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The good news: The world got a lot richer last year. The bad news: You probably didn’t.Personal wealth measured in US dollars grew by 11% last year, according to a new report from UBS, well-outpacing the growth of the prior two years.That wealth creation, however, was concentrated, with the top 1.5% of the population holding nearly 50% of the world’s wealth. Fueled by strong financial markets, the gains benefited the wealthy, specifically those with more than $5 million in assets, and widened the divide between the world’s richest and everyone else.That’s illustrated by the gap between average and median wealth…

Sophia Oguri is on the front lines of Blackstone’s AI transformation.Blackstone is one of the biggest backers of the AI bet, with more than $150 billion in data center bets and plans to create “McKinsey for AI,” to spread LLM-based transformation far into the economy.In her role as an applied AI engineer on the private equity team, she’s one of roughly 50 full-time employees embedding with Blackstone’s investing and operating teams to prototype AI tools that make their jobs easier.Sometimes those prototypes can become part of firm-wide initiatives, but sometimes, they’re just a way to find the most efficient solution…

Uber is hiring even as artificial intelligence and work visa restrictions reshape the US tech workforce.The ride-hailing giant has several hundred open roles around the world listed on its jobs pages, including a few hundred in the US.Tech companies are taking a more cautious approach to hiring as they invest more in AI. Uber has slowed hiring in some areas due to AI, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said earlier this year, and employees are generally expected to be more productive.Many Big Tech companies have also pulled back on foreign workers in the wake of big changes to the H-1B visa program, including…

What do you spend your day doing?The Bureau of Labor Statistics published new results from the 2025 American Time Use Survey, showing how many hours a day, on average, were spent doing different primary activities.Americans from young adults to Gen Xers devoted large chunks to sleeping, work-related activities, and leisure. Teens spent more time a day on educational activities than other groups, while people who were at least in their mid-60s spent more time than others on household activities. Men spent more time than women working, while women spent more time on household activities.You can take the quiz below to…

Before landing a coveted AI researcher role at ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, one recent new hire says she went through an exhaustive job search that included 57 interviews across 11 companies.Alisa Liu described the job hunt as “really challenging but also super rewarding” on X. She detailed her experience in a recent blog post, saying she wanted to share what she learned and “hopefully make the process a little less mysterious for the next person.”At the end of her six-year PhD program in natural language processing at the University of Washington, Liu wrote that she applied for research scientist and technical staff…

Maria Sharapova, 39, says she used injuries and time off from tennis to prepare for life after retirement.In an interview with the WSJ Leadership Institute published Tuesday, Sharapova said she began planning her next chapter years before stepping away from the sport.”I recognized from an early age that as a woman, my career would end much sooner than in other professions,” Sharapova said. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to hustle. I’ve got to start learning from other people.'”She said she also realized that her growing profile as a tennis star gave her “a platform” that opened doors beyond the sport.As…

JPMorgan Chase must keep paying the legal fees of convicted fraudster Charlie Javice, a Delaware judge ruled Thursday.The ruling came after the bank accused Javice, who was convicted last year of defrauding JPMorgan, of accumulating “astronomical” legal fees, including expenses such as $530 for gummy bears and a $581 dinner for two with a $161 seafood tower.”We respectfully disagree with the Delaware decision about the bounds of reasonableness and are considering next steps,” Pablo Rodriguez, a spokesperson for JPMorgan, said in a statement shared with Business Insider.Javice was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for using inflated data…

Sony’s decision to stop making physical discs for its PlayStation games starting in 2028 has opened the floodgates for brands eager to score points online.Within hours of the announcement, companies ranging from creators of privacy software to fried chicken chains piled on, using the PlayStation’s all-digital future as fodder for jokes.Sony said the shift reflects the fact that the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces that for physical discs, Business Insider reported Thursday.The posts tapped into a broader backlash from fans who have expressed worry about ownership, media preservation, and what happens when everything lives behind a download.Those anxieties…

Software engineers are among the most prized talent at any tech company, so why are they suddenly one of the most vulnerable species of the AI boom?On a recent episode of “The Pragmatic Engineer,” famed software engineer Kent Beck gave a pretty blunt answer: “We’re kind of assholes, sometimes.”Software engineers, no matter their level of technical expertise, tend to lack some of the softer skills that are prized in the workplace, he said.”We don’t necessarily have good emotional regulation skills. We don’t have natural empathy,” he said. “We’re oftentimes more direct than other people can easily handle.” Those, at least,…

President Trump’s recent financial disclosure finally put a dollar amount on the web of crypto ventures he’s continued to pursue since returning to office. But the revelation he made $1.4 billion off the fledgling industry has rekindled another mystery about his finances: how much is he paying in taxes? The president’s crypto windfall appears to be taxable. One accountant who specializes in cryptocurrency income said it was reasonable to believe Mr. Trump would have to pay at least $250 million on this income. Still, multiple tax experts told CBS News that Mr. Trump’s actual bill may be far lower, but it would…