NASDAQ podium in Times Square—both dressed in black button-up shirts and custom blue and purple Nike Air Forces. Wright, CEO of the Lehi, Utah-based company, took the microphone to thank the room full of employees. “Mel and I get asked, ‘How did you do it?’ We didn’t…it’s a team sport,” Wright exclaimed as he took off his shoe, eagerly holding it up to the crowd.It was a surreal moment for Wright and Alder: Ringing the NASDAQ bell was something they’d never imagined when they first began reselling fridge magnets on Amazon out of Alder’s living room in 2013. “We were just trying to bring in a little extra money on the side,” Wright explains from a conference room overlooking Utah’s sprawling mountainscape from Pattern’s headquarters in the tech hub known as Silicon Slopes. “Yeah, in the beginning, it was just us trying to support our families,” Alder chimes in from the seat next to his. At the time, both were married to other people: Alder was raising four children with her now ex-husband, while Wright had six of his own with his now ex-wife. By Alicia Park, Reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes On September 19 last year, the husband-and-wife cofounders of e-commerce company Pattern, David Wright and Melanie Alder, walked up together to the NASDAQ podium in Times Square—both dressed in black button-up shirts and custom blue and purple Nike Air Forces. Wright, CEO of the Lehi, Utah-based company, took the microphone to thank the room full of employees. “Mel and I get asked, ‘How did you do it?’ We didn’t…it’s a team sport,” Wright exclaimed as he took off his shoe, eagerly holding it up to the crowd.It was a surreal moment for Wright and Alder: Ringing the NASDAQ bell was something they’d never imagined when they first began reselling fridge magnets on Amazon out of Alder’s living room in 2013. “We were just trying to bring in a little extra money on the side,” Wright explains from a conference room overlooking Utah’s sprawling mountainscape from Pattern’s headquarters in the tech hub known as Silicon Slopes. “Yeah, in the beginning, it was just us trying to support our families,” Alder chimes in from the seat next to his. At the time, both were married to other people: Alder was raising four children with her now ex-husband, while Wright had six of his own with his now ex-wife. By Alicia Park, Reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices On September 19 last year, the husband-and-wife cofounders of e-commerce company Pattern, David Wright and Melanie Alder, walked up together to the NASDAQ podium in Times Square—both dressed in black button-up shirts and custom blue and purple Nike Air Forces. Wright, CEO of the Lehi, Utah-based company, took the microphone to thank the room full of employees. “Mel and I get asked, ‘How did you do it?’ We didn’t…it’s a team sport,” Wright exclaimed as he took off his shoe, eagerly holding it up to the crowd.It was a surreal moment for Wright and Alder: Ringing the NASDAQ bell was something they’d never imagined when they first began reselling fridge magnets on Amazon out of Alder’s living room in 2013. “We were just trying to bring in a little extra money on the side,” Wright explains from a conference room overlooking Utah’s sprawling mountainscape from Pattern’s headquarters in the tech hub known as Silicon Slopes. “Yeah, in the beginning, it was just us trying to support our families,” Alder chimes in from the seat next to his. At the time, both were married to other people: Alder was raising four children with her now ex-husband, while Wright had six of his own with his now ex-wife.

By Alicia Park,

Reporter

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]]> 422 no This Billionaire Made $360 Million Selling His Psychedelic Company To Eli Lilly OnEaster Sunday in 2014, Christian Angermayer, the German investor, was on the beach on the Caribbean island of Canouan with three friends, contemplating whether he should take magic mushrooms.  Before he made his decision, he called a professor he knew who studies psychopharmacology. He explained to Angermayer that he was in the perfect set and setting, was of healthy mind, and he should try it.  So Angermayer, who says he feared he would end up freaking out and living as “a farmer in Argentina,” sprinkled some mushrooms in yogurt, ate it, and let the drugs take hold.  “I always say that I need to build a huge mushroom statue there,” says Angermayer, now 48 and worth $1.2 billion. “It was the most important positive experience of my life. When I came out [of the trip], although it took me years to get the thesis right, I had the first inclination that if it helped me this much as a happy healthy person, I can see the validation for how it can help people with mental health issues and beyond.”  Angermayer spent the next three years working on that thesis. On December 29, 2017, he took another trip, this time he came away with message from the divine: Go forward. There is no downside. By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes OnEaster Sunday in 2014, Christian Angermayer, the German investor, was on the beach on the Caribbean island of Canouan with three friends, contemplating whether he should take magic mushrooms.  Before he made his decision, he called a professor he knew who studies psychopharmacology. He explained to Angermayer that he was in the perfect set and setting, was of healthy mind, and he should try it.  So Angermayer, who says he feared he would end up freaking out and living as “a farmer in Argentina,” sprinkled some mushrooms in yogurt, ate it, and let the drugs take hold.  “I always say that I need to build a huge mushroom statue there,” says Angermayer, now 48 and worth $1.2 billion. “It was the most important positive experience of my life. When I came out [of the trip], although it took me years to get the thesis right, I had the first inclination that if it helped me this much as a happy healthy person, I can see the validation for how it can help people with mental health issues and beyond.”  Angermayer spent the next three years working on that thesis. On December 29, 2017, he took another trip, this time he came away with message from the divine: Go forward. There is no downside. By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices OnEaster Sunday in 2014, Christian Angermayer, the German investor, was on the beach on the Caribbean island of Canouan with three friends, contemplating whether he should take magic mushrooms. 

Before he made his decision, he called a professor he knew who studies psychopharmacology. He explained to Angermayer that he was in the perfect set and setting, was of healthy mind, and he should try it. 

So Angermayer, who says he feared he would end up freaking out and living as “a farmer in Argentina,” sprinkled some mushrooms in yogurt, ate it, and let the drugs take hold. 

“I always say that I need to build a huge mushroom statue there,” says Angermayer, now 48 and worth $1.2 billion. “It was the most important positive experience of my life. When I came out [of the trip], although it took me years to get the thesis right, I had the first inclination that if it helped me this much as a happy healthy person, I can see the validation for how it can help people with mental health issues and beyond.” 

Angermayer spent the next three years working on that thesis. On December 29, 2017, he took another trip, this time he came away with message from the divine: Go forward. There is no downside.

By Will Yakowicz,

Forbes Staff

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]]> 434 no Silicon Valley’s Other China Problem: It’s Training Their AI When U.S. sales teams from Silicon Valley’s big data-labeling startups visited this year’s International Conference on Machine Learning in Seoul, Korea, they arrived prepped to court the industry’s big spenders. The data companies—collectively worth tens of billions of dollars and generating billions in annual revenue supplying training data to customers like OpenAI and Anthropic—are used to chasing AI labs that are notoriously demanding, fickle and difficult to satisfy. They found another eager customer waiting for them: China’s AI industry. Some Chinese companies have shopping lists. Tencent—which has previously been designated by the U.S. government as associated with the Chinese military, a characterization the company disputes— circulated with prospective vendors a detailed request for training data spanning finance, cybersecurity and one of AI’s most coveted research goals: AI systems capable of improving themselves. By Anna Tong, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0000 full Forbes When U.S. sales teams from Silicon Valley’s big data-labeling startups visited this year’s International Conference on Machine Learning in Seoul, Korea, they arrived prepped to court the industry’s big spenders. The data companies—collectively worth tens of billions of dollars and generating billions in annual revenue supplying training data to customers like OpenAI and Anthropic—are used to chasing AI labs that are notoriously demanding, fickle and difficult to satisfy. They found another eager customer waiting for them: China’s AI industry. Some Chinese companies have shopping lists. Tencent—which has previously been designated by the U.S. government as associated with the Chinese military, a characterization the company disputes— circulated with prospective vendors a detailed request for training data spanning finance, cybersecurity and one of AI’s most coveted research goals: AI systems capable of improving themselves. By Anna Tong, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices When U.S. sales teams from Silicon Valley’s big data-labeling startups visited this year’s International Conference on Machine Learning in Seoul, Korea, they arrived prepped to court the industry’s big spenders. The data companies—collectively worth tens of billions of dollars and generating billions in annual revenue supplying training data to customers like OpenAI and Anthropic—are used to chasing AI labs that are notoriously demanding, fickle and difficult to satisfy.

They found another eager customer waiting for them: China’s AI industry.

Some Chinese companies have shopping lists. Tencent—which has previously been designated by the U.S. government as associated with the Chinese military, a characterization the company disputes— circulated with prospective vendors a detailed request for training data spanning finance, cybersecurity and one of AI’s most coveted research goals: AI systems capable of improving themselves.

By Anna Tong,

Forbes Staff

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]]> 433 no Why Podcast Pioneer Joe Budden Will Never Sell Out Back in 2015, talent manager Ian Schwartzman emailed Spotify with a request—his client, rapper Joe Budden, wanted to add episodes of his newly launched podcast to his artist profile on the music streaming platform. “And the response I got was comical,” Schwartzman tells Forbes, “It was, ‘What is podcasting?’” A decade later, podcasting has become a cornerstone of media, and Spotify is competing with companies such as Amazon, iHeartMedia, SiriusXM and now even Netflix in a market that has grown from less than $100 million in annual revenue a decade ago into a $9 billion industry. Budden and Schwartzman have spent the intervening years doing everything they can to earn a slice of that ever-growing pie, bootstrapping The Joe Budden Network to an estimated $20 million in earnings over the past 12 months, enough to be ranked among the highest-paid podcasters in the world for 2026. And unlike nearly every other performer on that list, they did it without a broad distribution and ad sales deal from a major media company, or a private equity investor. By Matt Craig Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 10 Aug 2026 21:15:00 -0000 full Forbes Back in 2015, talent manager Ian Schwartzman emailed Spotify with a request—his client, rapper Joe Budden, wanted to add episodes of his newly launched podcast to his artist profile on the music streaming platform. “And the response I got was comical,” Schwartzman tells Forbes, “It was, ‘What is podcasting?’” A decade later, podcasting has become a cornerstone of media, and Spotify is competing with companies such as Amazon, iHeartMedia, SiriusXM and now even Netflix in a market that has grown from less than $100 million in annual revenue a decade ago into a $9 billion industry. Budden and Schwartzman have spent the intervening years doing everything they can to earn a slice of that ever-growing pie, bootstrapping The Joe Budden Network to an estimated $20 million in earnings over the past 12 months, enough to be ranked among the highest-paid podcasters in the world for 2026. And unlike nearly every other performer on that list, they did it without a broad distribution and ad sales deal from a major media company, or a private equity investor. By Matt Craig Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Back in 2015, talent manager Ian Schwartzman emailed Spotify with a request—his client, rapper Joe Budden, wanted to add episodes of his newly launched podcast to his artist profile on the music streaming platform. “And the response I got was comical,” Schwartzman tells Forbes, “It was, ‘What is podcasting?’” A decade later, podcasting has become a cornerstone of media, and Spotify is competing with companies such as Amazon, iHeartMedia, SiriusXM and now even Netflix in a market that has grown from less than $100 million in annual revenue a decade ago into a $9 billion industry. Budden and Schwartzman have spent the intervening years doing everything they can to earn a slice of that ever-growing pie, bootstrapping The Joe Budden Network to an estimated $20 million in earnings over the past 12 months, enough to be ranked among the highest-paid podcasters in the world for 2026. And unlike nearly every other performer on that list, they did it without a broad distribution and ad sales deal from a major media company, or a private equity investor. By Matt Craig

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