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Good morning,
Lauren Sánchez is well aware that most people know her as the fiancé of the second wealthiest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, despite a long list of accomplishments that include a journalism career, a pilot’s license and as of this week, a children’s book author.
“I get it, but I can choose to do something, or I can choose to do nothing,” she said at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2024 in New York. “I’m choosing to do something.”
Sánchez, whose work ethic is inspired by her grandmother, was one of the youngest Hispanic female anchors in Los Angeles, and is now vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund that doles out grants to fight climate change. Soon, she’ll lead an all-female space flight on Blue Origin.
“People like to put you in a box,” she said. “And I don’t fit in that box, I never have.”
Let’s get into the headlines,
FIRST UP
After mostly trading down Wednesday morning, Nvidia shares steadily shot upward, booking a 7% gain by late afternoon and almost single handedly turning broad market losses into solid gains. The AI giant saw a jump of more than $190 million in market value after CEO Jensen Huang said at a conference that demand for its products is “so great” that its customers are “tense.”
MORE: The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Wednesday up 0.3%, rebounding from a morning that saw the index fall as much as 740 points as investors digested a mixed August consumer price index inflation report.
Flowcarbon, the climate tech startup cofounded by WeWork’s Adam Neumann, has been quietly refunding investors after failing to realize its goal of bringing carbon credits to the blockchain. In 2022, the startup announced it had raised $70 million in funding to create a “Goddess Nature Token” backed by 1:1 carbon credits—certificates that companies typically buy en masse to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the refund process, purchasers of the token were asked to sign a release including a broad waiver of claims against Flowcarbon and its affiliates.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
Following a report of declining sales, shares of GameStop—often the focus of meme stock trading—fell nearly 12% Wednesday, adding to a 3.3% loss from the previous day. Still, despite a 31% drop in sales from the year prior, the video game retailer reported adjusted earnings of 1 cent per share, beating out estimates of a loss of 9 cents per share.
WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Zhang Yiming, cofounder of TikTok owner ByteDance, has overtaken beverage giant Nongfu Spring chairman Zhong Shanshan as the richest man in China, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List. Zhang, 40, clinched the crown for the first time with a fortune of $45.6 billion, above Zhong’s $42.9 billion, according to Forbes estimates.
MONEY + POLITICS
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) canceled plans for a vote on a new government spending bill, 19 days before the existing bill expires, which would trigger a shutdown. The stopgap bill that Johnson was backing tacked on a measure that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, but multiple Republicans expressed plans to vote against the legislation for various reasons.
Following Tuesday night’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, it remains unclear whether the two candidates will have a rematch. On Wednesday, Trump questioned why he should participate in another debate, claiming that Harris “was beaten badly” and that he’s “not inclined” to do another debate. Fox has already offered to host a second debate in October, while NBC has proposed a matchup for later this month.
MORE: About 58 million people watched Harris and Trump debate on television Tuesday night, multiple outlets reported, citing early figures from Nielsen. That’s about a 12% increase in viewership from the June debate between Trump and his then-opponent President Joe Biden.
SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT
After the International Olympic Committee stripped her of an individual bronze medal, gymnast Jordan Chiles experienced internet criticism and racist comments. In her first interview since then, Chiles said at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit that she felt betrayed by the sport: “At this rate, it’s not really about the medal, it’s about my peace and my justice,” the 23-year-old said. “It’s about my skin color.”
Singer Justin Timberlake will appear in court in New York on Friday to enter a plea and resolve his drunk driving charge from June. He is expected to plead guilty to a lesser offense than driving while intoxicated, the Associated Press reported, and will likely pay a fine between $300 and $500, according to Deadline.
One day after he was ordered to pay a $100 million default payment in a separate sexual assault case, producer and business mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with a new lawsuit. Dawn Richard, a former member of girl group Danity Kane, is the latest in a long line of women to accuse Combs of abuse, claiming in a lawsuit filed in New York that she was subjected to violent acts, death threats, financial abuse, sexual assault and more.
TRAVEL + LIFESTYLE
In an olive branch to activist investor Elliott Investment Management, Southwest Airlines announced that it will revamp its board of directors and longtime chairman Gary Kelly will retire in 2025. Elliott, which is owned by billionaire hedge fund magnate Paul Singer, has in recent months amassed 10% of Southwest’s common stock and waged a public campaign for the airline to make significant changes, even putting forward a preferred slate of candidates for the board.
TRENDS + EXPLAINERS
Earlier this week, the European Union’s top court ruled that Apple must pay billions in back taxes after engaging in sweetheart deals with Ireland to lower its tax bills. The case stretches back more than a decade, but the European Commission eventually found that tax rulings issued by Ireland to Apple “substantially and artificially” lowered the tax paid by Apple to Ireland since 1991. Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of 1% in 2003 and just 0.005% in 2014.
DAILY COVER STORY
Meet The VCs Who Just Raised $250 Million To Back Women-Led Startups
TOPLINE Jenny Abramson was a Stanford sophomore in 1997 when her mother, Patty, launched the Women’s Growth Capital Fund. Back then, the daughter recalls, she was surrounded by “a million amazing women” at school and didn’t really understand why female founders might need their own dedicated venture capital firm.
Twenty-seven years later, Jenny Abramson not only gets it, but has just raised another $250 million for Rethink Impact, cementing its status as the largest VC firm dedicated to funding female CEOs. It’s the third and largest fund that Abramson and her fellow managing partner, Heidi Patel, have raised since 2017, and nearly doubles their assets under management.
It’s not just the size and participants in this round—which closed today and is being reported first by Forbes—that stand out. The successful round comes at a time when venture fundraising is on track for its worst year in a decade, according to Pitchbook, and when efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion are under attack in both the courts and corporate America.
While the median time for venture firms to close new funds has, in recent quarters, stretched to 15 months, Abramson and Patel raised their Fund III in just one summer. Among the limited partners: Melinda French Gates’ investing firm, Pivotal Ventures, and a slew of institutional investors. “Getting to this size meant that we really had to cross the chasm into institutional LPs, and that’s what we did,’’ says Patel. “We’ve got more than 10 university endowments, and foundations; we have limited partners from large financial institutions like UBS and Cambridge Associates.”
WHY IT MATTERS Along with making money for their investors, Abramson and Patel are aiming to turn the tide on funding for female founders and CEOs. “I definitely think we will see parity in our lifetime,” Abramson says optimistically. “I think that we finally have a moment where the data exists that shows that female companies grow faster, have higher valuation increases and exit faster—after all, time is money.”
MORE Why Aileen Lee Predicts More Women Will Found Unicorns Over The Next 10 Years
FACTS + COMMENTS
The NFL’s return last week reinforced the league’s dominance, as the first week of broadcasts—featuring a re-match of the AFC championship game, an appearance by Taylor Swift and Tom Brady’s debut as an analyst—broke viewership records:
21 million: The average audience per game for the week
123 million: How many people saw at least part of one game, the league’s highest total for an opening week since 2019
93: Of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts last year, 93 were NFL football games
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
In a job interview, the trickiest questions you’ll likely get as a candidate start like this: “Tell me about a time when you…” These situational questions are effective at proving you’ve solved a problem before, but people often miss details or lack a concise, easily-understandable answer. Take the time to craft a response in advance, and remember the interviewer is looking for specifics: specific details, and more importantly, specific outcomes.
VIDEO
QUIZ
A city’s local police department spent more than $150,000 to purchase a Tesla Cybertruck, including $20,000 on additional customizations, for community outreach around its anti-drug program. Which state is the police department located in?
A. New York
B. Texas
C. California
D. Arizona
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.