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Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin: The optimism around AI is contagious, and not just hype

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Good morning from Park City, Utah, where we are on Day 2 of Fortune Brainstorm Tech, led by my colleague Andrew Nusca. We will be covering the conversations across our different channels and you can join us via livestream here.

As journalists, of course, many of our conversations are on the record because our goal is to share insights and news with readers like you. But I’ve increasingly come to appreciate the value of off-the-record gatherings, where we bring leaders together to connect around shared interests and talk frankly about what’s really going on. Those events are crucial in building trust, helping us understand the stories we may be missing and creating a village green for leaders to connect with us and with each other.   

Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin and I cohosted such a dinner on Sunday night for 15 CEOs at a stunning outdoor location on Gracie’s Farm, a horse-rescue sanctuary in Wanship, Utah. This is one of several Fortune CEO Initiative dinners that we host around the country and—I hope—we will take to other parts of the world. Enterprise Mobility CEO Chrissy Taylor hosted a recent dinner at her home in St. Louis and QXO chairperson Brad Jacobs will host one in Greenwich, Connecticut, next month.

It was a diverse group of leaders from around the country. While the conversation itself was off the record, I asked Serafin to share some takeaways from the evening. Here are some highlights he shared with me:

The optimism around AI was contagious, and it’s not just hype. It’s about taking a pragmatic approach to solving real problems, one at a time. While many investments aren’t yet yielding results, in the places where AI is working, it’s helping organizations better connect with people. That’s an incredible opportunity.

Trust is the new currency of innovation, especially with AI. Its adoption will only succeed if it deepens trust with both customers and employees. This means using data responsibly and building deeper connections—something that’s more important than ever as consumers deal with higher prices and a new economic reality. This is also where AI’s greatest potential lies: By automating predictable/rudimentary tasks, we can unleash human creativity to focus on building more human-centered experiences. As a side note, this is at the heart of what Qualtrics is doing by helping organizations deeply understand and improve the human experiences of their customers and employees. 

Even amid global shifts like tariffs and changing trade dynamics, there’s a powerful optimism. Leaders at the table saw a new era of globalization where countries are collaborating on innovation and new investment opportunities are emerging.

Serafin shared another takeaway that really resonates with me: how important it is to be deliberate about how we spend our time … on what is deeply purposeful, meaningful, and what ultimately fuels the soul.I sense a growing desire among leaders I meet to connect as human beings and tackle challenges that matter. If you’re interested in joining these conversations or want to learn more about the CEO Initiative, reach out to my colleague Sarah Worob at sarah.worob@fortune.com. I’ll have more insights from Brainstorm Tech tomorrow.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Murdoch empire will go to Lachlan

A dramatic legal battle in which 94-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch tried to change an irrevocable trust to bar his more liberal children from majority control of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal has ended in a multibillion-dolllar settlement that leaves the outlets in the hands of his conservative son, Lachlan Murdoch. Lachlan’s siblings will receive more than $1 billion each for giving up control of the company.

Oil and gas industries shed thousands of jobs

A long period of low prices for crude oil has led Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and others to axe thousands of jobs in oil and gas operations, the FT reports.

Hyundai deportations rock companies with U.S. operations 

The sight of hundreds of South Korean workers employed at a Hyundai plant wearing shackles prior to being deported has triggered a wave of legal inquiries inside multinational companies that send workers to the U.S. “Clients are flooding our inboxes,” Matthew Dunn of law firm HSF Kramer, told the FT. “They ask if corporate headquarters should be concerned, they ask if their U.S. managers are at risk, and they wonder if their foreign national population here on work sponsored visas will be targeted by [the] government.”

ASML investment values Mistral AI at $14 billion

Dutch chip equipment maker ASML has invested 1.3 billion in French firm Mistral AI. The funding round values the company at $13.8 billion. Other Mistral investors include Nvidia, DST Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and Lightspeed.

Ramp’s escalation

In just six years, Ramp has quickly become a $22.5 billion company and a venture capital darling thanks to its corporate credit cards that streamline processes like expense reports and lean heavily into AI. Can the company sustain its growth?

Kenvue shares drop on Tylenol accusation

Shares of Tylenol parent company Kenvue declined as much as 6% on Monday as news outlets announced that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to link the use of prenatal Tylenol to autism in an upcoming report. The company maintains that there is no causal link between prenatal Tylenol use and the development of autism.

Morgan Stanley analyst: We’re transitioning “from a rolling recession”

A note published by Morgan Stanley’s Chief U.S. Equity Strategist Mike Wilson on Monday argues that “the economy has been much weaker for many companies and consumers over the past 3 years than what the headline economic statistics like nominal GDP or employment suggest.” Wilson also argues that last week’s poor jobs report signals the movement “from a rolling recession to a rolling recovery.”

The Epstein “birthday book” released

A book of photos, letters, and mementoes celebrating Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday was released by the House Oversight Committee. The 238-page book names names but contains a lot of redactions. You can see the whole thing here. Yes, Donald Trump’s name is in it. The president and his loyalists deny that is his signature in the book, even though the two were longtime friends. The WSJ has a handwriting analysis comparing the president’s signature to the one in the book here.

The markets

S&P 500 futures were up 0.15% this morning. The index closed down 0.21% in its last trading session. STOXX Europe 600 was flat in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.22% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.42%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.7%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 1.26%. India’s Nifty 50 was up 0.38% before the end of the session. Bitcoin rose to $113K.

Around the watercooler

The one-time ‘Oracle of Wall Street’ who called the 2008 crash sounds the alarm for Gen Z and Millennials in the year ahead by Nick Lichtenberg

The energy department said wind and solar capacity is ‘worthless’ without sunlight or wind. Elon Musk reminds DoE about batteries: ‘Um… hello?’ by Eva Roytburg

Vodafone’s new ad proves even influencers can be replaced by AI by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

Here’s how many jobs have been lost in sectors affected by tariffs since Trump’s trade war started by Jason Ma

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.

This is the web version of CEO Daily, a newsletter of must-read global insights from CEOs and industry leaders. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.



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SpaceX to offer insider shares at record-setting $800 billion valuation

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SpaceX is preparing to sell insider shares in a transaction that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at as much as $800 billion, people familiar with the matter said, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable private company. 

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors on Thursday at its Starbase hub in Texas, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as soon as late next year, one of the people said. 

Another person briefed on the matter said that the price under discussion for the sale of some employees and investors’ shares is higher than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at between $750 billion and $800 billion. The company wouldn’t raise any funds though this planned sale, though a successful offering at such levels would catapult it past the record of $500 billion valuation achieved by OpenAI in October.

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that SpaceX is raising money at a $800 billion valuation without addressing Bloomberg’s reporting on the planned offering of insiders’ shares. 

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. 

The share sale price under discussion would be a substantial increase from the $212 a share set in July, when the company raised money and sold shares at a valuation of $400 billion. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times earlier reported the $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite TV and wireless company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar had agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier agreement to sell about $17 billion in wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

Subscribe Now: The Business of Space newsletter covers NASA, key industry events and trends.

The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

Elite Group

SpaceX is among an elite group of companies that have the ability to raise funds at $100 billion-plus valuations while delaying or denying they have any plan to go public. 

An IPO of the company at an $800 billion value would vault SpaceX into another rarefied group — the 20 largest public companies, a few notches below Musk’s Tesla Inc. 

If SpaceX sold 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion of stock — making it the biggest IPO of all time, well above Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller slice than the majority of publicly traded firms make available.

A listing would also subject SpaceX to the volatility of being a public company, versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense company IPOs have had a mixed reception in 2025. Karman Holdings Inc.’s stock has nearly tripled since its debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have plunged by double-digit percentages since their debuts.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first suggested in 2020. 

However, Musk cast doubt on the prospect publicly over the years and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something that would take place more likely “in the years to come.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, separately reported on Friday that SpaceX has told investors and financial institution representatives that it’s aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read More: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working to develop its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed to loft huge numbers of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to moon and, eventually, Mars.



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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forwardfor the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.



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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called out slow bureaucracy in Europe in a warning that a “weak” continent poses a major economic risk to the US.

“Europe has a real problem,” Dimon said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “They do some wonderful things on their safety nets. But they’ve driven business out, they’ve driven investment out, they’ve driven innovation out. It’s kind of coming back.”

While he praised some European leaders who he said were aware of the issues, he cautioned politics is “really hard.” 

Dimon, leader of the biggest US bank, has long said that the risk of a fragmented Europe is among the major challenges facing the world. In his letter to shareholders released earlier this year, he said that Europe has “some serious issues to fix.”

On Saturday, he praised the creation of the euro and Europe’s push for peace. But he warned that a reduction in military efforts and challenges trying to reach agreement within the European Union are threatening the continent.

“If they fragment, then you can say that America first will not be around anymore,” Dimon said. “It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important.”

He said the US should help.

“We need a long-term strategy to help them become strong,” Dimon said. “A weak Europe is bad for us.”

The administration of President Donald Trump issued a new national security strategy that directed US interests toward the Western Hemisphere and protection of the homeland while dismissing Europe as a continent headed toward “civilizational erasure.”

Read More: Trump’s National Security Strategy Veers Inward in Telling Shift

JPMorgan has been ramping up its push to spur more investments in the national defense sector. In October, the bank announced that it would funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years — as much as $500 billion more than what it would’ve provided anyway. 

Dimon said in the statement that it’s “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing.”

Investment banker Jay Horine oversees the effort, which Dimon called “100% commercial.” It will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies. 

The bank will also invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing.

Separately on Saturday, Dimon praised Trump for finding ways to roll back bureaucracy in the government.

“There is no question that this administration is trying to bring an axe to some of the bureaucracy that held back America,” Dimon said. “That is a good thing and we can do it and still keep the world safe, for safe food and safe banks and all the stuff like that.”



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