Fortune

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is investing more money in Japan amid the recent selloff in the U.S. stock market. The conglomerate increased its holdings in Japan’s five biggest trading houses, according to Japanese regulatory filings published on Monday. Berkshire grew its stake in Mitsui to 9.82% from 8.09%, in Mitsubishi to 9.67% from 8.31%, in Marubeni to 9.3% from 8.3%, in Sumitomu to 9.29% from 8.23%, and in Itochu to 8.53% from 7.47%. Buffett has likened them to them to Berkshire itself, noting they have a diverse array of investments at home and abroad. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eQt6Ez-W

Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only entrepreneur who ditched Harvard in pursuit of something bigger. Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch sam built a $3 billion alcohol empire, but it wasn’t the Ivy League school that set him on that path. It was 1978, and Koch had just completed his second year of Harvard Business School’s JD/MBA program. He said the program allowed students to do law school and business school at the same time, and often led to a career as a corporate lawyer or working for a big company. But by the end of his second year, Koch was questioning if that path was truly for him. His push to explore the world and get hands-on experience ended up leading him on the path to founding Samuel Adams. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ejYK8CNh

I spoke with the Pillar VC team about their $175 million fourth fund, the Boston tech ecosystem, and why they focus on projects coming out of university research. Thanks for chatting Jamie Goldstein Sarah Hodges Tony Kulesa https://lnkd.in/ens7FcEF

“It’s [Goop] very much back to its DNA of being a pioneer in content and beauty and fashion—being that go-to place for women who trust that we do the work and research to surface and make the best of the best.” It’s been almost 17 years since Gwyneth Paltrow launched goop as a newsletter—since then there have been beauty products, a fashion line, vibrators, and vagina candles. But this year—after some tough restructuring—Goop is getting back to its basics, Paltrow tells Fortune in an exclusive interview. While the brand did multiple rounds of layoffs in 2024, Paltrow says that the overall business is healthy. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ek4Jg7gk

According to Sara Hooker, languages are what truly connect us as humans. The former Google Brain researcher since 2022 has led Cohere for AI, the nonprofit research lab of Cohere, the Toronto-based AI model company valued at $5.5 billion. And Hooker speaks from experience. Her Irish mother and British father met in Sudan, and Hooker grew up moving to Mozambique, Eswatini, Kenya, and Liberia. That meant she heard and had to learn many different languages—she even attended middle school in Mozambique where lessons were only in Portuguese. “Language is super personal for me to work on,” she tells Fortune. “There’s this really powerful idea that when you speak in the language of someone, you really connect with their heart, not their head.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/g_43WNFU

Incoming Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan will receive compensation valued at about $69 million if he reaches targets over the coming years. https://lnkd.in/drSxfFzV The package includes a salary of $1 million, plus a 200% performance-based bonus, the chipmaker said in a filing last week. It also includes $66 million in long-term equity awards and stock options and new-hire incentives. Separately, Tan agreed to buy $25 million in Intel shares in the first 30 days of taking the job. Read more: https://lnkd.in/drSxfFzV

Warren Buffett will turn 95 this August—and he’s ready to give his March Madness money away. Eleven years ago, Berkshire Hathaway started its March Madness bracket challenge. Whoever correctly predicted the outcome of all 67 games, the company said that first year, would win $1 billion. No one won. Buffett eventually changed that to a prize of $1 million for life (and a $100,000 prize to whichever employee has the best bracket). Still, despite the changes made to the rules, no one has walked away a winner. So this year, the Oracle of Omaha is looking to make it easier to win the $1 million prize. To win the pool this year, employees at any Berkshire Hathaway-owned company will have to pick the winners of 30 or more of the first 32 games, which will take place this Thursday and Friday. If no one manages to do that, a $250,000 prize will go to whomever picks the most winners in the tournament’s complete 63 games. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g_ER_ev4

While Microsoft might be synonymous with the leadership of Bill Gates, it is Satya Nadella who has guided the business to a record share price and positioned the business as a key competitor in the AI and cloud computing markets. Yet Gates, the man who founded the business now worth $2.9 trillion, said Nadella was nearly passed over for the top role. This was despite the fact that the two previous CEOs of the tech giant—Gates himself and his successor, Steve Ballmer—backed Nadella for the job. Now focused on his philanthropic work, Gates said in an interview this week that it was emotional to hand over the CEO title of the business: “I’ll tear up on this, ’cause it meant a lot to me. I’ve had two successors, and boy, do I feel lucky because as I went off to do the foundation work, the one thing that plagued me was: Was I going to see the company fade in terms of its excellence? Read more: https://lnkd.in/dHx9_RqG

NEW: It was a pleasure speaking to Sara Hooker at Cohere For AI for this new Fortune profile! https://lnkd.in/d8Pkydta

Back in February, Elon Musk said he and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are working 120 hours a week. “Our bureaucratic opponents optimistically work 40 hours a week,” he added. “That is why they are losing so fast.” To be clear, there are 168 hours in a week, which means if Musk and his DOGE employees are working for 120 of those hours, there are only 48 hours remaining for them to use for everything else: preparing and eating food, personal hygiene, not to mention free time for hobbies or spending time with their families. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g92Gk5UH