Fortune • October 2nd, 2026

Meet the 32-year-old founder who raised $3.5 million to help Gen Z feel not so alone in the world | Fortune

Clockout, a networking app designed for finding professionals, clubs and events nearby, looks to fix the loneliness syndrome plaguing young workers.On Friday, it announced it has raised $3.5 million in total funding since it started, led by 114 Ventures, with investments from Evite Ventures, Allied Ventures, Sher Ventures, Gaingels, BMPB VC and others.


Founded by CEO Krishna Dosapati, the company lets users find nearby professionals and join communities and events organized around industries...

Fortune • October 1st, 2026

Forget supersized: McDonald’s is exploring an $8.5 billion bet on an American fast food wave led by proteinmaxxing, portion control, and GLP-1s | Fortune

The health wave has made its impact on what could have been considered its mortal enemy: fast food. In a far cry from its old era of “supersized” menus, McDonald’s is exploring a new $8.5 billion, decade-long “McDonald’s Next” overhaul—and the fast food giant is exploring smaller and more flexible portions aimed at protein-first and GLP-1 consumers. The company is considering grilled chicken sandwiches and wraps, crispy chicken and burger bowls, and egg bites as it adapts to changing eating habi...

Fortune • September 27th, 2026

In the affordability crisis, 37% of parents are counting on financial help from the Bank of Baby Boomers and can't wait for the Great Wealth Transfer | Fortune

Nearly two in five parents with young children, or 37%, expect to receive some sort of financial help from their own parents or grandparents over the next year, according to the BMO Real Financial Progress Index.The finding comes as the cost of raising children continues putting pressure on household budgets nationwide. BMO found that 82% of American parents say the cost of raising children has “gotten out of control,” while 86% say everyday expenses including daycare, after-school programs, sum...

Fortune • September 24th, 2026

‘It’s so corrosive to democracy': Over 50 federal prosecutors speak out against Trump's $100,000 a month 'insider trading' scheme | Fortune

Trump’s plan to sell earlier access to his Truth Social posts for six-figures has hit a new wrinkle. More than 50 former federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials are asking a federal judge to block Donald Trump’s $100,000 monthly service for early access to Truth Social posts, arguing that the arrangement could implicate several federal criminal statutes—including giving traders a paid window into potentially market-moving government information.The 53 former prosecutors and law enforce...

Fortune • September 24th, 2026

Meta plans to spend $145 billion this year, more than every military budget except the U.S., China and Russia | Fortune

The AI boom is less a marathon of innovation and more a spending sprint as companies pour billions to maintain their spot in the AI race. Now, Meta is spending on a scale that puts the company above most countries’ military budgets.Meta plans to spend up to $145 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, a roughly 101% jump from the $72.2 billion it spent just one year earlier.  The company says the expenditures will fund its core business, with the higher component prices and additional data cente...

Fortune • September 22nd, 2026

The 10-year Treasury yield just hit 5% for the first time since 2007 — is a 1970s-style ‘stagflation’ on the return? | Fortune

For years, a 5% yield on the Treasury looked like a relic from another interest-rate era—where borrowers faced soaring loan rates. Now it’s back, capping a six-year surge from pandemic-era lows near 0.5%. The benchmark yield crossed 5% this month for the first time since 2007, but this appears different than the eve of the Great Recession: the Fed is staring down a lose-lose situation combining high inflation and weak economic growth, a catch 22 that economists termed “stagflation” in the 1970s...

Fortune • September 21st, 2026

‘They must be doing it for ulterior reasons’: Jensen Huang says AI leaders are ‘irresponsible’ for scaring the public with ‘doomsday narratives’ | Fortune

Out of the chaos of AI doomerism AI leaders like Sam Altman and Dario Amodei have found themselves at the center of, the leader of the most valuable company in the world—and the creator of AI’s chip foundation—is rejecting the warnings. In a CBS Sunday interview, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the predictions of an AI catastrophe by 2030 “irresponsible” and the “doomsday narratives” are simply not based in reality.“2030 is not going to be the end of the world,” Huang told CBS. “There is a 0% cha...

Fortune • September 20th, 2026

Even in the era of NIL, college sports are stacked against student athletes—now lack of transparency is holding them back from a ‘fair market' | Fortune

College sports are booming—and college athletes are earning like the pros. Five years after the NCAA opened the door to name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation, college athletes can earn money from their schools, donors, collectives, brands and their own audiences. But the NIL revolution isn’t fixing the one thing it was designed to: lack of fair payment for student-athletes. The stakes of the NIL era trace back to O’Bannon v. NCAA, the landmark case that challenged the premise that student-...

Fortune • September 18th, 2026

Snap is betting $3.5 billion on AR glasses that businesses can use as CEO Evan Spiegel sees a post-smartphone era | Fortune

For more than a decade, some of the world’s biggest technology companies have spent billions trying to put computers on people’s faces—to minimal success.But Snap CEO Evan Spiegel revealed another bet on glasses in June, this time with a $2,195 pair of augmented-reality (AR) specs that he says could usher in a post-smartphone era.


After nearly 20 years, the iPhone has made consumers ready to think differently about computing, he told CNBC at the time, arguing information can be displayed in a...

Fortune • September 18th, 2026

Data centers are swapping water for forever chemicals to keep AI cool | Fortune

The midterms are six weeks away and Republicans are walking a fine line between meeting constituents in opposition to data center growth and agreeing with the president who continues to advocate for them. Now there seems to be another wrinkle to the ongoing data center backlash: the release of “forever chemicals” into the air. A new report from chemical watchdog ChemSec found that most of the world’s biggest PFAS producers are expanding their capacity thanks to AI infrastructure. PFAS, also know...

Fortune • September 16th, 2026

The MLB and its Dominican pipeline is selling false promises and shady contracts to children as young as 11 | Fortune

Baseball is just as much a Dominican sport as it is an American one. For generations, the MLB has relied on the small island country for a steady stream of young talent. Now, a new investigation by ProPublica may explain why: boys barely old enough to swing a bat are reportedly being promised multimillion-dollar deals. They’re training for professional careers all before they’re legally eligible to sign contracts, which often leave them vulnerable if they do succeed in the big leagues.The Domini...

Fortune • September 15th, 2026

Shrinkflation is coming for pro sports: The cost of watching the NFL jumped 28.6%—and attending a game 72%—since 2015 | Fortune

America’s most popular sport is back—and the NFL just set a new record in its opening week: it was the highest-scoring Sunday in week one ever. But the average viewer would have to jump through hoops to have seen all those touchdowns—it takes subscription after subscription to catch kickoff.The NFL is running into a shrinkflation problem—the league is downsizing the amount of games available in individual packages even as costs climb for fans. And attending a game in-person hasn’t gotten any che...

Fortune • September 14th, 2026

Trump is freeing Irish whiskey from tariffs while tightening the screws on Canadian booze | Fortune

Prepare for more alcohol from across the pond, as the first sitting president to attend the Irish Open said Sunday that Irish whiskey will be tariff-free. This comes as multiple Canadian products, including alcohol, still fall under heavy tariffs and import bans.


The Open, hosted at Donald Trump’s own resort Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Doonbeg Ireland, ended with him presenting the winner’s trophy to Ireland’s Shane Lowry—and a message for Irish distillers. “Taoiseach and I talked...

Fortune • September 12th, 2026

‘Combine your passion with an investment strategy’: Meet the venture capital using 500,000 Pokémon and trading cards as a hedge against a debt crisis | Fortune

The U.S. national debt is more than $40 trillion, and it’s only growing from here. Wage growth keeps stalling; job growth is staying stagnant; and grocery prices are trending up. With the 10-year Treasury yield nearing 5% as heavy government borrowing puts pressure on the bond market, some investors are looking for safer places to store their hard-earned cash.Investing in alternative assets isn’t new: In recent years, there have been many different (let’s say creative) investment opportunities,...

Fortune • September 11th, 2026

Students are using AI in school and test scores are down, but the OECD finds that those who use it once or twice a week perform similarly to nonusers | Fortune

It may not be all doom and gloom for AI in the classroom—there actually may be a Goldilocks effect. The OECD’s latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) found that AI has led to a decline in multiple student skills as well as a drop in test scores, but moderate use is associated with stronger performance in certain subjects compared to limited or daily use. 


For several common assignments, students who used AI “moderately”—from about once a month to once or twice a week—recor...

Fortune • September 10th, 2026

It's not just food: The plastic packaging your food comes in may carry cancer-linked chemicals, and most go untested | Fortune

It looks like the American consumer has more to worry about than food recalls and cyclospora—a new study found that even the packaging the food comes in may pose some health concerns.Out of over 15,000 food contact chemicals (FCCs), 1,222 or 8% can pose serious health risks, according to a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. Some of these FCCs, which in general are “substances that come into contact with food, such as through food packaging, pr...

Fortune • September 10th, 2026

Meet the data center capital of Europe as Google joins Microsoft and TikTok in betting over $30.2 billion on Finland | Fortune

Data center expansion in the world is changing fast: while the U.S. boasts “data center alley” in Virginia and tax incentives for data center investment, Finland has rapidly come onto the scene as one of the largest data center magnets in Europe. The country is one of Europe’s quickest growing AI markets, and major AI and big tech corporations such as Microsoft and TikTok have already pledged billions in investments into Finland, enticed by its growing role in Europe’s AI economy. But the latest...

Fortune • September 8th, 2026

Nike exits the S&P 100 after 18 years and a $200 billion market-cap wipeout | Fortune

One of the largest sports and athletic-wear companies of the modern day may be disappointing its namesake. Nike, the sportswear company named after the Greek goddess of victory, is losing its spot in the top 100 U.S. companies for the first time in nearly two decades. The athletic apparel giant lost over $200 billion in market cap since its all-time high in 2021, a near 80% drop in just the five years that have passed, and a plummet so severe that the once mighty company is no longer listed on...

Fortune • September 5th, 2026

Men are larp-ing as NFL players to score dates and cash—one made $1.3 million before the FBI arrested him | Fortune

All roads lead to larp—but contrary to older generations, that’s nothing new. That is, the idea behind it. From phrases like “fake it til you make it,” and real-life con artists like Anna “Delvey” Sorokin, larp-ing has been a facet of human society throughout history. Even Hollywood got in on it in the early 2000s, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance of Frank Abagnale Jr. in “Catch me if you can,”—portraying a picture-perfect snapshot of the larp-ing sensation. But in the age of social media an...

Fortune • September 4th, 2026

‘Feeding the beast’: Meta faces allegations of using its ‘perv glasses’ to train AI in new lawsuit | Fortune

Not long after Meta agreed to fork up up to $18 billion over the next decade for its child-safety settlement, the tech giant faces yet another privacy lawsuit, this one over its AI-powered Meta Glasses. A new lawsuit alleges the company turned footage captured through the smart glasses into training data for its AI systems without adequately disclosing how the data from those recordings were handled.The complaint stems from a lawsuit originally filed in federal court in California in March, alle...

Fortune • September 4th, 2026

As wildfires and floods batter national parks, a developer says it’s negotiating for a piece of Yosemite | Fortune

The national parks in the past year have been through a reckoning. The Grand Canyon has seen ravaging floods in the past week, sparking search and rescue missions and damaging nearly 40% of its sole water pipeline. The national park also saw wildfires on its northern edge in 2025, making the floods the second natural disaster to hit the park in the past year. But the Grand Canyon isn’t the only national park weathering the elements. Yosemite National Park is battling wildfires and shutting down...

Fortune • September 3rd, 2026

Clippers fined $30 million as owner Steve Ballmer is suspended for a year following NBA investigation on behind-the-curtain deal | Fortune

The NBA announced on Wednesday that the league would impose sweeping punishments on the LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard following its investigation into allegations of third-party off-the-court income opportunities given to Leonard. The league found the NBA star and the team had violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement—and “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations.”The investigation was initially conducted from Leonard’s reported $28 million endorsement deal given by A...

Fortune • September 2nd, 2026

Big tech is investing millions in data centers and saving a quick tax buck while doing it—leaving some states collecting revenue loss | Fortune

It’s no secret AI giants are racing against each other to build data centers across the country. With the AI boom skyrocketing in the 2020s, the U.S. has grown to nearly 5,000 data centers across all 50 states to date, with hyperscalers driving much of that expansion. But with that growth comes tax incentives that seem to scale further than market competition.According to a report from JLL, a commercial real estate and investment management company, the global data center sector will likely expa...

Fortune • September 2nd, 2026

San Francisco Democrats break with their party over the billionaire tax—and reveal how deeply Prop 40 has split the left | Fortune

Nothing has the Democratic Party more split than taxing billionaires. San Francisco Democrats have broken with their statewide party over California’s proposed billionaire wealth tax, rejecting Proposition 40 in a lopsided vote that exposes a growing divide over whether taxing extreme wealth is worth the potential economic consequences. The San Francisco Democratic Party voted 17–4 to oppose Proposition 40—with five members abstaining, five members absent, and one member with no endorsement. Nan...