Foreword

Alyson Shontell

Editor-in-Chief

Earlier this week, Fortune held its annual invite-only Brainstorm Tech conference in Deer Valley, Utah. This is one of our longest-running and most high-wattage conferences, and at this year’s edition, executives from incumbents and disrupters alike spoke on everything from AI upheaval to the future of media to the defense tech sector, where Silicon Valley newbies like Anduril and Palantir are vying to compete alongside Fortune 500 giants like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

A few of my favorite moments included:

Flex CEO Revathi Advaithi recalling how she rose through the ranks in the male-dominated manufacturing industry. Her journey included getting several promotions under a manager who told her he’d never seen a woman succeed before, and going on hunting trips to earn respect in the field. Advaithi also described how Flex safely evacuated 600 employees to a bomb shelter it had built after its Ukrainian office got bombed, and how she worked through her recent cancer treatment.
People CEO Neil Vogel bringing the fire on a media panel, where he called Google the worst offender in AI due to its current unwillingness to compensate publishers for using their content as LLM training material.
Michael Ovitz recalling iconic moments throughout his career building Creative Artists Agency (CAA), including his work on Ghostbusters and helping a young Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz think through the founding of their namesake venture firm.
Ramp CEO Eric Glyman talking about his fintech company’s rapid ascent to a $22.5 billion valuation—and what’s behind the investor hype. My colleague Leo Schwartz wrote a great digital cover story on Ramp, and my interview with Glyman will be out next week as the second episode of Fortune’s new vodcast, Titans and Disrupters of Industry (subscribe on Spotify or YouTube).

Make sure to mark your calendar for our next Brainstorm conference, Brainstorm AI in San Francisco, Dec. 8–9. You can register to attend here.

Also: A mindboggling exchange between Tucker Carlson and Sam Altman surrounding the death of a former OpenAI employee last November is reopening a can of conspiracy theory worms. Our reporters looked into the matter back in February, interviewing the employee Suchir Balaji’s parents, friends, colleagues, and the authorities. Here’s what they found on Balaji’s final weeks, and the February police report findings.

For more great Fortune stories from this week, read below.

Deals & Developments

Newly merged Paramount Skydance (formerly Paramount Global, No. 147) is preparing a takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery (No. 114), backed by the Ellison family (David Ellison, who ran Skydance, and his father, Larry Ellison, who cofounded Oracle (No. 87)), the Wall Street Journal reported. Warner Bros. Discovery has been planning to split its cable and streaming businesses, but Paramount Skydance’s bid is for the whole company. This is not the first time a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. has been discussed, with previous talks having been reported as recently as late 2023.
Microsoft (No. 14) signed an AI infrastructure deal with Amsterdam-based Nebius Group worth up to $19.4 billion, Bloomberg reported. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Nebius will provide Microsoft with AI computing capacity worth at least $17.4 billion through 2031. Nebius split off from Russian internet company Yandex last year. Investors in Nebius include Nvidia (No. 31).
PNC Financial Services Group (No. 131) agreed to acquire FirstBank for approximately $4.1 billion, including FirstBank’s $26.8 billion in assets and 95 branches across Colorado and Arizona. The takeover will make PNC the top lender in Denver by retail deposits and will allow PNC to focus its branch-building efforts in other regions, Bloomberg reported.

Overheard

“M&A is very easy to get right on a sheet of paper; it’s very hard to get right in practice.”

—DoorDash (No. 394) CEO and cofounder Tony Xu in conversation with Fortune correspondent Jason Del Rey at Fortune Brainstorm Tech this week.

On earnings calls:

Kroger (No. 27) beat earnings estimates, with earnings per share of $1.04, up from the $0.93 it reported after last year’s second quarter. Meanwhile, revenue totaled $33.9 billion for Q2, remaining virtually flat year-over-year. “In 2026, we expect to increase store openings by 30%, helping us grow both in-store and online sales faster,” interim CEO Ronald Sargent said on the call. Read more: Kroger’s CEO mysteriously resigned. An unrelated lawsuit involving Jewel could reveal why
Oracle (No. 87) CEO Safra Catz forecasted $18 billion in cloud infrastructure business for the 2026 fiscal year—up 77% from 2025—and up to $144 billion in cloud infrastructure revenue in fiscal 2030. The company’s optimistic