Insider Today: Mark Cuban vs. Big Pharma

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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. A venture-funded AI-friendship necklace received a lot of hate on the internet. But its 21-year-old creator is undeterred, adding that "personal vibes" have guided his decisions.

On the agenda today:

• College students are reneging on their job offers.
• The latest hedge-fund trend marries passive investing with firms' secret sauce.
• Amazon has considered a "DoctorAI" tool to automate routine healthcare tasks.
• Mark Cuban is the shark circling Big Pharma.

But first: Big Tech reporting for duty.

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This week's dispatch

Big Tech's big week

The masters of the tech universe reported earnings this week with all eyes on their AI investments.

Even before Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft reported earnings, investors' focus was clear. Alphabet and Tesla had already been put through the wringer, and there were questions about OpenAI's ability to turn a profit.

When the dust settled, some eased concerns and bought themselves time, while others faced more scrutiny.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't shy away from his intention to keep plowing money into AI, but investors didn't mind. (It also helps Meta beat revenue and earnings estimates thanks to its ads business.)

Apple bought itself some time, too. While China sales remain an issue, it beat on earnings and revenue estimates. The tech giant's newest iPhone model and Apple Intelligence set to be released this fall will be another test on the effectiveness of Apple's AI spend.

On the other end of the spectrum were Amazon and Microsoft. Softening demand from shoppers for Amazon led to a miss in reported net sales and a weaker-than-expected sales forecast for the third quarter.

Microsoft took a hit when its cloud unit's revenue growth was slower than analysts had hoped for. And news of a pharma company canceling a Microsoft AI deal didn't help. One executive compared the slide-generation capability of Microsoft's AI tools to "middle school presentations."

But by Friday, investors had bigger concerns about the state of the economy after data showed unemployment unexpectedly jumped in July.

A cultural renege-ssance

A college senior commits to a relationship in September, but jumps ship in April when a better option comes along. That's a familiar story in the world of Gen Z dating. But in this case, the people getting dumped aren't romantic partners — they're companies.

Reneging on job offers is growing ever more common among ambitious Gen Zers, many of whom know companies have also pulled offers. The problem is that when a student reneges, their peers often pay the price.

Job seekers' anxious attachments.

Hedge funds' old-turned-new strategy

Sometimes to beat the market you need to be the market.

That's the concept behind "portable alpha," a decades-old strategy gaining momentum on Wall Street. The approach includes mirroring the broad market via a benchmark, like the S&P 500, coupled with an actively managed strategy from a hedge fund.

The trend is being driven by institutional investors, but hedge funds are happy to oblige amid a difficult fundraising environment.

Inside the "portable-alpha" mania.

Amazon's "DoctorAI" tool

According to an internal planning document, Amazon's One Medical team has talked about developing a "DoctorAI" tool to automate routine healthcare tasks. The concept was proposed as part of the team's most disruptive ideas.

By improving mundane administrative agenda items, the large language model could help reduce costs for Amazon's healthcare business — an important goal as the company tries to trim costs.

More on Amazon's AI healthcare ambitions.

Also read:

• Amazon projected huge losses from its healthcare business in 2024, but strong sales growth, internal document reveals

Mark Cuban's pharma mission

In 2022, Mark Cuban launched a low-cost online pharmacy with the goal of cutting drug prices for consumers. His company, Cost Plus, is a hit: It offers more than 2,000 mostly generic drugs.

Now, the billionaire "Shark Tank" investor is expanding into imports. That puts him in direct competition with big names like Pfizer and Novo Nordisk.

The shark in Big Pharma's waters.

This week's quote:

"They hear this language, and they're aware that this was made up by somebody's grandfather 70 years ago, and it stuck."

— Recruiter and TikToker Emily Durham, on the generation rejecting corporate jargon and workplace norms.

More of this week's top reads:

• Want to work for Blackstone straight out of college? Here's the best route.
• Don't feel sorry for Linda Yaccarino.
• Tech's most powerful bromance is bolstered by billions of dollars of deals.
• A software engineer explains how he splits his time between NYC and SF.
• A thief locked a traveler out of his Google account, destroying years of work.
• Starbucks is trying to make coffee fun again.
• The poster who sparked the fake JD Vance couch story speaks for the first time.

• London's hedge fund rich are looking to avoid new taxes by relocating to Milan and Dubai. People who have made the move tell us what it's like.

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  The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.