As AI becomes more mainstream, the startups behind it are raising gobs of money. Now, they’re starting to prove they can turn those ideas into sustainable businesses.

Forbes’ eighth annual AI 50 list features juggernauts like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have accumulated a combined $242.6 billion in venture funding and are reportedly headed toward massive IPOs. But there are also 20 newcomers, including 2-year-old startup Chai Discovery, which uses AI to develop new medicines and speed up drug development.

And despite some consolidations, this was among the most competitive years for the list.

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In a landmark decision, a jury found Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly, leading the firm’s shares to tumble 6%.

President Donald Trump said he’ll “have to fire” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell if he doesn’t leave at the end of his term next month, amid the Justice Department’s investigation into him.

Investor optimism around an extended peace deal between the U.S. and Iran continued to give the stock market a boost, with the S&P 500 headlining Wednesday’s gains by surpassing 7,000 points and reaching a new all-time high.

Only about 20% of importers eligible for tariff refunds have completed a necessary step to recoup their money, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a Tuesday filing, as the government prepares to sort out $127 billion in tariff refund claims. Importers must register for electronic payments through a claim portal, which is set to launch Monday.

WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The SEC is unwinding a rule from the dot-com crash that required active margin traders to keep at least $25,000 in their brokerage accounts to make frequent trades. The change could benefit retail investors who want more flexibility and brokerage firms like Robinhood and Webull, but critics worry it could make it easier for inexperienced traders to take on too much risk.

AI cloud computing giant CoreWeave has announced a slew of partnerships over the last week, enriching its billionaire owners as its stock has rallied. Michael Intrator, Brian Venturo, Brannin McBee and Peter Salanki—who own around 25% of the company—are collectively nearly $4 billion wealthier in just a week, with CEO and largest shareholder Intrator gaining $1.8 billion.

Gas prices are climbing past $4 per gallon in many parts of the country, and a top Democrat on the House Budget Committee is proposing a way to ease the pain at the pump: cut the federal gas tax. The levy currently sits at 18.4 cents per gallon—a rate unchanged since 1993—but it’s unclear whether Republicans will back the proposed Gas Price Relief Act.

SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT

Saudi Arabia is considering cutting funding for the LIV Golf league, its PGA Tour rival that drew big stars with millions in advance payments, according to the Financial Times. The report has added to speculation that the league could soon shut down, as it has never been profitable, despite being a centerpiece for Saudi Arabia’s considerable investment in sports and entertainment in recent years.

Direct-to-consumer footwear company Allbirds is rebranding as an “AI compute and cloud services company,” leading its stock to skyrocket 582%. As part of the pivot, the company sold its entire footwear business to brand manager American Exchange Group.

Mercor’s 23-Year-Old Billionaire Founders Grapple With Employee Fraud And North Korean Infiltration

During an all-hands meeting earlier this year at data labeling startup Mercor, its then 22-year-old billionaire CEO Brendan Foody pulled up a slide with a single word: fraud.

An employee had embezzled company funds, he told his staff of more than 200. The person had since been fired. There would be no tolerance for this behavior, Foody said, according to four people familiar with the meeting.

The incident is just one episode in what more than a dozen former employees describe as a series of operational mishaps at Mercor, a fast-growing startup that has recruited 50,000 highly-skilled experts—PhDs, lawyers, bankers, scientists and programmers—to create training data for big AI labs like OpenAI. It’s been hugely successful so far: Earlier this year, Mercor’s annualized revenue run rate crossed $1 billion, or $83.3 million in monthly revenue, according to a person familiar with the company.

Founded in 2023 by three longtime friends who met on the high school debate team, Mercor has become a poster child for booming Silicon Valley AI startups run by unusually young, unusually wealthy founders. The three cofounders—Foody, CTO Adarsh Hiremath, and board chairman Surya Midha—were 22 years old when they became the world’s youngest self-made billionaires in October.

Beyond the fraud incident, Mercor has suffered from a number of security problems in recent months, according to interviews with five former staffers. One example: As early as November 2024, and continuing until recently, Mercor employees suspected that North Korean operatives had worked for the company by using stolen credentials to skirt identity checks, multiple sources told Forbes.

WHY IT MATTERS “The stakes are high for Mercor: AI labs have a slew of options for data labelers, and can switch quickly to new providers,” say Forbes’ Rashi Shrivastava and Anna Tong. “There’s Scale, whose former CEO, Alexandr Wang, previously held the title of the world’s youngest self-made billionaire; Invisible Technologies, valued at more than $2 billion in September 2025; Surge, whose founder Edwin Chen is the youngest billionaire on the Forbes 400 list; Turing AI, which raised $110 million in June at a $2.2 billion valuation. Even newer entrants like micro1, which crossed $300 million in annualized revenue this month, and Handshake, which has more than $850 million in annualized revenue per a source familiar, are quickly gobbling up market share.”

MORE The World’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaires Are A Trio Of 22-Year-Old AI Founders

Snapchat parent company Snap announced layoffs due to “rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.” It becomes the latest major company to blame 2026 job cuts on AI:

16%: The share of Snap’s workforce it plans to lay off, or about 1,000 jobs

$500 million: How much the cuts are expected to save the company by the second half of 2026, billionaire CEO Evan Spiegel told employees in a memo

30,000: How many layoffs have been blamed on AI so far this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas

No matter how many hours you spend preparing for a job interview, it’s critical to not just memorize answers, but instead prepare a strategy to sell yourself. Managers want to hear about specific outcomes, not just your day-to-day tasks. Do your research and go into the interview knowing what the hiring manager is looking for, then demonstrate why you are the solution.

The organizer of an annual New York City bar crawl was indicted for wire fraud Wednesday. What do attendees of the notorious event dress as?

Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.

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