Day: October 26, 2025

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider’s daily newsletter here.

Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. It’s gotta be the shoes! Why else would people be willing to drop at least $1,100 on a pair of sneakers? I’d never shell out that much but I am tempted to go try on Wall Street’s favorite pair of kicks.

On the agenda today:

• Move over, Mark Zuckerberg. Sam Altman is the world’s new minister of thought.
• The 29-year-old behind the Beyond Meat stock rally doesn’t want you to call him Roaring Kitty 2.0.
• Inside the AI divide between leaders and employees at a video-game giant.
• Newsletter readers have spoken: Loyalty over salary.

But first: Are you leaving the money on the table?

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This week’s dispatch

Golden handcuffed

Imagine you work for a company and your stock price has just skyrocketed. Think Nvidia, up more than 1,100% over the past few years to become a $4.5 trillion company. Or Broadcom and AMD, two other chipmakers whose shares are surging in the AI boom.

Employees of these companies must be feeling pretty good right about now. What could possibly go wrong?

As is often the case, though, there is a catch. In this instance, it’s known as “golden handcuffs” — the notion of feeling stuck because it’s too risky or expensive to move or change.

These compensation packages often include restricted stock units, or RSUs. Those who decide to leave their companies could forfeit any unvested stock, meaning they could miss out on a substantial form of compensation — potentially worth millions of dollars.

My colleagues Geoff Weiss, Hugh Langley, and Rosalie Chan wrote this weekend about the latest golden handcuff trend sweeping through Silicon Valley, particularly at the AI chip companies.

In one case, they reported that an equity package of $420,000 given to an Nvidia employee in 2023 is worth almost $2 million today, citing data from Levels.fyi. Even a more modest $66,000 RSU package reported by a Broadcom employee in 2023 has jumped in value to around $267,000.

Stock payouts unlock over time. Quitting before shares vest can potentially mean leaving a substantial amount of money on the table.

Although, it’s worth noting that if you quit or lose your job, those unvested RSUs disappear.

Companies use restricted stock as a retention tactic. It’s one that has been utilized from Wall Street to Big Tech, with a similar dynamic now occurring in the AI boom.

Consider the employee churn rates at these chipmakers. Nvidia said in its annual sustainability report that its turnover rate has been cut in half over the past few years, adding that “RSUs promote retention.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has boasted about making employees wealthy.

Similarly, Broadcom said its global voluntary attrition rate last year was 6.2%, which is “below the technology industry benchmark.” It cited equity awards as a “powerful long-term retention incentive.” This is the conundrum for chipmaker employees right now. Walk away and forfeit millions for a new opportunity? Or stay?

There’s a new thought leader in town

For the last 20 years, Mark Zuckerberg has been the world’s Minister of Thought. Starting with Facebook, the Meta CEO has transformed how we view ourselves and each other.

Now, Zuckerberg appears to be ceding that title to OpenAI’s Sam Altman. ChatGPT is only three years old and has more than 800 million weekly users — about 40 times more than Facebook’s audience during its first three years. If the past two decades were about curating who we are, the future may be about creating who we want to be.

From pokes to prompts.

The man behind Beyond

Dimitri Semenikhin is the 29-year-old day trader whose thesis helped spark a massive rally in Beyond Meat.

The day trader is a Moscow native who lived in Monaco and was schooled in London. He previously launched a luxury travel startup called Yacht Harbour, and is currently the CEO of his family’s real-estate development firm.

And while he’s leaned into it at times, he said he’s not Roaring Kitty 2.0.

What makes Semenikhin and Beyond different.

The AI divide at EA

At the video-game giant Electronic Arts, management is gung-ho on AI. Workers, on the other hand, say AI is actually making their jobs harder — and they fear it could be game over if they’re training their replacement.

AI has been a part of video games for some time: when you play “Madden” you’re competing against a computer-controlled team, for instance. But the modern AI affecting game design is different, and it’s widening the gap between bosses and employees.

Player v. player.

Also read:

• 87% of execs are using AI on the job, compared with just 27% of employees

Loyalty > Pay

When push comes to shove, would you want a higher salary or a more loyal employer? After Aki Ito’s story on the death of workplace loyalty, Dan DeFrancesco asked newsletter readers that very question. Of the 170 people who responded, nearly twice as many chose loyalty over money.

The poll’s result confirmed something Aki has heard in her conversations with white-collar professionals before: the desire for a workplace built on mutual care runs so deep that people would trade real money for it.

Make corporate America loyal again.

Also read:

• A skeptic and an optimist discuss loyalty in the workplace
• Walmart’s new raise strategy for hourly store workers rewards more than just loyalty, leaked documents show

This week’s quote:

“Somebody decided, ‘I’m gonna sell,’ or whatever the case may be, and it just triggered profit taking.”

— Peter Perkins, a global strategy partner at MRB Partners, on gold’s pullback.

How a pistachio gold mine grew out of California

The state is now the world’s top supplier of pistachios. As the Dubai chocolate trend fuels demand and California’s drought intensifies, growers are fighting to keep up.

More of this week’s top reads:

• RIP Zoomtowns: Why home prices are dropping in WFH-era hot spots.
• I checked out The Row’s sample sale line. People camped overnight for the quiet luxury brand. Some got paid to do it.
• “KPop Demon Hunters” is a huge hit for Netflix. So where are all the Halloween costumes?
• Tariffs are taking a bite out of “Shark Tank.”
• Meta tells some employees their jobs are being replaced by tech — read the memo.
• The hot new trend in marketing: hating on AI.
• Amazon is ‘last place’ in the AI cloud race. Why that might not be a “death sentence.”
• His firm doesn’t promote partners. Here’s how he got promoted anyway.
• Workers are back in offices — and so are the bedbugs.
• The JD: tutoring a 1-year-old for $240,000 a year. The response: virality, criticism, and an “outstanding application field.”

The BI Today team: Steve Russolillo, chief news editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

• Rebekah Bowling, an art advisor at Citi, shared which artists are having a market moment.
• Bowling said that artists blending fine art and craft are particularly popular.
• Citi is one of many banks that have an art advisory unit for their wealthy clients.

If you’re looking for art advice, consider asking your bank.

Rebekah Bowling, an art advisor at Citi, helps ultra-high-net-worth clients in Citi Wealth manage and build their art collections and knows how hard it can be to make sense of the market. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and UBS are among the other banks offering art advice to wealthy clients.

Bowling spent a decade at the global auction house Phillips, where she ran the midseason and day sales, before moving to LA and focusing in part on client development. She joined Citi in July.

Her day-to-day can include keeping clients in the know about auctions, suggesting artists who might fit well in their homes or collections, or planning events.

In her mind, it’s not wise for anyone to buy art they don’t actually enjoy — “you will only be disappointed,” — but she knows that many are concerned with finding artists who represent good value.

Start with emerging artists

For anyone who is just getting into collecting, Bowling said focusing on galleries that represent emerging artists is a good place to start. These days, Bowling said, historically underrepresented or overlooked artists are gaining attention.

High-net-worth individuals were increasingly open to buying art from artists they hadn’t known before, according to Art Basel and UBS’s 2025 Survey of Global Collecting. Sixty-six percent bought work from artists they discovered in 2024 or 2025, a rise of 8% from the year prior. Although the art market is experiencing a downturn — global sales value decreased by 12% year-over-year, according to Art Basel and UBS’ 2025 Global Art Market report — some galleries have been bucking the trend. The smallest dealers posted a 17% increase in annual sales, according to the report.

Textile trends

Bowling told Business Insider that institutional support for artists who toe the line between fine art and craft is “very strong, which has led to soaring prices for these artists at auction.” Sculptor Ruth Asawa and textile artist Olga de Amaral are among those gaining traction, she said. In September, one of de Amaral’s pieces sold at an auction for around $1.14 million, almost three times the low-end estimate according to Christie’s.

Asawa isn’t underground — her retrospective recently opened at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan — but Bowling said that Kay Sekimachi is an artist who fits into the same market trend and remains somewhat under the radar. She’s a fiber artist who was friends with Asawa, and her work is currently being shown at a gallery in Manhattan. The prices aren’t listed on the gallery’s site, but a group of three woven bowls recently sold for $3,800 at an auction in California, exceeding the high-end estimate, per Invaluable, a fine art marketplace.

No matter the potential monetary gains, though, Bowling says it’s crucial to be guided by taste.

“From an investing perspective, you really shouldn’t buy anything that you don’t love,” she said.

• Emma Stone has a filmography filled with critical and commercial hits.
• Like any working actor, Stone also has her share of duds.
• Here are the best and worst Emma Stone movies, according to critics.

Emma Stone, 36, is regarded as one of the best actors of her generation. She’s been nominated for four Oscars and won two in the best actress category (“La La Land” in 2017 and “”Poor Things” in 2024).

Her range is seemingly unlimited, tugging at hearts in the rom-com “Crazy, Stupid, Love” (2011), playing tennis legend Billie Jean King in “Battle of the Sexes” (2017), and even getting a taste of the superhero genre starring opposite Andrew Garfield in “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) and its sequel.

Stone’s latest movie, “Bugonia,” marks her fourth feature film collaborating with director Yorgos Lanthimos. In it, Stone plays a CEO who is abducted by two conspiracy theorists who believe she is an alien. Like her previous work with Lanthimos, “Bugonia” is being praised by critics and holds an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication.

But Stone hasn’t always been a critical darling. Here’s a breakdown of the best and worst movies in Stone’s career, according to the critic rankings on Rotten Tomatoes.

Emma Stone’s best movies

5. Emma Stone teamed with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin to battle the undead in 2009’s “Zombieland.”

Critics Score: 89%

This spoof on the zombie genre stars Stone as a survivor of the zombie apocalypse who teams with three others on a cross-country trip to find a sanctuary zone.

3. (tie) Stone played the troubled daughter of Michael Keaton in 2014’s “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”

Critics Score: 91%

In Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s ambitious dark dramedy, Stone plays Sam, a recovering addict and the daughter of actor Riggan (Keaton). The two try to re-establish their broken relationship when Sam works as an assistant on Riggan’s Broadway show.

3. (tie) Stone and Ryan Gosling navigate Hollywood in the 2016 musical “La La Land.”

Critics Score: 91%

An aspiring actress (Stone) and a struggling jazz pianist (Gosling) fall in love while pursuing their dreams in Damien Chazelle’s breathtaking musical. Stone would go on to win her first best actress Oscar for the role.

2. Stone earned another Oscar playing a free spirit in 2023’s “Poor Things.”

Critics Score: 92%

In this outlandish Yorgos Lanthimos tale set in Victorian London, Stone plays Bella Baxter, a woman who died by suicide who is brought back to life thanks to a scientist (Willem Dafoe) who replaces her brain with that of an infant. Bella then takes on life in childlike wonder.

1. Stone and Rachel Weisz battle to be the Queen’s confidante in 2018’s “The Favourite.”

Critics Score: 93%

Marking the first time Stone worked with Lanthimos, this dark comedy set in 1700s England features Stone and Weisz as cousins who engage in absurd antics to outdo each other and become the favorite of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman).

Emma Stone’s worst movies

5. Stone played the femme fatale in the forgettable 2013 crime noir “Gangster Squad.”

Critics Score: 30%

Stone teamed with “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer for this gangster movie starring Gosling, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, and Sean Penn as infamous real-life mob boss Mickey Cohen. Critics and audiences were less than enthusiastic.

4. Stone probably wants to forget being in 2009’s “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” an awful Matthew McConaughey rom-com.

Critics Score: 27%

Early in Stone’s career, she signed on to this romantic comedy headed by McConaughey and Jennifer Garner with a plot based on Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Christmas Carol.” (Yes, you read that correctly.) Needless to say, the movie was hammered by critics.

3. Stone found herself at the center of controversy starring in 2015’s “Aloha.”

Critics Score: 20%

Not only is this movie writer-director Cameron Crowe’s lowest-rated score on Rotten Tomatoes, but Stone was also thrust into a whitewashing controversy for playing a character who is part Chinese, which she is not in real life.

2. Stone voiced one of the characters in the forgettable 2010 comedy “Marmaduke.”

Critics Score: 9%

This big-screen version of the legendary comic strip stars Owen Wilson voicing Marmaduke. Stone voiced Mazie, an energetic Australian Shepherd.

1. Stone is among the all-star cast in the panned 2013 film “Movie 43.”

Critics Score: 5%

Stone joined the likes of Richard Gere, Kate Winslet, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, and Elizabeth Banks to star in this anthology comedy made up of 14 short movies. Some critics regard it as one of the worst movies ever made.

• Erin Smith, 47, had lived in New York for most of her life and never planned to leave.
• But when her husband landed a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity in Quebec, she knew she had to go.
• Smith thought the move wouldn’t suit her, but said she’s much happier than she expected.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Erin Smith, a 47-year-old a freelance marketer and founder of the travel blog Gluten-Free Globetrotter, who moved to Montreal in 2024. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born and raised in New York and spent my last twenty years living in Brooklyn. I just didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Not even in 2016, when I moved with my then-boyfriend, who is now my husband, to Santa Cruz. Even though it was beautiful there, I just wasn’t happy. I had to get back to the city, back to New York. So we moved after only two and a half years in California.

I thought I wouldn’t be moving again, but in 2024, my husband got a really good job opportunity in Montreal. He’s an agronomist who works in indoor agriculture. He had the opportunity to help start up a greenhouse division for a national company there, which was right up his alley.

As you can imagine, there’s not a lot of agriculture in New York City. I’m a freelance marketer and can work from anywhere, but for my husband, it really was the perfect job at the perfect time.

I hired a relocation coach to help me with the move

We had to wait for my son to finish the school year in New York, so from January to July, we focused on planning the move.

The thought of leaving New York was really hard. I mean, all my friends and family are there. And even though Canada isn’t geographically far from New York, it’s still a different environment — especially Quebec, which is a French-speaking province.

I kept thinking back to when we moved to California, which hadn’t been a good fit for us. “Oh God, this is going to happen again,” kept running through my mind. This, plus the overwhelming feeling of how much we’d have to learn about Quebec, led me to hire a relocation coach.

She’s a digital nomad who’s lived all over the world, and she helped me a lot — not so much with the logistics of moving, but more with realizing that the things that were important to me in New York would still be important to me in Canada, and that there are ways to incorporate them into my new life.

We’re paying less for housing in Montreal

We visited Quebec a few times before our move to scout out neighborhoods and schools. It was important for me to visit during the winter because it’s very cold and snowy here, which I wasn’t used to living in New York City.

Our last visit before the move was in April, and we literally had a week to find a place. Unlike in New York, where you can find a rental at any time of year, in Montreal, many leases start on July 1 and run through the end of June the following year.

My husband works in rural Quebec, and we couldn’t live there for many reasons, but we’re very happy with where we landed. We live in a great neighborhood in Westmount, in the southwest part of Montreal. We’re right near a metro station and can walk to downtown Montreal from our apartment. I feel very lucky.

When we moved, our goal was to spend less on rent than we did in New York. In Brooklyn, we lived in a duplex with a backyard, which is pretty rare there — we got really lucky during COVID-19, when everyone was leaving the city. We paid about $3,500 there; here I’m paying roughly $1,000 less. While we’ve lost our outdoor space, we gained a washer and dryer, a luxury I never had in 20 years of living in Brooklyn.

We had to make new friends and set up new bank accounts

Quebec’s primary language is French, so navigating the region’s bureaucracy and school system has been challenging.

In Montreal, there are two main school boards, one English and one French. We needed specific paperwork to qualify for the English system. My son now attends an English school with a French immersion curriculum.

Making friends here hasn’t been easy, either. Because I work for a New York-based company, I’ve really had to put myself out there to meet people. Most of my community has come from meeting other parents through my kid’s school organizations and connecting with our neighbors.

The biggest challenge we’ve faced has been setting up our finances. Since we had no financial history in Canada, we had no credit. Even basic things like getting a credit card or opening a bank account took about six to eight weeks to sort out.

The cost of living here is pretty comparable to New York. We spend about the same on groceries, and while we’re saving on housing, my husband spends more on gas because he’s commuting and driving farther outside the city. I, however, work from home.

The healthcare system is affordable but difficult to navigate

I have been living with celiac disease for over 40 years. In Canada, it has been much easier to eat gluten-free due to the country’s food regulations and labeling laws. And thanks to my work with gluten-free restaurants and brands — and my blog — I already had a built-in gluten-free community when I moved here.

I’ve never lived in a place with socialized healthcare, so there has been a huge learning curve in finding doctors and handling prescriptions. I have to use Google Translate for everything.

Health insurance is affordable here. We no longer pay out of pocket for coverage, which is a big change — in New York, health insurance for a family of three costs almost as much as rent.

It’s different from province to province, but in Quebec, you’re required to have an assigned family doctor. Since moving here, I’ve had to see a few specialists for checkups, and the service has been covered. Sometimes, I still find myself waiting for a bill to show up, and it never does.

Something else that surprised me about the medical system here is that you can actually make an appointment with a pharmacist, and they can prescribe medication if you have proper test results.

Montreal now feels like home

I really love Montreal and I’m happy here. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do. Life feels calmer — the city is beautiful, cleaner, and safer. People here are so much nicer; they have this polite, laid-back attitude.

Our Canadian visas last for three years, but we hope to extend them. For now, I’d like to stay as long as possible.

A year ago, I probably would’ve wanted to move back to New York. But now, especially with our child in school, I don’t want to disrupt that. I also don’t know if we could afford to go back.

I’ll always see myself as a New Yorker first and an American second; that’s my identity through and through. But in New York, I never really felt like I could slow down. In Montreal, we’re not in that constant, heightened state anymore. Life here just feels different.