This is a published version of the Forbes Daily newsletter, you can sign-up to get Forbes Daily in your inbox here.
Good morning,
Some cancers can be faster and more aggressive than others, but it can be difficult for doctors to know which is which. That’s where technology from startup Ataraxis comes in.
The company, which emerged from stealth Thursday armed with $4 million in funding, has developed an AI-powered diagnostic test to accurately assess whether a patient’s breast cancer is high-risk or low-risk.
The company said in a study that its model could be up to 30% more accurate than current tests, and help thousands of breast cancer patients avoid unnecessary treatments. “If you don’t benefit from chemotherapy, you want to avoid it,” says its CEO Jan Witowski.
FIRST UP
Just days before America heads to the polls, Facebook is running hundreds of ads from pages that falsely claim that the upcoming election may be rigged—with Meta’s ad library showing that the pages behind the ads have paid more than $1 million for them. Meta’s election rules prohibit posts containing “misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods of voting,” and its ad rules prohibit ads that “call into question the legitimacy of an upcoming or ongoing election.”
Shares of Amazon jumped more than 5% in after-hours trading Thursday after the e-commerce giant beat Wall Street expectations in its third-quarter earnings report. Amazon has undergone major cost-cutting efforts since 2022 under the direction of CEO Andy Jassy, laying off more than 27,000 employees, according to CNBC. But it’s also betting big elsewhere, including a commitment to spend more than $52 billion in nuclear power deals to expand data centers, Forbes previously reported.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
For cryptocurrency holders with something to hide, so-called crypto mixers can cloak the identity of owners, and U.S. law enforcement authorities say a North Korean-hacker outfit has been using mixers, including Blender.io, Tornado Cash, Railgun and Sinbad.io, to launder stolen crypto. New information suggests that Digital Currency Group, owner of $25 billion crypto fund manager Grayscale, likely benefited from the laundering through Railgun. A Forbes investigation supported by data from blockchain intelligence firm ChainArgos shows that DCG received $436,906 in fees from Railgun from June 2023 to the present.
The largest American drone manufacturer announced Wednesday it is being forced to ration batteries for its customers due to supply constraints caused by Chinese government sanctions. Adam Bry, CEO of Skydio, said the sanctions show that the Chinese government “will use supply chains as a weapon,” accusing it of trying to “eliminate” the firm and increase the world’s reliance on Chinese-made drones.
In the final inflation update before next week’s presidential election, the Commerce Department found that the personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures how much more Americans spent this September than in September 2023, was 2.1%. That matches consensus economist estimates of 2.1% headline PCE inflation reading, according to FactSet data, the lowest level since February 2021.
TECH + INNOVATION
Apple, the world’s largest technology company in the world by profits, reported better than expected revenue Thursday as investors eagerly await evidence of financial growth amid Apple’s push to bring generative AI to iPhones. But Apple took a $10.2 billion income tax hit from a European Union ruling that wiped away its special tax status in Ireland, sending the company’s net income for the 2024 fiscal year to its lowest level since its fiscal year ending September 2020.
Swedish startup Sana AI raised $55 million at a $500 million valuation to help companies make sense of their data and build their own artificial intelligence agents. The deal takes Sana’s total funding to over $130 million, making it one of the continent’s best-funded AI startups. “There’s uncapped demand,” said founder Joel Hellermark, a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum.
MONEY + POLITICS
The son of the late conservative megadonor David Koch is backing Vice President Kamala Harris, Forbes has exclusively learned, contributing $10,600 to a pair of political committees associated with her over the last three months, according to Federal Election Commission filings. It’s small change for a member of America’s second richest family, worth an estimated $144 billion, but is surprising nonetheless given that David Koch Sr. and his brother Charles became widely known for their funding of conservative groups like Americans For Prosperity.
Recent filings show that iHeartMedia funneled an additional $174,000 in “digital revenue” to the Truth and Courage PAC supporting Texas Senator Ted Cruz, bringing the media giant’s total contributions to the super PAC to $961,000 through October 16. But the money trail has drawn scrutiny, and earlier this year, two government watchdogs filed a complaint alleging that Cruz is effectively soliciting “soft money” contributions from the corporation, a practice that is prohibited for federal candidates.
The Republican and Democratic National Committees are already raising millions preparing for an expected flurry of litigation and potential recounts after Election Day, as polling predicts an extremely close race and former President Donald Trump has already started sowing distrust in the vote count. The RNC has raised $90 million for its recount account, which can only be used for post-election election challenges, compared to the DNC’s $14.3 million, even as Vice President Kamala Harris and the DNC have outraised Republicans this election cycle.
SCIENCE + HEALTHCARE
Earlier this month, John Jumper, the director of AI lab Google DeepMind, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis for AlphaFold, an AI model that predicts the structure of proteins based on their chemical sequence. In an interview with Forbes, Jumper says that this moment in AI’s history is “about learning from experimental data and predicting, for AlphaFold, a year’s worth of experiments in five minutes.”
DAILY COVER STORY
Why Small Business Owners Are The Only Surefire Winners In This Election
TOPLINE Small businesses are likely to benefit no matter who wins the election on November 5, but nonetheless, their owners have jitters.
For 51 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has tracked small businesses’ uncertainty by counting “don’t know” and “uncertain” responses to six key questions about the economy and their expansion plans. In September, the gauge jumped 11 points from August, marking its highest level in the survey’s history—higher even than in September 2020, when the country was in the grip of the Covid pandemic and facing another fraught presidential election.
Politicians have long pandered to small business, the most trusted institution in America that employs 46% of all private sector workers, and since 1995, have generated more than 60% of new private-sector jobs.
On one hand, former President Donald Trump is a familiar choice for small business owners, with his record already established from his first term. In February 2020, a CNBC/SurveyMonkey poll showed that 64% of small business owners approved of Trump—before the pandemic and lockdowns ravaged and reshaped the business landscape. Now, by contrast, the latest survey from September 2024 shows only 38% of small business owners approve of President Joe Biden.
On the other hand, Vice President Harris has been vocal about her plans to encourage small businesses, emphasizing a significant tax deduction to make it easier to start a new venture.
“Both parties want to appeal to the small business community,” says Todd McCracken, the National Small Business Association president, a non-partisan advocacy group. “But they take very different approaches.”
WHY IT MATTERS “It’s a contentious election, and like everyone else, small business owners feel uncertain about what will happen next. In September, the National Federation of Independent Business recorded its highest-ever level of uncertainty among small business owners. But maybe they shouldn’t worry so much,” says Forbes reporter Brandon Kochkodin.
“Both parties are making their pitch—Republicans with lower taxes and fewer regulations, Democrats with larger tax deductions for startups. No surprise, as small businesses make up 44% of U.S. GDP and create nearly two-thirds of all new private-sector jobs, making them a natural target for political outreach (or, cynically, pandering).”
MORE How To Now Get Nearly Unlimited Funding To Build Your Small Business Empire
FACTS + COMMENTS
Starbucks customers who order drinks with non-dairy milk are about to save some money, as the coffee chain announced this week that it will soon remove its extra charge for dairy substitutes:
10%: How much some customers will save due to the change, Starbucks said
Up to 80 cents: How much per drink the extra charge for non-dairy options can add to an order, CNBC reported
6%: How much Starbucks’ North American same-store sales fell in the quarter ending in September. The removal of the extra charge is part of new CEO Brian Niccol’s plan to win back customers
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
Just 43% of employers provide paid leave for their workers to vote, and more than a third of those who don’t vote say it’s due to a scheduling conflict with work or school. If you have a flexible work schedule, see if you can make up the time it takes to vote without using a PTO day, or take advantage of time off your company may offer for volunteering, and work at the polls. And the day after the election, when emotions might be running high, company leaders should deploy one of their most important skills: listening.
VIDEO
QUIZ
A number of companies will encourage voter participation next week by offering freebies to customers. With many, all you need to do is show your “I Voted” sticker. Which of the following companies will offer Election Day deals?
A. Ikea
B. Lyft
C. Krispy Kreme
D. All of the above
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire, Chris Dobstaff and Caroline Howard.