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Voters will soon cast their ballots to decide which party controls Congress—now they will be able to bet on it, too.
A federal appeals court lifted a ruling Wednesday that had blocked Americans from betting on the outcome of congressional elections through the prediction market Kalshi. Federal regulators had sought to ban the wagering, arguing it would “threaten election integrity.”
Kalshi is far from the only market for predictions on politics and other topics. In July, Forbes reported that some $446 million was being wagered on the outcome of the presidential election on Polymarket.
Shortly after the court’s decision, 63% of bettors on Kalshi’s website predicted Democrats would take the House, while 37% said the Republicans would be victorious.
FIRST UP
OpenAI closed a $6.6 billion funding round that valued the booming AI company at $157 billion, nearly double what the company was valued at earlier this year as it is set to transition to a for-profit firm. The company said the funding, from Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Nvidia and longtime backer Microsoft, will go toward its AI research, products and services, and computing capacity.
Crude oil prices, which heavily influence gas prices, rose again Wednesday amid heightened concerns about violence in the Middle East. Oil prices remain far cheaper than they were this summer, with international benchmark Brent crude down 14% from its July peak.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
Tesla’s stock slumped Wednesday after reporting third-quarter car deliveries that just barely exceeded analyst projections, but failed to meet the most bullish of Wall Street expectations. Still, the 6% year-over-year quarterly delivery growth was a “mini step in the right direction,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IT entrepreneur David Steward, the majority owner of World Wide Technology alongside partner Jim Kavanaugh, is the wealthiest Black person in America, and is one of just four Black members on the 2024 ranking of the wealthiest Americans. Steward initially put up $250,000 in capital to start WWT in 1990, according to a 2019 Forbes profile, and has gone on to nab top corporate clients like Apple, Citi, Microsoft and the federal government.
Former shoe salesman Mitchell Morgan’s firm Morgan Properties has become the third-largest owner of apartments in the country, landing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time with a net worth of $5.5 billion. He’s earned his success by investing in older apartment buildings in midsize cities and quickly renovating them to boost rental income.
TECH + INNOVATION
In a break from some House Democrats, President Joe Biden is expected to sign a bipartisan bill that will limit federal oversight on qualifying semiconductor projects in the U.S. The legislation comes in response to concerns that “unnecessary delays” could stifle the construction of domestic microchip facilities.
Drew Crecente’s daughter was murdered 18 years ago, but on Wednesday, he found out someone made a chatbot using her name and yearbook photo on the Character AI platform. “A grieving father should not have to find out that his dead daughter is being used to try and make money as a chatbot on some website,” he told Forbes. Character AI said it has since removed the chatbot from the site for violating its policies.
MONEY + POLITICS
Former President Donald Trump fired his attorneys after the 2020 election and replaced them with Rudy Giuliani because he would be willing to “spread knowingly false claims of election fraud,” Special Counsel Jack Smith alleged in a filing on Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung denounced Smith’s filing as “falsehood-ridden” and “unconstitutional.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams will “likely” face additional charges, prosecutors said Wednesday, less than a week after he was indicted on federal charges of bribery and fraud. Adams, who appeared during a hearing Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A federal judge paused a new California state law that cracked down on the use of AI-generated deepfakes targeting political candidates, weeks after the creator of an AI-altered campaign video mocking Vice President Kamala Harris sued to block the legislation. In his ruling, the judge wrote that while fear of deepfakes may be justified, the law likely violates the First Amendment.
TRENDS + EXPLAINERS
President Joe Biden directed 1,000 active-duty soldiers to assist in delivering food, water and other services to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene, which decimated the South over the weekend. At least 175 people have died, hundreds are still missing and about 1.3 million people were still without power as of Wednesday afternoon.
MORE: The IRS will give individuals and businesses affected by the storm more time to file and pay taxes, including Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and parts of Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. These taxpayers now have until May 1, 2025, and for the most part, shouldn’t need to do anything to get relief.
DAILY COVER STORY
This U.S. Company Is Cashing In On Ukraine’s War With Killer Drones That Fit In A Backpack
TOPLINE The deadly Switchblade is central to AeroVironment CEO Wahid Nawabi’s ambitions to make the drone maker a multibillion-dollar company in the next three to five years, up from $717 million in revenue in its fiscal 2024.
Switchblade is a loitering munition, an expensive type of one-way kamikaze drone designed to circle the battlefield, awaiting a good opportunity to obliterate its target. Both the Russians and Ukrainians are using them in a war where dense networks of antiaircraft systems have pushed fighter jets and bombers to the margins.
Starting in 2022, the U.S. supplied Ukraine with 700 Switchblade 300s, a $50,000 missile small enough to be carried in a soldier’s rucksack and launched with minimal effort. It was quietly used by U.S. special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decade to take down “high-value” insurgents at a distance of as much as 6 miles.
The Ukraine war has been a buzzing laboratory for unmanned aircraft, where makers test and improve their designs. AeroVironment’s got off to a rough start against Russian electronic warfare, which reportedly has hampered many sophisticated Western drones, but the company is now looking like one of the winners. (Nawabi says modifications to overcome jamming and better training have pushed Switchblade’s effectiveness rate north of 80%.)
Plenty of companies are chasing the opportunity: A study last year by the Vertical Flight Society counted 123 entities in 32 countries that were producing one-way attack drones. But AeroVironment, which has quietly been the Defense Department’s main supplier of small drones for the past two decades, may have the relationships, technology and industrial experience to better satisfy the U.S. military’s sudden desire for unmanned systems en masse.
WHY IT MATTERS “The Ukraine conflict has changed the way war is waged, and countries around the world are rushing to acquire loitering munitions,” says Forbes senior editor Jeremy Bogaisky. “AeroVironment seems poised to meet the demand from the U.S. military and allies.”
MORE U.S. Military Is Using Laser Weapons In Battle
FACTS + COMMENTS
A new study finds college students who get short phone breaks during class periods score higher on tests and use their phones less during lectures. The findings come amid the debate about cellphone use and its impacts on student success:
One minute: Participants given a one-minute phone break had the highest test scores and used their phones less during lectures
‘The shorter, the better’: The one-minute technology break was more effective than two or four minutes
About 72%: The share of high school teachers in the U.S. who said phone distractions were a “major problem” during class, Pew Research found
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
Are you dealing with a micromanager in the workplace? Whether or not they are your boss, there are psychology-driven techniques to reduce the scrutiny and interference from someone exerting excessive control: Try reinforcing your shared identity with the person, this can be as simple as using language like “we” and “us” when discussing goals. And err on the side of being proactive, such as by offering regular updates before the micromanager has a chance to ask.
VIDEO
QUIZ
A regional airport closed Wednesday after an undetonated bomb, likely dropped by the U.S. during World War II, exploded underneath the taxiway, canceling dozens of flights but thankfully causing no injuries. Where did this occur?
A. Germany
B. Japan
C. Poland
D. LI
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.