Fortune • November 6th, 2026

Nebraska voters block measures to legalize online sports betting, rejecting a campaign’s promise of $166 million in property tax relief | Fortune

Nebraska voters rejected two ballot measures that would have legalized online sports betting across the state, dealing a setback to gambling companies that spent $22.5 million campaigning for the expansion and promising voters a new source of property tax relief.According to the Nebraska Secretary of State, voters rejected Measure 440, which would legalize online sports betting, by approximately 55% to 45%, while Measure 441, which would regulate the business if passed, lost by approximately 54%...

Fortune • November 5th, 2026

How the Democratic party flipped the House and Senate, in 12 charts | Fortune

The 2026 midterm race results saw a blue wave that secured a Democrat majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives. They flipped Senate seats in states the party hadn’t won in decades and took back a House that Republicans had controlled since 2023.But what led to the turnaround that had voters turn out?


The Democratic party needed a net gain of four seats to win back the Senate, and many in the party had seen 2026 as a testing ground. “What we’re seeing in the early parts of 2026...

Fortune • November 2nd, 2026

Americans now spend nearly half of their budgets on food and housing alone, the biggest share in 15 years | Fortune

The affordability crisis has Americans feeling every penny that leaves their wallets. And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly half of their spending is going towards necessities like housing and food—leaving little for quality of life.New data from the BLS’s annual Consumer Expenditures Report found that housing and food accounted for 46.9% of average expenditures in 2025. And that’s because the pressure point of rising costs of essentials grew—housing expenditures climbed 5...

Fortune • November 2nd, 2026

Billionaire Sergey Brin is building political infrastructure that will last beyond his $102 million fight against Prop 40 | Fortune

Google cofounder Sergey Brin spent much of his career on the sidelines of electoral politics.But a proposed California wealth tax has turned the billionaire into one of the state’s most powerful political financiers, prompting him to build an organization that can continue shaping state policy long after voters decide on the measure that initially mobilized him.


Brin has contributed $102 million to Building a Better California, a political organization that has become the central vehicle for...

Fortune • October 30th, 2026

Waymo’s backers valued it at $126 billion. The Alphabet division that houses it brought in $372 million last quarter—and lost $2.05 billion | Fortune

Alphabet lost $482 billion in market value Thursday, its worst day since going public in 2004. The robotaxi business it’s taking to London and Tokyo barely registers in the third-quarter results behind that drop: Other Bets—the division that houses Waymo—brought in $372 million, about 0.29% of Alphabet’s $127.6 billion in sales, and lost more than five times that.Thursday’s sell-off was driven by Google’s core search business, analysts concluded. Waymo still has to expand overseas inside a compa...

Fortune • October 30th, 2026

Trump slammed Biden-Harris for the ‘war on energy’ during his 2024 campaign. Now he’s rolling back Biden-era regulations as gas sits above $4 a gallon | Fortune

During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump accused Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of waging a “war on energy” and promised at the Economic Club of New York to get “gasoline below $2 a gallon.” This week, with gas above $4 a gallon, his EPA proposed loosening Biden-era methane rules for oil and gas producers.The proposal—according to Trump—is a win for oil and gas producers, especially small operators. Whether it moves the price at the pump, before next week’s midterms or for years after, is another que...

Fortune • October 29th, 2026

Mark Cuban says owning the Mavericks went from 'being about basketball' to 'about valuations' and created 'more stress'—it still made him $4.3 billion | Fortune

Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks because he thought it would be fun. By the time he sold, he says, it had stopped being about basketball.“It went from being about basketball to being about valuations,” Cuban said in an interview on The Diary of a CEO on Monday. He added that the shift “just created more stress.”


But the valuations worked out for him. Cuban bought the team for about $285 million in 2000 and sold his stake in the team for $3.5 billion in 2024, according to ESPN senior NBA...

Fortune • October 27th, 2026

Airlines are trading nearly 23% higher ticket prices for emptier planes as jet fuel prices spike over 90% from the Iran War’s fuel squeeze | Fortune

American, United, Delta and other major carriers are betting that emptier planes can protect profit margins through higher ticket prices.Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Air Group have angled their businesses to generate more passenger revenue through higher individual prices as jet fuel prices climb—U.S. airfares have climbed 22.4% year over year.


The five major airlines generated nearly $8.8 billion more in passenger revenue in Q3 2026 than...

Fortune • October 26th, 2026

‘We had wolves coming into the village’: Google's destruction of a 1,300-acre forest unleashed the wolfpack in Finland | Fortune

Google has called Finland its home for over 15 years, but its most recent move in data-center expansion in the country has brought some unwanted neighbors for nearby villages. Wolves have descended upon Finnish villages in Muhos and Otanmaki following Google’s illegal felling of hundreds of thousands of trees to prepare for a multibillion-euro data-center expansion—prompting a stop order from Finnish authorities.“We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the...

Fortune • October 25th, 2026

‘Nobody prepared them’: The ultrawealthy worry wealth will dull their heirs’ ‘drive and desire’ and so some aren’t telling them how much there is | Fortune

For the ultrawealthy, preparing children to inherit their fortunes is a long process that is much more than just transferring assets. The responsibility of managing their fortunes given to the younger generation has become a point of concern for the wealthiest families as they age—some are keeping the full amount from them. According to a June study from Bank of America, 61% of ultra-high-net-worth respondents—defined as those with more than $25 million in investable assets by the study—said the...

Fortune • October 23rd, 2026

Google told to halt work on Finnish data centers after clearing an estimated 250,000 trees before environmental review was done | Fortune

Google has spent more than a decade pointing to Finland as proof that a data center can be a good neighbor. Now Finland’s regulators say it moved too fast on the next ones.The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority issued a notice that requires Google subsidiary Tuike Finland to suspend all environmentally significant preparatory work at sites in Muhos and Kajaani, until required environmental impact assessments are finished. The move follows the clearing of an estimated 250,000 trees at Mu...

Fortune • October 21st, 2026

Amazon abandons $427 million GW campus data center plan and pledges land donations worth $65 million instead | Fortune

Amazon is reversing its plan to expand its data center footprint in Virginia—forgoing its $427 million plan to build data centers on George Washington University’s Virginia campus it had signed an application for in February. The company will donate roughly 25 acres of the property to Loudoun County for community facilities instead.The agreement, dubbed “Project Potomac Promise” by Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall, calls for Amazon to withdraw its data center site plan,...

Fortune • October 21st, 2026

The AI boom is nearly $5 trillion short of paying for itself, Gartner says | Fortune

There isn’t an endless stream of revenue for AI as early adopters once thought. The gap between what’s being spent on the AI buildout and the revenue projected to come back is turning into a multitrillion-dollar chasm.Data-center owners need to generate $8.5 trillion in cumulative revenue by the end of the decade to justify their investments, according to a press release last week by global research and advisory firm Gartner. But the firm forecasts that no more than $3.6 trillion of enterprise a...

Fortune • October 20th, 2026

Lakers, Clippers, Man City: why do so many sports owners have money on both sides of a situation? | Fortune

It takes a fortune far bigger than any sports team to buy one—and that fortune rarely sits still. It’s invested in startups, private holding companies and insurers. This year, three of the richest owners in sports have come under scrutiny for deals in which they had money on both sides.Steve Ballmer had invested in Aspiration, the financial services company that signed his star player, Kawhi Leonard, to an endorsement deal. Manchester City’s owner, through his investment vehicle, covered some of...

Fortune • October 19th, 2026

'I've never had a real job': Shaq talks building his brand through ads, and says he hates 'wealthy athletes' who show off. It 'makes me sick' | Fortune

One thing was for sure when you were a kid sneaking in some late-night TV on basic cable: you were going to get an ad for back pain relief. Maybe some car insurance. Maybe some candy or soda, and absolutely a few pairs of shoes. And more likely than not, you were going to see one person in those Icy Hot, The General, Nestle Crunch, Pepsi, and Reebok ads: the 7-foot-1-inch self-described “Big Aristotle” mononymously known as Shaq.Over the years, Shaquille O’Neal has sold part of his name for more...

Fortune • October 15th, 2026

‘You don’t want rogue agents': Jamie Dimon bars outside AI agents like Meta's Muse from JPMorgan accounts | Fortune

Just as big tech is rolling out agents meant to help with your finances, banks are drawing a line at AI agents accessing your bank account information. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank is blocking outside AI agents from logging in to or acting on customer accounts, citing security risks from “rogue agents.”“We’re not going to allow just any outside agent to come in inside the company because that’s just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan,” Dimon said during the bank’s...

Fortune • October 14th, 2026

'I may be crazy enough to try one more time': Lindsey Vonn isn't ruling out a comeback after eight surgeries and two months in a wheelchair | Fortune

Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn says there is still a “small chance” at making a return to alpine skiing—even after tearing her ACL and breaking her leg earlier this year. According to the Olympics website, Vonn is named on the 2026-27 U.S. alpine skiing team, pending her recovery following her injury in February during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, where she crashed in the women’s downhill and had to be airlifted out. The injury broke her leg, required eight surgeries and left her...

Fortune • October 14th, 2026

Travis Kelce joined an activist group pushing Six Flags to consider a sale. The ‘Final Destination’–style death of a patron poured gas on the fire | Fortune

Travis Kelce’s investment in Six Flags was already caught up in a fight over the struggling theme-park operator’s future. Now, a fatal roller-coaster accident has added a safety crisis to the financial troubles fueling an activist push to sell the company.The NFL star teamed up with activist hedge fund Jana Partners and other investors last October to acquire a roughly 9% stake in Six Flags. Last month, Jana urged the company to explore a sale after disappointing financial results. Then, on Mond...

Fortune • October 10th, 2026

Gen Z is on track to become the richest generation, but risks getting caught in a ‘cycle that is easy to fall into and hard to break alone’ | Fortune

Gen Z could be on track to become the richest generation in history. But for now, they are struggling to pay off their credit card bills.According to a September study examining the revolving cycle of debt from credit cards by Freedom Debt Relief, a debt settlement company, Gen Z leaned hardest on minimum-only payments (59%) and boomers the least (28%), against 50% of cardholders overall.


And that has caused significant damage to their mental health, based on the report: 51% of Gen Z feel em...

Fortune • October 9th, 2026

‘The elder daughter phenomenon’: Edward Jones head Penny Pennington said the economy is propped up by eldest daughters | Fortune

One of the biggest forces reshaping the financial services industry may not be AI, innovation or markets. It may actually be related to who is responsible for keeping families financially organized: eldest daughters.“The elder daughter phenomenon has to do with caregiving, and often has to do with becoming the executor on an estate,” Penny Pennington, the managing partner of financial services giant Edward Jones, told Fortune. “Making decisions that extend across this family for more members of...

Fortune • October 8th, 2026

‘Everybody knows you’re out of touch’: Palantir CEO Alex Karp says his own exec told him to stop hyping Foundry | Fortune

Alex Karp says one of his top executives once told him to stop talking about how big Foundry would get.“Please stop talking to Palantirians about how big Foundry is going to be,” Karp recalled Ted Mabrey saying. “It’s depressing, and everybody knows you’re out of touch.”


Karp spoke Thursday with Zeta Global CEO David Steinberg at Zeta Live ’26, Zeta’s annual AI marketing conference. The Palantir CEO said Mabrey, who now runs the company’s commercial business, told him the constant hype was co...

Fortune • October 8th, 2026

Trump keeps changing who gets his $5,000 dividend, and only 21% of voters believe he'll actually pay it | Fortune

Politicians all over the world have been grappling with how to deal with low voter turnout, as it keeps falling in recent decades even as the number of countries holding elections (and the voters voting in them) has grown, according to International IDEA. Some jurisdictions have implemented paid holidays from work while political campaigns increasingly offer rides to the polls. Then the president of the United States recently began toying with another, arguably more enticing initiative: offering...

Fortune • October 7th, 2026

Meet the two cofounders who went on a 10-month trip before starting their $350 million business. They say you should, too | Fortune

Nate Wilson and Eli Ben-Joseph generated more than $150 million in earned revenue for its health system customers from their AI health care company Regard following their 2024 Series B valuation of $350 million.  But before Wilson and Ben-Joseph built a company worth millions, they spent months traveling together through China, the Philippines, and Colombia. They got stranded, lost control of plans, and figured out how to navigate unfamiliar places with each other.


They say they didn’t set ou...

Fortune • October 5th, 2026

Taxpayers are still paying $1.6 million a week to keep 420 radio staffers out of work | Fortune

It’s been more than a year since the Trump administration dismantled Voice of America, the largest U.S. international broadcaster, saying “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.” Yet the agency is costing the government millions even as it stopped operations.Voice of America, one of six entities that fall under the purview of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), is a digital, web, and mobile media outlet that broadcasts news to over 361 million people globally...