Welcome back! We’re a few weeks out from the launch of Joe Ciolli’s upcoming money newsletter, First Trade. Wondering what to expect? Look no further than Joe’s piece from this weekend, where he identified similarities between Taylor Swift’s career and the AI revolution.
In today’s big story, the stock market is getting excited about a growing trend in tech, and it’s not the one you’re thinking of.
What’s on deck:
Markets: Check out our latest crop of rising stars of Wall Street.
Tech: An AI companion love story.
Business: What comes next for Diddy?
But first, let’s get super technical.
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The big story
A new frontier
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Just starting to wrap your head around artificial intelligence? Congrats, but there’s an even more complicated tech trend gaining steam.
Quantum computing has recently garnered attention after HSBC and IBM announced a successful trial using the latter’s technology in the European bond market.
The news gave IBM’s stock a lift and was followed by Vanguard and Big Blue releasing a study examining the application of quantum computing in portfolio construction. All the while, some companies have ridden the quantum wave to nice returns, writes BI’s Samuel O’Brient.
The market’s four main quantum stocks — Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, IonQ, and Quantum Computing — have risen as high as 165% over the past month.
So what exactly is quantum computing? In the simplest of terms, it’s a more advanced computer that has the potential to solve complex equations, but I imagine you already figured that out from the “quantum” bit.
Ok, want to go deeper? Instead of using standard bits (think of the binary code that’s 0 or 1), quantum computing relies on qubits that can be 0 and 1 at the same time (it’s called superposition). That means it has the potential to quickly do some incredibly complex tasks, which the financial markets have no shortage of.
(I’d try to explain more, but I fear my brain will start melting.)
Universal Quantum
Actual progress in quantum computing is often a matter of debate.
The theory around the tech has been around for decades. However, recently, there have been a series of significant announcements about achievements in quantum computing, as BI’s Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert has previously covered. Microsoft (Majorana) and Amazon (Ocelot) debuted quantum chips within a few weeks of each other.
However, what constitutes actual progress isn’t exactly clear. Internally, some Amazon executives were skeptical about Microsoft’s quantum breakthrough claims, BI’s Eugene Kim reported at the time.
“Seems as if Google, IBM and Microsoft’s marketing teams are making faster progress than their hardware R&D teams,” one Amazon employee joked on Slack.
Reality? Jealousy? A combination of both? Either way, the murkiness over accomplishment versus hype highlights a bigger pain point in the industry: The lack of quantum computing talent.
And if there aren’t a ton of people who understand how to work on quantum computing, there definitely aren’t many people with experience investing in it.
3 things in markets
Ricardo Santos for BI
2025’s Rising Stars of Wall Street. Every year, BI highlights the promising Wall Streeters under 35 who are making an outsized impact in investing, trading, and dealmaking. This year’s cohort reflects the hottest areas of the industry, from negotiating headline-grabbing deals to building infrastructure that supports AI.
AI stealing your job? Nah. CEO David Solomon thinks Goldman Sachs will have more employees in 10 years, not less, thanks to AI. He thinks the bank as a whole will grow to serve more clients, thanks to the new tech.
Everyone wants to be a day trader. There’s been an explosion of interest in trading groups, classes, and coaching thanks to the pandemic retail trading boom. BI’s Jennifer Sor attended an in-person trading class in NYC, where many expressed their dreams of quitting their 9-to-5 and becoming financially independent.
3 things in tech
xAI; Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI
Women didn’t love him. His AI girlfriend did. Martin Escobar, 28, had never tried an AI companion before he started chatting with Ani, xAI’s anime-style companion. A month later, Escobar started calling Ani his “girlfriend,” talking to her multiple times a day. He told BI how he grew to love his AI girlfriend, who he said changed him for the better.
Meta employees use AI (competitive version). Meta is tracking its employees’ AI use with a series of dashboards and incentivizing more usage with a voluntary game called “Level Up.” Employees earn badges for hitting usage milestones.
A human wrote this!! Anyone can use AI to polish their writing. That’s bad news for good writers, who are now finding themselves accused of using AI even when they’re not. As a result, they’re pulling out all the stops to make their professional writing sound less perfect, like using improper grammar.
3 things in business
David Barnett
PopSockets and other inventions. David Barnett is the founder and former CEO of the popular phone accessory PopSockets. His daily routine also includes some of his other creations, such as a workout move he calls the “Barnett-up” and a smoothie that he says many find unappetizing.
CEO(x2). The co-CEO model is having a moment, with Spotify, Comcast, and Oracle all adopting it. Trumid CEOs told BI that having clear roles is huge in the co-CEO dynamic — and they shared how they navigate disagreement.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’s trial is over. What’s next? The hip hop mogul has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison after a jury convicted him of Mann Act charges. The story of Combs is far from over, though. Combs, who has denied all allegations of sexual assault, still faces dozens of civil cases and judgment in the court of public opinion.
In other news
AI robotics has a big data problem. This startup raised $405 million to fix it in surprising ways.
This is your doctor on ChatGPT.
A cross between tiny homes and van life could help solve America’s shortage of affordable starter homes.
The head of Instagram swears the app isn’t listening to you. But here’s what it is doing.
Meet Lisa Su: CEO and President of Advanced Micro Devices, the main competitor to Nvidia.
What’s happening today
Sam Altman speaks at OpenAI DevDay developer event.Taylor Swift appears on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Dan DeFrancesco, deputy executive editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.
