The Brutalist Report

Fortune

• Microsoft seeks to be AI’s center of gravity again. CEO Satya Nadella is in San Francisco to make the case [1d]
• Southwest ditched free bags and MGM added all-inclusive perks: how the travel industry is reinventing itself to survive [1d]
• Data center CEO is hoping for a skilled-trades revival in his lifetime—he’s recruiting couch-dwelling Gen Z with two weeks of vacation on day one [1d]
• The $18 expense report and the defunded intern programs: symbols of corporate America’s dysfunction [1d]
• Victoria’s Secret CEO rejected ‘woke-washing’ and endless sales cycles—and it’s paying off [2d]
• AI may already be adding hundreds of billions to the economy—without showing up in the data [2d]
• Mounting evidence suggests remote work is behind the Gen Z hiring nightmare. Even the New York Fed thinks so [2d]
• Chipotle COO calls hiring one of the ‘most painful processes’—so his AI bot ‘Ava Cado’ cut it from 12 days to 4 [2d]
• Should you treat AI agents as colleagues? Fortune 500 executives can’t settle the debate [2d]
• Mark Cuban put $500K into a stranger’s rocket company over email. It’s now a SpaceX competitor worth $4 billion [2d]
• Trump killed his own AI order, then quietly signed another one weeks later [2d]
• Canada is asking to renew the U.S. and Mexico free-trade agreement for another 16 years [2d]
• U.S. Soccer is using AI to scout 70 million teenagers. The former consulting CEO running the federation calls it a ‘paradigm shift’ for the sport [2d]
• Anthropic’s office launched an AI-run vending machine. It evolved into AI-run stores and cafes within a year [2d]
• ‘This administration cooked up a sham deal’: New York sues Trump administration for refunding foreign company $1 billion to end offshore wind project [2d]
• New jobs report shows 7.6 million jobs added in April as layoffs and people quitting their jobs both fell [2d]
• ‘We will fly again’: Blue Origin says rocket explosion spared vital launch pad parts [2d]
• Trump replaces Gabbard with housing chief Bill Pulte, grandson of the founder of one of the country’s largest homebuilders [2d]
• Iran war has cost U.S. families $100 billion between increased military funding and higher oil prices, says Moody’s [2d]
• Hundreds of teens are flooding job ads to work at ice cream shops and swimming pools as they grapple with the worst summer job market in 80 years [2d]
• Social Security unraveling: 7,100 workers sacked, performance metrics retired, disability claims falling [2d]
• AI is turning workers into superhumans. Their leadership teams haven’t kept up [2d]
• Andrew Yang’s upstart cell phone business acquires Helium Mobile [2d]
• Top analyst sees ‘opening of the floodgates for the IPO market’ after Anthropic’s filing as dotcom bubble comparisons fly [2d]
• Melinda French Gates is done ‘cheering on Seattle from the sidelines’ — she’s buying into the bet to bring the Sonics back [2d]
• It’s not Buffett’s Berkshire anymore as Greg Abel splashes $16.8 billion in cash, hints at different way of doing business [2d]
• LA lost more people than any American county last year and has to choose between the woman who let it burn and Spencer Pratt [2d]
• Anthropic’s CFO Krishna Rao is steering one of the most anticipated IPOs ever [2d]
• Anthropic’s confidential S-1 signals summer AI IPO race could heat up fast [2d]
• An AI overhaul at Macy’s is fueling the 168-year-old retailer’s turnaround [2d]
• Jensen Huang says he pays Nvidia staff ‘as much as possible’ in bid to share the wealth from AI boom [2d]
• ‘Where we are today is frightening’: a Pulitzer-winning historian sees a doomsday scenario involving China and the national debt [2d]
• Trump tells Netanyahu, ‘You’re f—ing crazy’ and Wall Street sees it as a sign he’s losing patience with the war and wants it done [2d]
• Cognizant CEO says AI is remaking middle managers into player-coaches who can ‘both executive and develop others’ [2d]
• The U.S. and Europe feared the Iran conflict would curtail the Gulf’s appetite for global investments. The opposite is true [2d]
• Meet America’s ‘Disillusioned’ 32%: They’re not who you think [2d]
• I won a Pulitzer for explaining the Great Depression. The AI spending boom terrifies me [2d]
• He sent out 3,200 résumés and got zero job offers in the 2008 crash. Now Outdoor Boys’ Luke Nichols is telling grads how he survived [2d]
• If S&P Dow Jones rewrites its listing rules, SpaceX and Anthropic will benefit—investors won’t [2d]
• Jeff Bezos’ 25-year-old stress cure is to ‘make the first phone call, or send the first email’— and a recruiter says it lands even harder in 2026 [2d]
• It’s not a recession. But Goldman says your paycheck is acting like it [2d]
• FIFA’s foray into dynamic pricing may be backfiring by keeping actual fans out of the World Cup—and sending some prices lower as backlash hits demand [2d]
• 6 years of jersey design, 4 years of prep, 4 weeks of games: Execs at U.S. Soccer and Nike know how much this World Cup means [2d]