Just as Boeing was slowly recovering from the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 passengers and crew, a Max door-plug blowout over Portland, Ore. in January of 2024 trained the spotlight on its manufacturing practices, which had increasingly put profits over quality. Federal regulators cracked down, freezing Max production at a third below its prior peak. Boeing’s defense and space division, meanwhile, was booking multi-billion losses on federal contracts spouting big cost overruns. 

The laundry list of problems got longer: The challenge of integrating stricken Spirit AeroSystems, the fuselage supplier Boeing had sold two decades and just agreed to re-acquire, greatly upped its risk profile going forward. To make matters worse, Boeing was facing a potentially crippling strike from its powerful union of 33,000 machinists in the Puget Sound area, whose leaders claimed that since management couldn’t do it, the rank-in-file needed to “save Boeing from itself.”

The job looked so tough that Boeing struggled to find a taker. Among the marquee names the airplane colossus reportedly courted, sans sale, were CEOs Larry Culp of GE Aerospace, Dave Gitlin of Carrier Global, and its own chairman, Steve Mollenkopf, the former Qualcomm chief.

Ortberg was a total dark horse. He’d served successfully as CEO of aerospace and defense manufacturer Rockwell Collins for five years. United Technologies acquired Rockwell in 2018, and then sold to RTX less than two years later. Soon thereafter, Ortberg retired. By the time he took the Boeing job, Ortberg hadn’t filled an operating role for over four years. 

Ortberg’s demeanor is so understated, and he keeps such a low public profile, that the scale of his achievement since then hasn’t gotten the kudos it deserves—but that’s beginning to change. Put simply, Boeing’s en route to one of the most dramatic, and quickest, comebacks on record for a formerly ailing corporate giant. “Boeing found its change-agent in Ortberg,” says Scott Mikus, an analyst at Melius Research. “Thanks to Ortberg, the dream of a great industrial company is still alive.” 

A seasoned engineer

Ortberg brings the right stuff as a seasoned engineer who features a history of promoting smooth labor relations. He’s reinstated “an engineering-first” culture at Boeing, a sharp departure from the falling interest and lack of investment in innovation, and focus on share buybacks, that reigned in the pre-Max-crash period from 2014 to 2018. Ortberg’s following a nothing-flashy, back-to-basics, step-by-step approach that targets big improvements in quality, reliability and on-time delivery. He’s also going for win-win agreements with suppliers, in contrast to Boeing’s former penchant for antagonizing partners by severely gouging them on pricing.

As a young engineer, Richard Safran––an analyst at Seaport Securities––saw Ortberg in action at Rockwell Collins. “That’s why unlike most people, I wasn’t surprised by his coup at Boeing,” says Safran. “He’s a Midwesterner who takes the ‘no decision before its time’ approach. He’s methodical about checking all the boxes one after another. He’s such a good engineer that he knows just enough about everyone’s job to be dangerous. And he knows how to make money.”

A person who’s seen regimes come and go, and worked alongside Ortberg at Boeing, marvels at the shift in culture. “He’s set a new tone in the place,” says this observer. “He measures people not just on what they do, but how they do it. You need to reach out and get feedback from colleagues. His approach calls for tying pay and promotions to how people treat and respect one another, in addition assessing their work. Are there still people in senior places who don’t treat people well? Yes, but it’s a good start.” 

This individual also stresses that Ortberg’s own people skills set the template: “He’s a good listener with high EQ. His theme is getting Boeing back to what it needs to be.”  Ortberg’s also renowned for high expectations that colleagues are always well prepared when he quizzes them about their businesses. 

What’s particularly remarkable about Ortberg’s turnaround is that it faced an almost instant hurdle: Within a month of his arrival, the mechanics strike sent production of its best-selling 737 MAX fleet from the already FAA-reduced cadence to virtually zero. Ortberg took a typically conservative stance, raising over $24.3 billion in new capital to cover the coming losses and bolster Boeing’s balance sheet. 

He resolved the stoppage in a relatively fast 53 days, and a string of victories quickly followed. In March of last year, Boeing won the Air Force’s Sixth Generation fighter program in a stunning upset over the competitor that previously cornered the market, Lockheed Martin. The contract opens the way for a new era of profitability in the defense and space sector: After booking an operating loss of over $5.4 billion in 2024, the legacy of grossly underbidding on military aircraft initiatives, the division turned slightly profitable last year, and in Q1 of 2026, earned $233 million for a resurgent operating margin of 3.1%.

In commercial aircraft, Boeing’s largest franchise by far, the campaign to revamp manufacturing safety measures began in the post-crash period, under the close supervision of the FAA. But Ortberg’s relentlessly systematic approach hastened the progress, and the results are now showing in a big way. 

He’s managed to get the FAA cap on the Max, Boeing’s workhorse aircraft, lifted from 38 to 42 a month, and expects to exit 2026 sending 52 off the assembly line, around the peak number eight years ago. Due largely to the jump in Max output and deliveries, Ortberg predicts that Boeing’s heading to $10 billion in free cash flow. Though he doesn’t provide a date, both Mikus and Safran believe Boeing will hit that milestone in the 2028 timeframe. And on the Q1earnings call, CFO Jesus Malave stated that Boeing’s aiming higher. “I think the potential for our cash flow supports being above $10 billion,” said Malave. Getting beyond that figure would take Boeing back to near its top numbers ever in 2017 and 2018—but back then profits roared largely via curbs in R&D and workforce as a share of sales, strategies that robbed from the future.

Ortberg wins high praise from airline customers. “Boeing’s doing a pretty miraculous job of turning around,” United Airline CFO Michael Leskinen said recently. “Our confidence that our Max aircraft will be delivered on time has never been greater during my [over eight year] tenure at United.” 

Still, Captain Kelly faces big challenges in getting Boeing’s wings full level for maximum speed of ascent. Boeing still suffers from ongoing supply chain, quality and certification issues, though they’ve declined. For example, wiring problems on the Max have pushed deliveries scheduled for Q1 into Q2, and a shortage of business class seats is delaying output on its widebody stalwart, the 787. 

Up ahead: Labor challenges, and a new plane

A crucial test looms in October: Boeing’s contract with its 16,000 engineers, which predates Ortberg, is expiring. It’s essential that Ortberg, the engineer’s engineer, secure an agreement that satisfies all parties, and avoids an extremely lengthy strike, as he did with the machinists. “That would send a message that Boeing’s cultural transformation is real,” says Mikus.

Indeed, Boeing will need the world’s best engineering talent to develop an all-new plane that will match if not beat Airbus in narrow-bodies where the Max and A220s and A320s play, and that comprise the biggest airplane class. Since 2010, its archrival has captured around 60% of that market, chiefly due to the superior range of its A320neo and A320XLR families. Ortberg has stated that Boeing must wait until the technology’s right before committing to the crucial new design that will largely chart its future. A major part of that process will involve choosing a highly advanced engine from GE, RTX, or Rolls Royce that delivers both big fuel savings of around 20% and greater longevity that will curb the high repair costs on the current versions. 

The big question: Will Ortberg, whose caution has so far worked well, move fast enough? “By concentrating on getting cash flow up, are they crowding out next-gen aircraft development?” queries one industry veteran. By contrast, Airbus has been highly aggressive in collaborating alongside GE Aerospace in testing the so-called RISE engine—which, in part by removing the nacelles that enclose the fan blades, fashioning the blades from super-strong, lightweight carbon fiber and making them longer, could achieve new frontiers in energy efficiency. 

But Boeing also harbors an ace: the new chief of commercial aircraft development Brian Yutko. The appointment of Yutko, an MIT PhD in aeronautics who at around age 40 stands among the world’s top experts in revolutionary airplane design, signals that Boeing will be carefully weighing all of the most-avant garde options on the market, and decreases the risk the rebounding giant will move too late.

 By Wall Street’s best estimates, the earliest Boeing could commit to a new greenfield plane is 2029 or 2030, with production coming around 2037. Keep in mind that Ortberg just turned 66. “He took the job at an age when most top executives at retiring,” says the aerospace insider. Indeed, Ortberg could stay at the controls for several more years, and even make the call on the all-new plane. 

But for the Boeing board, job one is setting a succession plan, and it will have a jumbo-sized presence to replace. Fortunately, the directors will hold a far stronger hand than when it recruited Ortberg. Then, things were so bleak that even Boeing’s immense size and vaunted legend wasn’t enough to lure the top brand, practicing CEOs. This time, the job’s going to be a lot more attractive. Credit the unlikely pick who fit the times: Kelly Ortberg.

This story ran in the June/July 2026 issue of Fortune as part of a feature called “Innovation Giants on the Rebound.” For more Fortune 500 innovation stories, click here.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

A new Fortune analysis by colleague Shawn Tully lays out the math behind a reported potential SpaceX-Tesla merger. The combined entity would carry a $3.4 trillion valuation with SpaceX at an anticipated $1.75 trillion against Tesla’s $1.65 trillion market cap. This would make it nearly three times the size of the largest merger ever completed.

Tully writes: “Capitalizing on the incredible buzz surrounding the pending SpaceX IPO as a strategy for rescuing stricken Tesla makes perfect sense for Elon Musk. At an expected market cap of $1.75 trillion, SpaceX stock looks vastly overpriced—an IPO prominent analysts are saying they’d avoid. So Musk could marshal its inflated shares as currency to pay big for Tesla, even making the deal at its current market cap, a number that’s also over the top based on any conventional metric.”

However, the financial logic is where it gets uncomfortable, according to Tully. For example, SpaceX would issue new shares equivalent to 94% of its current count to absorb Tesla, doubling its share base to 8 billion. But Tesla’s trailing GAAP earnings have collapsed from $15 billion in 2023 to $3.9 billion today and core operating earnings, stripped of regulatory credits and Bitcoin gains, are just $2.3 billion. On top of that, the cash flow picture is even more alarming, he writes.

For CFOs, treasurers, and capital-markets professionals, the situation raises a sharp question: what does it mean when the world’s most watched deal is designed to solve one overvaluation problem by potentially creating a larger one?

You can read Tully’s full story here. 

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Markets: Mixed but low-drama.
• A SpaceX-Tesla merger still wouldn’t make money.
• Trump loses patience with the media, again.
• “I apologize for not dying soon enough for you”: Baby boomers do not like being told they are getting in the way.
• American misery is so bad the data must be wrong.
• Wall Street worries the Fed is wildly off course in fighting inflation.
• Delicious revenge at Applebee’s.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

“At sixteen, my parents made it clear, if I wanted spending money, I had to earn it,” Bizon, VP of Product and Marketing for Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland, tells Fortune. It spurred her to get a job at two local shoe shops on the weekend—one selling high end footwear, the other more every day wear. “By the time summer rolled around, I’d earned enough trust that the owners left me in charge of running both,” she adds.

Not bad for a Saturday job. From there, Bizon took a business and economics degree at Aberystwyth University before moving into recruitment marketing—and it was there that she got her break.

A meeting with the CMO of Universal Pictures that was meant to be a routine conversation about outsourcing ended with a job offer she hadn’t seen coming. 

What followed was nearly fifteen years scaling one of the world’s biggest entertainment companies—from the decline of physical media and the rise of streaming, to commercial director—all while building a life to match. A first London flat bought at auction for £175,000, deposit split across two credit cards. A converted barn in the countryside. A husband, two daughters, a dog named Wilbur, and skiing in Avoriaz every year. She joined Samsung in 2021 and has since collected four promotions, landing at VP—a milestone she marked the only way that felt right: a second-hand Chanel handbag she’d had her eye on for years.

Today, Bizon is at the center of arguably the biggest shift in consumer technology since the smartphone itself. Since launching in the U.K. in 2024, Samsung’s Galaxy AI has outpaced the early adoption of the internet, reaching nearly five million British users in its first year alone. Globally, it sits on 400 million devices, on track to reach 800 million by the end of this year. In February, Samsung launched the Galaxy S26 Series—its most advanced AI phone yet—and Bizon is the person making sure British consumers want one.

—

Fortune’s series, The Good Life, shows how up-and-coming leaders spend their time and money outside of work. 

Being in the C-suite is a high-pressure job with long hours, board responsibilities, and intense scrutiny. But what is it like to be a top executive when you’re off the clock? Here’s what she told us.

The Money

What’s been the best investment you’ve ever bought? 

The best investment I ever made was my first flat in London. I bought it at auction for £175,000, put down a ten percent deposit split across two credit cards, and sold it four or five years later for around £350,000. I had nearly doubled my money in a handful of years, which felt extraordinary at the time.

And the worst?

My first car, an Austin Metro Vanden Plas, remains my worst investment. I bought it mostly for the interior but the engine fell apart within a couple of weeks. I chose style over substance, and I paid for it. The car literally became a money pit.

If you have children, what does your childcare arrangements look like? And how much does it cost each month? 

My husband and I both have demanding careers, so we made a pact: whoever is at home is in charge. We have a wonderful lady who helps with the girls, and I’ve learned to let go of the guilt for not being at the school gates every day. When I’m home, I’m fully present. My girls see a hardworking, ambitious woman—and they know that their dad is equally invested, equally present, and equally proud. 

What are your living arrangements like: Swanky apartment in the city or suburban sprawling?

We live in a converted barn house outside London which completely suits our lifestyle. We get the best of both worlds. I can be in London in thirty minutes on the train, but I can also step out the front door and be in the countryside with views of rolling fields and great places to walk the dog.

What’s in your wallet? 

You’ll find credit cards, pictures of my girls, and a signed $100 bill from a former boss, one of the most influential leaders I have worked with. Once it is signed, you cannot spend it. I think that is the whole point. Some things are worth more kept than used and I see it like a good luck charm.

On the practical side, I am completely obsessed with Avios points. If there is a way to accumulate them, I will find it. For anyone who travels regularly, a good travel rewards card is one of the smartest decisions you can make.

What’s the cheapest purchase that’s had the biggest impact on your life?

A pair of La Sportiva walking boots. At around £150, they are without question the best money I’ve ever spent. When you are climbing mountains, what is on your feet is everything. Those boots have carried me through a 150km ultramarathon, up Mount Toubkal and across the Arctic without ever letting me down.

Do you invest in shares? 

Not in shares, but I do invest in property, which I would recommend as a long-term strategy. I’ve kept my flat in London even after moving to the countryside. While it’s a practical source of income and a place to stay in the city, the real motivation is my daughters. The plan has always been that when they are ready to start out in London, they have somewhere to land.

Courtesy of Omnicom

What personal finance advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

I’m a firm believer that every mistake you make in your twenties will shape how you manage money later in life. But if I could go back and change one thing, it would be this: make sure you understand how credit card interest actually works before you put a large balance on not one, but two cards.

When I bought my first flat using two credit cards, I thought I had made the deal of a lifetime. In the end, I had. But at the time I was young, I was not earning much, and carrying £17,500 in debt felt like the weight of the world. Because I was not paying it down efficiently, the stress was immense. The investment still worked out brilliantly, but a basic understanding of compound interest would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights.

The Routine

What’s the one subscription you can’t live without?

Amazon Prime, without hesitation. When you have children, life throws curveballs at you with very little notice. Whether it’s a birthday present for a party needed for tomorrow or replacement goggles for a swim lesson, Amazon Prime can quietly saves you in those moments.

How do you get your daily coffee fix? 

I don’t drink coffee, I am a tea person through and through. I love a classic English breakfast tea in the morning with a splash of milk, and work my way through various herbal blends throughout the day. It is one of those small rituals that anchors the day.

What about eating on the go?

When I am in the office, I try to have lunch with the team rather than at my desk. Our days are hectic, and those lunch conversations are often the best team building moments of the week (and the Korean food at the Samsung canteen is a major perk).

On my weekly trips into London, I will grab something on the go, with Leon being a reliable and healthy favourite. If I am sitting down properly, I love Copita in Soho, a Spanish tapas place that I have been going to for years. At home, Sunday lunch at my local pub is a non-negotiable family ritual. If my girls are in charge of where we eat out, it is always Wagamama.

Where do you buy groceries? 

Life at home is busy enough that the weekly shop is a team effort. We do one big weekly shop, followed by mid-week top ups for the family favourites that disappear fast.

My essentials are always fresh fruit; raspberries and watermelon in particular. 

How often in a week do you dine out versus cook at home?

I usually eat out twice a week: once for a midweek business lunch, and then something at the weekend. 

What’s a typical work outfit for you?

I lean toward structured and tailored clothing, a smart jacket, fitted dresses, skirts and blouses will often be paired with a good pair of smart trainers. I’m also a huge fan of a leather trouser. My go-to labels are Zadig & Voltaire and more recently Max Mara.

 The Rewards

Are you the proud owner of any tech gadgets?

The Galaxy Ring is the piece of tech I recommend to almost everyone I know. At £399, this is one of the most worthwhile investments I have made. I spent years treating sleep as something that just happened to me. The Ring changed that. It tracks my sleep stages, my heart rate variability, my body battery, and gives me an energy score each morning that actually tells me something useful about how to structure my day.

Courtesy of Omnicom

How do you unwind from the top job?

I typically get home around 7 p.m., and the first thing my husband and I do is eat together and do a proper download of the day. It’s a small ritual, but a vital one. By ten o’clock I am usually exhausted. The days are full and I do not pretend otherwise.

When I do get downtime, it tends to be active. Our dog Wilbur keeps me walking.

What’s your take on work-life balance at the top?

Work-life balance is always a struggle at this level, anyone who tells you otherwise is either very lucky or not being entirely truthful. The reality is that one side usually gives a little for the other and that balance shifts at different times. I’ve learned that the key is being kind to yourself. You will not make every school play or you might take a call on a Saturday. You also might miss a work deadline for a family priority. But you have to forgive yourself rather than carry it as guilt.

What helps is being prepared for those moments before they happen. I have little hacks, like keeping a cupboard full of wrapped presents for birthday presents so I’m never caught off guard when life gets hectic.

My version of balance is about presence. When I am home, I am home. I am usually up at 6:15 a.m. and I aim to be in bed by 10:30 p.m. so I pack a lot in. In the evenings, I make sure the girls have my attention until they go to bed. If I have to, I will log on later just to get on top of things before the next day. But I try to make sure they are not constantly watching me work. That matters to me.

How do you treat yourself when you get a promotion?

It varies. Usually, it is dinner with the family—they are as invested in my milestones as I am. My girls know what I do, they understand what it takes, and celebrating together feels right.

But when I got VP, I bought myself something I had wanted for years, a second-hand Chanel handbag. It was a particular kind of milestone, the kind that does not come around often, and I wanted to mark it properly.

What’s the most expensive bonus treat you’ve bought yourself? 

My husband and I went to the Six Sense in Oman after COVID-19 as a treat holiday. It was a true ‘once in a lifetime’ and memory maker. Zero regrets!

How many days annual leave do you take a year?

I take between 20 and 25 days per year, depending on my work commitments, but I am a firm believer in taking proper breaks.

Take us on holiday with you, where did you go this year?

Every year we go skiing in Avoriaz as a family. Beyond that, I always build in one adventure or physical challenge trip. Then in August, we do a proper two-week holiday to fully decompress and connect as a family. Top of my travel list right now is the Serengeti, I want to see the migration. In between, I try to fit in a long weekend with my closest girlfriends, and always get away with my mum and sister. It’s very important to me to connect with my female friends and family and keep that bond.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Consider recent examples: Dow Inc., Best Buy, and Asbury Automotive Group have all elevated chief operating officers to the top job in 2026. That preference is becoming even more pronounced. As companies seek to unify sprawling processes and sharpen execution (especially in the age of AI), operational expertise has emerged as a prized currency in the boardroom.

While the appeal of a COO successor is clear, the road to what’s often considered the heir-apparent seat is anything but standardized. A tech company’s operating chief may oversee product delivery and digital infrastructure. A manufacturer’s COO may spend their days optimizing plants, logistics networks, and procurement operations.

Yet data from executive search firms— including Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, and True Search—point to four recurring proving grounds:

The enterprise operator. Divisional presidents and general managers already operate miniature enterprises, overseeing budgets, talent, and performance. Scaling that experience across an entire corporation is often a natural next step.

The supply chain strategist. Such leadership roles remain a powerful launchpad, especially in industrial, retail, and consumer businesses, because they possess a detailed understanding of the operational backbone that keeps companies moving.

The margin-minded operator. As companies place a premium on efficiency and growth, finance leaders are increasingly seen as operators who can connect capital allocation with execution.

The digital systems builder. In software, fintech, and digital-first companies, the modern factory floor is code. CIOs, CTOs, and engineering leaders are becoming natural candidates as cloud infrastructure, data management, cybersecurity, and AI become central drivers of enterprise performance.

The evolution of the COO role will be front and center at the Fortune COO Summit this week. Executives, including Nike COO Venkatesh Alagirisamy, MGM Resorts COO Ayesha Molino, and Chipotle COO Jason Kidd, will share how they are reshaping operations for an era defined by speed, technology, scale, and rising customer expectations. You can follow along with the conference here.

Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

So-called “embodied” AI data isn’t exactly novel. Wayve, the British autonomous driving company, has trained its models on visual input pulled from car cameras. And, on Friday, the startup MicroAGI announced that it was offering New Yorkers a free home cleaning—if they consented to cameras recording the cleaners’ every action. 

Still, Josh Gao, Mecka AI’s cofounder and CEO, believes that his startup is a first mover—and his investors believe he has a chance to strike it big. Headquartered in New York City, the company has raised a total of $60 million across two previously unannounced fundraises: a $25 million Series A round closed in November and $35 million in a follow-on investment. Gao declined to tell me at what valuation he raised the capital.

Framework Ventures, a VC best known for its crypto investments, led the rounds. Other investors who participated included Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, Kindred Ventures, and the angel Ted Xiao, a former researcher at Google DeepMind and founding member at Jeff Bezos’s AI startup Project Prometheus.

“Many folks are now looking and realizing that robotics is going to be one of the most important waves that’s happening,” Gao said on a video call from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where he was visiting a factory that was producing custom equipment his startup designed to capture human data.

Fintech to robotics

Gao and his three cofounders aren’t your conventional AI hotshots with credentials from leading AI labs or Stanford University. In 2023, Gao and Mecka AI cofounder Mogen Cheng sold their prior startup, which focused on building out payments tech for restaurants. Their third cofounder, Jason Chong, sold his own startup to the crypto exchange Coinbase, and their fourth, Duy Nguyen, was an “OG sneakerhead” who made millions of dollars “flipping” shoes, said Gao.

Rather than focus on fintech, the founding quartet, who knew each other through mutual friends, decided to look at where the puck was going and zeroed in on AI for robots. “Can you have general intelligence in the physical world?” asked Gao.

They spent months devouring research papers, visiting robotics labs, and messaging roboticists on social media. Soon, they landed on what Gao said was an unconventional hypothesis: Train robots on data collected from humans, not from data collected through “teleoperation,” or when humans manually operate a robot.

That idea was mainly explored in research papers, Gao said, but his team partnered with robotics labs to show that it could work at scale. “Nobody really popularly believed this would be possible,” he said.

In 2025, after collecting thousands upon thousands of gigabytes of data, the four cofounders decided that they had enough traction to start Mecka AI. Gao and his cofounders use different methods of collecting data from humans, including custom hardware like body sensors as well as iPhones. There’s real demand, said Gao, adding that Mecka AI projects an annual run rate of $100 million based on already-signed contracts. (He declined to name Mecka AI’s customers.)

“I mean, this is the fastest-growing revenue company that we’ve ever invested in, so the proof is in the business itself,” Vance Spencer, cofounder of Framework Ventures, told me.

But, Gao, whose startup now has 40 employees, doesn’t envision Mecka AI as merely a data aggregator. He wants his company to be on the frontlines, personally helping firms integrate and train robotics models. “Useful robots can be deployed today,” Gao declared, “and immediately.”

See you tomorrow,

Ben Weiss
X: @bdanweiss
Email: benjamin.weiss@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.

Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Dimon made it clear he would fight the bill, which recently advanced through the Senate Banking Committee, and said he wasn’t afraid of its approval—rather he wanted competition to be equal.

“We’re not worried, we think it should just be fair,” Dimon told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business. “If [Armstrong] takes deposits like a bank, he should have bank rules.”

Dimon went on to list those requirements: Social, litigation, liquidity, capital, legal, anti-money laundering, financial reporting, transparency, and so on: “If they want to be moving money around the world, on any basis, you should ask the question: ‘Can that be used illegitimately easily?’ And the answer would be yes, unless they follow the same rules.”

Coinbase CEO Armstrong suggested the bill will benefit American consumers by making “the U.S. financial system faster, cheaper, and more accessible.” In a post on X, the crypto boss added that the act will also ensure the U.S. is at the forefront of building the next generation of financial systems.

The act has also garnered the support of White House advisors, as well as the likes of Senate Banking chairman Tim Scott, who said during a hearing for the bill that “developers, entrepreneurs and investors were left with uncertainty. They faced confusion and enforcement actions when, instead, the government should have been crafting clear rules of the road.”

However, Dimon suggested this wouldn’t ease the concerns of small banks and credit unions: “It’s not just the big guys,” he added. “We’ll fight it and if we lose, we lose, we’ll live. But it will be fought. No one’s gonna bow down to this guy or that company.”

When Bartiromo suggested that Armstrong’s view represented the crypto industry as a whole, Dimon replied, “He’s full of shit.”

Armstrong appears to be taking the criticism on the chin. After Dimon’s interview aired, he posted a doctored image on X, which shows him and Dimon in a ‘Heated Rivalry’ poster—a sports romance series that went viral earlier this year.

Coinbase has been approached for comment.

Wider opportunities

While Dimon has never been a fan of some cryptocurrencies (he famously referred to Bitcoin as a “pet rock”), that doesn’t mean he, or J.P. Morgan, are blind to the opportunity emerging from technologies like blockchain and stablecoins.

He highlighted the work of competitors like Stripe, Revolut, and PayPal, saying: “These are smart people trying to take a slice of your business … I tell my own people: ‘Open your eyes, look what they did, we didn’t do it, and some we could have.'”

Stablecoins could have been one such technology, he added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Good morning. My first question for Jeff Immelt after reading his raw recollections of life after GE on his new Substack, the Long View, was, why now? It’s been nine years since Immelt suddenly stepped down as CEO—a time that he described in his post as “one of the saddest moments of my life.” He’s written a book about it, talked about it and moved on to a new chapter as a Stanford lecturer and venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. The conglomerate he led for 16 years no longer exists, split into three Fortune 500 public companies: GE HealthCare Technologies, GE Vernova and GE Aerospace. Having covered Immelt from the start of his tenure through the tough times and beyond, I was eager to know what moves him now and what he’s learned along the way. We spoke yesterday by phone—below are excerpts from our conversation. 

Why now? “One of the things I learned when I did the book was to think about life in longhand, not bullet points. I take better notes. I think about things more fully. Other than the GE team, the people I spend the most time talking to are CEO friends of mine and (their questions) are: How did you find your way? What are you going to do? It’s all about life stuff, so I thought about writing about that and just decided that a book was just too heavy a lift, given all the other things I want to do. So this is about wanting to think about the stuff I was doing in longhand, but also recognizing that the journey I had been on, millions of people were going on.”

On what he wants people to see as his GE legacy. “I’m completely past it. That did not come easily, by the way. And the second thing I’d say is, look, I own a lot of stock. I’ve kept my stock, I cheer for Larry, so I really have nothing other than wanting to support. Time’s been my friend. Look at it now. Let everybody that’s out there do their own analysis. I don’t need to do it for them. Sometimes, things just take time to unfold … If there’s a couple hundred CEOs and thousands of people who say, ‘I’m glad I worked with Jeff, he taught me, he helped me, he was there when I needed him’—that would make me really happy.”

On AI and tech: “What’s not being covered enough is: what does a company actually do to get the benefits of artificial intelligence? You need a more micro view. Healthcare inflation this year is 12%. There’s a 500,000-nursing shortage. How could technology change that?  … I lived all over the place, but I’d never done Silicon Valley. I saw the willingness to bet big at scale, which I think all legacy companies struggle with today. It just smacks you in the face when you go out there:  Apple, Amazon, Google, they are huge companies, and they still move quickly. When I play golf on Sunday mornings, they talk about the products they work on. They don’t say, ‘I’m in an organization, I’m a VP.’ I find both those things refreshing.”

On leadership: “You live your life to prepare yourself for the worst day, not the best day. What does it really feel like to not have the success you want? There’s no way to say that without talking about the bad stuff. I taught at Stanford for seven years, and I would watch the students, and they learn from the shit, you know, they don’t learn from the good stuff, right? I have to say, having that in the back of my mind allowed me to open up and talk pretty frankly about what it felt like.”

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

In an interview with Fortune, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng noted that U.S. stocks currently represent well over half of the global equities market, but that for many people in overseas markets, purchasing them comes with considerable cost and friction. Binance is seeking to address this, he said, by offering zero commission stocks to non-U.S. customers, as well as fractional share purchases starting at $5.

The share purchases on Binance will be arranged by a broker dealer called Nest Trading, and a New York-based firm, Alpaca, will handle custody and facilitate dividend payments and corporate actions. Customers can purchase the stock using the stablecoins USDC or USDT, or with a handful of other digital currencies, including Binance’s own BNB.

Teng noted that this is not the first foray for Binance, which has for years been the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, into non-crypto assets. He pointed out that Binance already offers a suite of derivatives that allow customers to get exposure to non-crypto assets such as gold, petrochemicals and pre-IPO shares.

On a broader level, Binance’s push into stocks is the latest example of a growing convergence between the worlds of crypto and traditional finance. This trend has recently seen Binance’s rival Coinbase add stock trading as part of a bid to be an “everything exchange,” and as traditional Wall Street firms like BlackRock offer investments like T-bills in the form of blockchain wrappers.

Binance’s big plans for tokenized stocks

In announcing its stock trading program, Binance also described a bold plan for “bStocks” that will let users tokenize the equities they purchase. In practice, Teng explained, this means customers will soon be able to create a synthetic version of certain stocks by converting them into a digital token on the company’s BNB blockchain.

Other companies, including Kraken and Robinhood, have launched similar offerings over the past year or so, though Binance’s version—which the company says will become available in coming weeks—is potentially unique in that it promises to let customers initiate the tokenization process themselves.

The idea of tokenized stocks, at first blush, may seem exotic or unnecessary. The arrangement, though, offers several advantages compared to traditional stock trading. The biggest of these is that trades of blockchain-base stocks can settle almost instantly, versus a conventional process that relies on Wall Street intermediaries that require a day or more to finalize a transaction.

While some have raised concerns that tokenized stocks could create risks or uncertainty for the all-important U.S. equities market, the concept is fast gaining traction as both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have announced plans to incorporate the technology.

In a statement, Binance said its bStocks offering will provide a “native bridge from traditional stock ownership to programmable, always-on tokenized assets at a global scale … This unlocks mobility and utility for real-world equities within and beyond the Binance ecosystem, enabling continuous on-chain access and potential DeFi applications, from lending to liquidity provision.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Despite having well-earned flexibility—she’s built a $100 million net worth after co-founding The Huffington Post in 2005, selling it to AOL for $315 million, and now running her next venture, the wellness startup Thrive Global—she still doesn’t have a hard cut-off time. 

“I don’t think there is anybody with an interesting job who can do that,” Huffington tells Fortune. “For you, or me, or most people with interesting jobs, there is never a time when you have a natural ending to the day.” Essentially, the work never really ends. 

It’s why she can’t say what time she finishes the workday. It’s not static. Huffington says she stops when all the “important things” are done, and nearly always has work left over for the next morning.

And actually, she argues, if you can tick off everything on your to-do list and finish up on time every day, then it’s perhaps a sign you’re not challenged enough in your current job. 

“I tell people that if you can finish everything before you go to sleep, you don’t have an interesting enough job,” she cautions. “You should change jobs, because any interesting job means that things are not complete day by day.”

Arianna Huffington says it doesn’t actually matter how many hours you work, as long as you get the right amount of sleep first 

Huffington knows the dangers of overwork better than most. While pulling 18-hour days to build Huffington Post in 2007, she passed out in her home office from sheer exhaustion. She hit her head on her desk on the way down, broke her cheekbone, and woke up in a pool of blood.

But she still hates the word “balance“—and says long hours aren’t the problem. The answer isn’t doing less. It’s doing more: more sleep, more nutrition, more recovery to support that level of intense work.

“It’s important not to think in terms of hours, but in terms of fuel for yourself,” Huffington says. “Have you given yourself the fuel to renew yourself, to recharge yourself, and start again?”

For most people, that starts with sleep. Unless you’re one of the rare people with a genetic mutation that makes you a true “short sleeper,” she says most adults should be aiming for seven to nine hours a night. “If you get your optimal number, that’s critical for how effective you are at work,” Huffington insists. 

What’s key is starting from a full tank rather than trying to run on empty.

“As long as people get the sleep they need, the exercise they need—whatever that is, walking or strength training, or both—that’s also important,” she explains. “It’s not about how many hours, it’s about how much are you feeding your body and your soul.”

And work, she says, can play a part in that: “Work is also incredibly fulfilling. I love my work. I actually don’t really separate my work from the rest of my life. I’m very blessed to be doing something I love, with people I love, so as long as I take enough time to recharge—be with my family and friends, work out and have time to eat healthy—then I love what I do the rest of the time, working.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com