Water utilities in at least seven states have reported cyberattacks to the FBI.
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At least seven states have reported cyberattacks on water systems.
The FBI has said hackers have remotely accessed devices and impacted water operations.
Cybersecurity experts say hackers can limit a water utility's ability to monitor and control its system.
Government officials are warning about a wave of cyberattacks on water utilities in the US.
At least seven states have reported incidents to the FBI since July 27. The agency hasn't identified the attackers' motivation or identity, calling them only "malicious cyber actors" and saying they were remotely accessing internet-facing computers used by water utilities. The hackers changed settings, IP addresses, and passwords, the FBI said. In some cases, the attacks weakened the plant operators' ability to monitor and control their equipment.
Cybersecurity experts have voiced concerns for years about cyber vulnerabilities in water systems and other critical infrastructure, such as energy and healthcare, including the possibility of attacks by foreign adversaries. In April, the FBI and other federal agencies warned about ongoing Iran-affiliated cyber threats, including those targeting water systems.
What a hacker can actually do when they access a water system varies widely depending on the device they hack. There's also a huge variety in how the roughly 148,000 public drinking water systems in the US operate, including the about 50,000 systems that supply drinking water to residents year-round.
"It really depends on the device and what that device is managing or controlling," Kevin Morley, federal relations manager for the American Water Works Association, told Business Insider.
"It could be a pump, it could be a motor, and it could be something as simple as a tank-level log that just says the tank is full or not full."
Some of the recent attacks have resulted in real-world impacts, such as loss of water pressure and flooding, according to the FBI, though the agency did not say where those incidents occurred.
City officials in Braham, Minnesota, said a cyberattack shut down the controls for its well and water treatment plant, temporarily causing the city to rely on its water tower stores. State officials said more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota were targeted last week, while officials in Michigan said nine water systems were targeted.
The hackers accessed devices with internet access
Joshua Corman, executive-in-residence for public safety and resilience at the Institute for Security and Technology, said that connecting the computers that control water equipment to the internet creates an additional avenue for attackers.
"With great connectivity comes great responsibility," Corman said, riffing on a famous line popularized by the Spider-Man comics.
In a notice issued to water utilities last week,the FBI and the EPA said the recent attacks targeted devices connected to the internet. The agencies advised water utilities to disconnect certain computers — called Programmable Logic Controllers, or PLCs — from the public-facing internet and to strictly control their network access, among other measures.
Corman said PLCs can be programmed with "if this happens, then that happens" functions. A utility might set one to keep water pressure within a certain range, to alert workers if it gets too high or too low, or to shut off a pump before equipment is damaged. Corman said a hacker could, for instance, disable an alert that would notify an employee that part of the system needs attention.
Disruptions to water service can have far-reaching effects, including on businesses, hospitals, and fire response. "No water is no hospital in two to four hours," said Corman, who runs an initiative called UnDisruptable27 focused in part on improving the resilience of water systems that support hospitals.
Improving cybersecurity at water utilities
Many cybersecurity experts agree that more could be done to shore up the cybersecurity of critical utilities.
Morley said that setting universal cybersecurity standards for water utilities in the US can be challenging because they vary widely in the populations they serve, the systems they use, and the extent of their existing cybersecurity measures. He said what's right for one utility might not be right for another.
The American Water Works Association has advocated for developing nationwide minimum cybersecurity requirements for water utilities, shaped by water and cybersecurity professionals.
Improving protections for water systems is also a matter of national security, said Corman, who advised on cybersecurity efforts for Operation Warp Speed during the pandemic.
He added that water utilities should strengthen their resilience before a more serious attack forces them to do so.
Courtesy of McKinsey & Co; Isabel Fernandez-Pujol/BI
Business Insider asked four senior partners at McKinsey what they wished their associates would stop doing.
Their answers included creating less AI slop and spending more time socializing with colleagues.
Some junior consultants forget that the job can adapt to their lifestyle, one said.
There's no secret recipe to impressing your boss — or is there?
In late June, four senior McKinsey & Co partners sat down with Business Insider to discusswhat it takes to reach the uppermost ranks of the consulting firm.
Three of them had recently been promoted from partner to senior partner, and the fourth had been made a distinguished partner, a new senior leadership role at McKinsey that recognizes deep, specialized expertise.
They now sit among the firm's most senior and best-paid leaders, a group that numbers more than 2,500 globally. Between them, they work across life sciences, corporate finance, financial services, and artificial intelligence.
When asked what they wished their junior colleagues would stop doing, the group hesitated— then launched into an animated exchange about the pitfalls and missteps they see in the workplace.
Stop creating AI slop
Three of the partners' first responses was: Stop producing slop.
The AI slop issue is not unique to junior colleagues — many people use the technology poorly, said Alex Deverson, a London-based senior partner who works on life sciences. The result is a "lot of AI slop" — content that looks good on the surface, but doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
Anna Mattsson, a corporate finance specialist based in Switzerland, said that in her practice, some associates are not using AI at all.
"I sometimes feel, 'Am I the one having to remind them to actually do it?'" she told Business Insider.
That's happening less frequently, Mattsson added, but she saw a clear difference between consultants who used AI to get a head start and those who don't use it.
McKinsey senior partners (left to right), Anna Mattsson, Holger Hürtgen, Maria Albonico, Alex Devereson.
McKinsey
The variation in how people use AI is "crazy," said Holger Hürtgen, a Germany-based distinguished partner at QuantumBlack, McKinsey's AI arm. He said some junior colleagues "surprise him really positively" and teach him things about AI, whereas others' AI use "feels like it's coming from two years ago."
It happens at both ends of the spectrum — junior and senior, Hürtgen said. "It reads nicely, but it's really stupid," he said of some AI-generated work.
Scrutinizing AI-generated work requires more critical thinking than most people give it credit for, Devereson added, and younger, less experienced colleagues have less instinct for what's right and wrong.
McKinsey has aggressively incorporated AI into its workflows, first through a generative AI platform called Lilli, and increasingly through AI agents. The technology is becoming part of the "lifeblood" of how McKinsey works, Kate Smaje, McKinsey's Global Leader for technology and AI, told Business Insider in June.
Get out there and socialize
Hürtgen, who has worked at McKinsey for 20 years, said the social life at the firm has become quieter since his early days. Given the choice between joining a team dinner and getting to sleep earlier or exercising, he said some younger colleagues chose the latter.
"I think this firm is very much about micro communities, getting to know new people. And you get to know people during social events," he said.
That does not mean junior consultants need to party hard — though Hürtgen joked that he has partied more than many young people appear to today — butthat they should at least have a nice dinner, he said.
"Enjoy the journey, not just the objective," he added.
Mattsson, the Switzerland-based senior partner, also said junior consultants should spend more time building relationships with their teams.
"Some of my best friends are the clients and the associates I worked with back in the day," she said.
Avoid this 'recipe for unhappiness'
Many young consultants join McKinsey hoping to climb the ranks to partner. Devereson cautioned against going in with an overly strategic outlook.
"I would encourage people to not think like that," Devereson said. Attemptingtochart a path to partner isa "recipe for unhappiness," he said.
Devereson, who is based in London, said he was "never particularly strategic," focusing instead on what he was doing in the moment while remaining open to opportunities. He advised associates to follow what they enjoy, pointing to Mattsson as an example of that approach working.
Mattsson joined McKinsey six years ago after a career spent mostly at Deloitte and had hoped to be promoted last year. When that didn't happen, she was "majorly disappointed."
She then decided to focus specificallyonwhat she enjoyed at work rather than trying to do everything, and approached this year's promotion round without any expectations.
The now-senior partner said that coming from outside, she hadn't quite understood the system at McKinsey: "It's a very different firm here than many other places."
Find a way to make the lifestyle work
Stop ruling yourself out of opportunities because you fear your career is incompatible with the lifestyle you want.
That's the adviceMaria Albonico, a London-based senior partner focused on financial services, said she'd give to junior consultants.
"I was surprised over and over by how much the circumstances adapt. If a place really wants you, if you are really a right fit for a place, the place will adapt to you," said Albonico.
Clockwise from top left: Anna Mattsson, Alex Devereson, Maria Albonico, and Holger Hürtgen
McKinsey
Devereson said junior consultants can also speak up when the demands of the job become unworkable. "If you don't like the circumstances, change the circumstances," he said.
He recalled reviewing one project's workload, staffing, and meeting schedule and realizing the plan was structurally impossible. At first, he tried to compensate by working longer hours. Eventually, he told the partner, "I think the physics are off. I don't think this works."
Personal circumstances could also make an assignment impractical, he said. In his case, that means not serving clients in the Bay Area from London while caring for a three-month-old.
"People just believe that the hand they're dealt is the hand they have to live with," Devereson said."Whereas, actually, we can do a lot to help each other if we know that we need help."
US-Japan's yen intervention highlights the dollar's enduring appeal as a global reserve currency, Goldman Sachs says.
Illustration by Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
The US and Japan's rare joint intervention has raised questions about the dollar's reserve appeal.
Goldman Sachs says the episode actually highlights why dollar reserves remain so useful to central banks.
Deep US markets let central banks build dollar reserves in calm times and access them in a crunch.
The Treasury's efforts to help Japan strengthen the yen aren't a reason for central banks to rethink their dollar reserves, according to Goldman Sachs.
If anything, the rare joint intervention in the Japanese currency highlights one of the dollar's biggest advantages: Central banks can readily access their dollar reserves when markets get rough, Goldman analysts said in a note on Thursday.
The comments come amid concerns that Washington's more hands-on approach to the Treasury market could make reserve managers less comfortable holding dollar assets. Goldman said that concern is misplaced in Japan's case.
Goldman said the argument hinges on an assumption: that the Treasury's willingness to help Japan sell Treasurys today means it could be willing to stand in the way of another reserve manager trying to sell in the future.
"This seems like quite a leap," the bank's analysts wrote.
The concerns have emerged as the US and Japan have stepped up efforts to support the yen, which was trading around 158 against the dollar late Thursday, compared with roughly 164 before the intervention last week.
The coordinated intervention with the US followed months of yen weakness that pushed the currency to a 40-year low.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has proposed increasing the limit on the Federal Reserve's Foreign and International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) repo facility, which allows foreign central banks to temporarily raise dollars against their Treasury holdings rather than selling those securities outright.
That could help reduce disruption from sudden Treasury sales.
However, Goldman's analysts said they are "far from persuaded that Treasury's intervention signals new fragilities in the Treasury market relative to before."
Instead, it just shows that the current US administration is "more willing to intervene than in the recent past."
Goldman said the episode illustrates a broader advantage of dollar reserves: The depth and liquidity of US capital markets make it easier for central banks to build up dollar reserves in normal times and access them when markets come under stress.
However, the dollar still faces longer-term risks to its dominance, Goldman said, including uncertainty around US institutions.
But Japan's experience underscores an advantage rival reserve assets struggle to match.
"When it comes time to intervene, most central banks still need Dollars," Goldman's analysts wrote.
Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan Chase pledged $750 billion to housing projects this week, notably in San Francisco.
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JPMorgan Chase announced it will direct $750 billion to US housing projects through 2035.
Big banks, like Citi and Bank of America, have made similar investments in affordable housing.
Public-private partnerships could help boost housing supply — and banks get a tax break.
JPMorgan Chase announced plans to shell out $750 billion to boost America's home supply — and it isn't the only big bank in the housing development game.
The Jamie Dimon-led financial giant said this week that it will finance 1 million affordable housing units and help 500,000 buyers purchase homes over the next decade through its "American Dream Initiative," which focuses on local-level economic development. While the firm is already among the US' top multifamily and residential mortgage lenders, this is the biggest investment it has ever made in homebuilding initiatives.
"Housing, you have two issues: One is affordable, so we're doing a lot of affordable housing," Dimon told CNBC on August 5. "The other one is supply. Supply is mostly around permitting, approvals, local zoning requirements."
It's part of a larger phenomenon. Banks arepartnering with developers to help cities build multifamily developments — like apartment buildings — from the very beginning. And it could benefit both banks, which are encouraged through various government programs to make these kinds of community investments, and residents in expensive cities seeking an affordable home.
A slew of banks have committed to affordable housing financing
Building enough houses and apartments to meet America's demand isn't cheap. In New York City, for example,Mayor Zohran Mamdani's pledge to build 200,000 new affordable homes is slated to cost $22 billion in capital investment over five years. Governments and independent developers in NYC, San Francisco, Atlanta, and more have called on banks to help fund housing projects.
Wall Street giants often back affordable housing ventures, alongside philanthropists and local governments. Business Insider recently toured a Midtown Manhattan hotel-to-apartment conversion that's being partially funded by Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, as well as an affordable housing development for seniors in Brooklyn that was partially backed by TD Bank.
Local property developer David Schwartz previously told Business Insider that this support is especially necessary for affordable housing. Land, construction, and architecture costs are the same as any other space, but long-term tenant returns are lower than in market-rate or luxury buildings. "That's the challenge," he said.
While banks have long had a hand in real estate, their investment in affordable housing developments is gaining momentum. Bank of America provided upwards of $42 billion in financing for affordable housing efforts between 2020 and 2025, and Citi committed $60 billion to housing affordability efforts between 2026 and the early 2030s. This comes as the US' affordable housing supply continues to lag demand, and the rental vacancy rate is climbing because many lower- and middle-income households can't afford to pay the market rate.
For residents, bank investment in housing could be good news. JPMorgan said roughly $200 million of its multibillion-dollar investment will be directed toward affordable developments in San Francisco, which Dimon has expressed specific concern about as one of America's priciest markets.
Olivia Barrow Strauss, vice president of housing at the JPMorgan Chase Policy Center, told Business Insider that funding must go hand in hand with strong policy. "That includes modernizing zoning and permitting, unlocking underused land, and strengthening public-private partnerships so more housing can move from concept to construction," she said. Because "capital alone won't solve the country's housing affordability challenges."
Banks and cities could both benefit
What's in it for the banks? Investing in affordable homes is a potential path to tax breaks and economic development.
The federal government offers a low-income housing tax credit to investors and developers who build or rehabilitate affordable housing, and a new markets tax credit to incentivize investment in low-income and distressed communities. Parties can then claim an annual tax break — so long as a portion of the apartments is set aside for low- and middle-income residents or materially improves residents' lives in eligible areas. Credits like this are sometimes distributed at the state and local level, and banks might be able to write off their assistance for first-time homebuyers.
Citi has published disclosures that it "may employ a combination of taxable and tax-exempt loans or bonds, a combination of taxable and tax-exempt loans or bonds; Low Income, Historic or New Markets Tax Credits; and government and private subsidies," as part of its housing plan. Bank of America made similar statements in regulatory filings. It's unclear exactly which subsidies JPMorgan Chase qualifies for, and how much the bank's annual tax break will be, but government credits are likely a factor in its $750 billion investment.
"Tax credits and subsidies are important tools to encourage public and private investments that create or preserve affordable housing because they can help close financing gaps," Karen Purcell, head of Community Development Banking at JPMorgan Chase, told Business Insider. Still, these credits aren't a cure-all, she said, "and often don't reach the 'missing middle,' which is why moderate-income housing remains chronically undersupplied."
Passed in the 1970s, the Community Reinvestment Act also requires banks to provide financial support to the communities where they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Backing affordable housing developments and providing resources to homebuyers are ways banks can comply with this law. CRA requires banks to publish their performance review. Between 2020 and 2023, JPMorgan Chase's disclosures show the bank scored "outstanding" in 31 of the 56 lending areas — criteria that's based on both the bank's lending behavior and the demographics it served.
The public sector is making big bets on affordable housing, too. Congress passed a bipartisan housing bill in July. The law is set to loosen zoning restrictions, boost resources for communities impacted by natural disasters, and make it harder for major corporations to buy residential real estate. Big bank investment won't be capped by this law, and it may create more opportunities for public-private affordable housing ventures in the future.
As Dimon put it to CNBC, "The bill the House passed is a very good bill, and then we have to do complements to it locally."
In early May 2025, Toru Tokushige was alone in his Tokyo office when the general came knocking. It was the Golden Week, Japan's biggest holiday, and everyone else was on vacation.
Manabu Shimamoto, a retired major general, had come to implore the 56-year-old CEO of Terra Drone to help secure Japan's future. Their country desperately lacked drones, Shimamoto explained. Small drones. Cheap drones. Drones that could literally fly off the production line. Drones that could swarm and kill.
Tokushige, whose publicly listed drone company has been entirely civilian since its inception in 2016, had spent years researching the military side of the industry. Thrice he'd looked into the market, and thrice had chosen not to pursue. It was too complex, too archaic, with too much red tape. But now the defense ministry was calling for new companies to enter the fray. Japan had Russia, North Korea, and China to contend with. The military needed someone who could work faster than the traditional big defense firms like Mitsubishi and Kawasaki, Shimamoto told him — someone willing to take the risk.
By the end of their three-hour meeting, Tokushige tells me, he'd decided he was going to become a defense contractor. He just had to figure out how.
"It's dramatically changed in terms of the landscape of engagement, the landscape of opportunities, compared to 10 years ago," says Jerry McGinn, director of the Center for the Industrial Base for the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. A decade ago, he says, most defense startups could only get a foot in the door through a select few grants and programs. Now, military agencies are setting up offices in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, hosting pitch days for entrepreneurs, and offering incubator programs for promising startups. In December 2024, the Department of Defense launched the Expedited Research Innovation System, an initiative that invites startups to submit 7-minute pitch videos to the military. At least 153 companies have since been vetted and introduced to the government, says Jennifer Thabet, director for the Defense Advanced Related Projects Agency's small business programs office.
Tokushige says his startup's "minimum goal" is to become the top interceptor drone maker in Japan.
Noriko Hayashi for BI
"If you don't cast a wide net and take a bunch of small bets to figure out what's going to pay off, you are going to be missing opportunities," Thabet says. "No longer can we afford to take calculated risks. We have to swing big."
Attitudes toward working in the defense industry have also dramatically shifted.
Before the Ukraine War broke out, it was more acceptable for a tech entrepreneur "to run a porn site than to work in defense."
"If you asked me 10 years ago what I thought of when I heard 'defense contractor,' I'd have pictured a shady arms dealer," says Anastasis Leonidou, a former tea shop owner who now sells portable batteries to the UK military.
Before the Ukraine War broke out, it was more acceptable for a tech entrepreneur in Sweden "to run a porn site than to work in defense," says the Stockholm-based Karl Rosander, who previously founded a podcasting platform and now sells interceptor drones. "Now, actually, when you tell people you work in defense, you get a hug."
I spoke to five veteran business owners in Europe, Asia, and the US with no prior experience in military contracting who are now pivoting their careers to build defense firms. They say the industry is slow and plodding, and believe they can still make it big, banking on the move-fast-and-break-things ethos that led to their success in previous ventures.
Tokushige describes himself as a born rebel against traditional Japan. The son of a steelworker from the rural town of Yanai, he spent his early life studying to become an engineer at the local chemical plant — then defied his father's wishes upon graduating in 1996 to start a finance career in Osaka. Five years later, he moved to Arizona in 2001 to pursue an MBA.
That choice turned out to be his biggest regret. The internet began its meteoric rise just then, and Tokushige still grieves over having missed it while in school. He became obsessed with avoiding the same FOMO sting, and worked for several years at a Silicon Valley startup, then returned to Japan to found the electric-bike company Terra Motors in 2010. Then, predicting a coming age of robotics, he launched Terra Drone in 2016; it's now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with 650 employees and a market capitalization of $800 million. To catch the electric car craze, he founded Terra Charge after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, he's confident that the business of war is the next world-changing trend.
But he also knew that waiting a year for tender requirements from the Japanese military would kill any chance of momentum for Terra Drone. "Such a passive way of doing business," Tokushige tells me of the bureaucracy he faced. "It's not good."
Drone warfare evolves in months, if not weeks. A nation at peace builds its defense industry on theory, he surmised. He needed one that was built on war.
"Japan needs its own Elon Musk," reads a slide in Tokushige's corporate deck, "and I intend to be that person."
Noriko Hayashi for BI
Tokushige first arrived in Lviv in Western Ukraine under a gloomy mid-September sky. His aim was to attend a defense conference at the local soccer stadium, run by Ukraine's Brave1 startup incubator. For security reasons, he was told the location on the day the conference started.
"I was the only Asian guy there," he says. On his own — none of his staff would risk entering a wartorn country at the time — the CEO set up a booth and swapped business cards with 136 companies. He was amazed at the blistering pace of Ukraine's drone industry compared to back home. The locals produced millions of drones a year, while Japan aimed to make 80,000 annually. More importantly, drone tech there was adapting so quickly that Ukrainian engineers were contending with a new phase of innovation every few months.
What I'm offering is not a theory. I've got product proven, bodies stacked.Troy Smothers, a real estate entrepreneur who now sells drone tech
Tokushige's plan was to first build a drone under Ukraine's lightning-fast industry, then deliver a working, proven product ready for the Japanese defense ministry to see.
With Ukraine's battlefield now the Holy Grail of weapons testing, startups arrive by the horde, hoping to put their tech in the hands of fighters. Last year, Ukraine said at least 500 foreign startups opened offices in its territory.
Troy Smothers, a Utah real estate entrepreneur and Marine veteran, has traveled to Ukraine nine times since 2022. First, he visited as a medical and IT volunteer, then as a defense tech advocate, helping deliver US-made fiber-optic cables to Ukraine's workshops and front lines to help attack drones fly through jammed areas. Months of testing with the Ukrainians helped him build his own design for a fiber-optic attack drone.
Smothers now thinks he can use his extensive experience "putting warheads to foreheads" in Ukraine to sell cheap drone tech to the Pentagon. "What I'm offering is not a theory. I've got product proven, bodies stacked. This works," he says. He's started a 501(c)(3) called American Made Freedom, and is fishing for around $30,000 in funding to build manufacturing for drone parts and fiber-optic kits.
Troy Smothers, who was a sergeant with the USMC, still travels regularly to Ukraine while seeking to build his startup in Utah.
Troy Smothers
"Financially, it's been difficult because I'm all in," Smothers tells me on a video call from his office in Salt Lake City. A stout Mormon with laugh lines etched into his cheeks, he showed me his collection of AR-15s, and on the wall behind him were a pair of attack quadcopters beside his 7-year-old's drawing of an insect. He's been sleeping there since his wife of 14 years divorced him last year, over what he says was too much time and money spent in Ukraine.
To keep his drone dream going, Smothers says, he's burned through life savings and precious metals investments. He's sold six collector's cars worth about $10,000 each, and much of his work now relies on donations. This year, he secured a partnership with Brave1.
He believes that his crusade for fiber-optic drones was given to him by God. He's been called, as he says, to be a "sword to defend the innocent."
"I'm not smart enough or capable enough to have done what I've done. Who walks away from my 19-year career to do what I was inspired to do? I wouldn't have left my kids, it was crazy to leave my kids," he says. "You only get one chance, brother, to be on the right side of history."
Thriving on the right side of history when competition is tight, however, is another story.
In Lviv, Tokushige saw that dozens of manufacturers were already making light attack drones: the type seen destroying tanks and killing men every day on the front lines. Anyone could assemble one, Tokushige thought.
What caught his eye, instead, were interceptors, which were more expensive and harder to make. The Ukrainians built them faster and nimbler, engineered to chase down and catch Russian Shahed attack drones in the air. Born out of a desperation for an affordable way to protect Ukraine's skies, the tech had cut the cost of anti-drone defense — traditionally reliant on high-end missiles — by orders of magnitude.
If one of Japan's neighbors wanted to attack from across the ocean, waves of cheap drones like Shaheds would probably be a top choice, Tokushige surmises. His country, and the rest of the world, needed a cheap counter.
The fit seemed natural for Tokushige. Most Ukrainian interceptors were still piloted by humans, meaning that a crew still had to drive out to deploy them. Terra Drone sold software for managing drone traffic. The Ukrainians could provide the hardware, and Tokushige wanted to provide its brains: software that turned the drones into autonomous swarms. He plans to invest an initial $10 million from his firms to build the code, which he hopes will be finished by 2027.
If he's fast enough, he says, a Ukrainian drone with autonomous Japanese software would give him more than an edge in the market.
"In terms of interceptors, we would become the No. 1 in market share," he tells me. "That is our minimum goal."
For six months, Tokushige shuttled in and out of Ukraine nine times, meeting with interceptor drone companies in Lviv and Kyiv. Back home, he estimates he's visited the Japanese defense ministry's headquarters in Ichigaya more than 50 times.
He plans to eventually expand from interceptors to an entire fleet of products: jet-powered drones, drone boats, reconnaissance drones. Tokushige's corporate deck is telling of his ambition. "Japan needs its own Elon Musk," Slide 91 says, captioning a photo of the SpaceX and Tesla owner. "And I intend to be that person."
This world-changing boldness is shared among many upstart founders angling to win over the defense industry.
Rosander, the Swedish entrepreneur, who previously ran the podcasting company Acast (which posted a revenue of $273 million last year) and the monetization platform Sesamy, started Nordic Air Defense in March 2024. He was inspired by the war in Ukraine, after following it on Twitter for hours after work every night and fretting the same could happen in his own country.
Sweden's Nordic Air Defense tests its interceptor drones. Cofounder Karl Rosander previously ran a podcasting platform.
Courtesy of Karl Rosander
Like his Japanese competitor, he's started with a low-cost interceptor (made mostly of carbon fiber), and plans to expand dramatically from there. Rosander's long game is to eventually compete with the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and become the next defense prime. This is a bit like saying someone who just launched a flag football league saying they'll build the next NFL dynasty. He remains undaunted.
"I get things done," he tells me. "You can give me anything. You give me the best idea you can come up with. I promise I will make it successful."
Whenever Rosander has met with defense executives, he's found them unnervingly comfortable with working at what he considers a glacial pace. "I presented what I was doing," he says. "And they told me: 'Karl, you don't have anything to do with this industry. It works like this. We eat dinners and have long-term relationships.'"
"I understood then," he adds. "They were afraid of me."
"You can give me anything. You give me the best idea you can come up with. I promise I will make it successful," says Rosander.
Courtesy of Karl Rosander
Rosander does admit he didn't understand how difficult it is to break into defense. It's something the entrepreneurs I spoke to repeatedly brought up: the maze of bureaucracy and trust-building far more complicated than their previous careers.
Leonidou, who ran a chain of tea shops in London before leaving the business amid the COVID pandemic, now sells large, portable batteries to the UK military through his new firm, Solus Power. His team, he says, initially had to learn how to navigate the industry's many restrictions and regulations from the ground up. Simply getting meetings with the defense ministry required them to get through a mountain of protocols.
"It's been such a learning curve that I don't think we really had any expectations apart from people in a lot of camo turning up for meetings," says Leonidou.
Joakim Sjöblom, a Swedish entrepreneur who sold his fintech firm in 2024, pivoted to defense that same year, just as Sweden joined NATO. His startup, Sweden Ballistics, or Swebal, is building a manufacturing plant to supply Europe the TNT he says the continent desperately needs (China controls most of the world's TNT sales). But the process to break ground has dragged on for more than a year, as Sjöblom has navigated a litany of regulations: surveying the ground for ancient remains and geological deposits, building a new road, measuring the impact of an accidental explosion, and checking for endangered species. He was granted an environmental permit in December, but had to wait until late summer to cut down the nearby trees in case of nesting birds. He's also unable to plug water holes, to protect local frogs.
Sjöblom, pictured here in the center, and his team are building their TNT factory on this patch of forest in Sweden.
Åsa Sjöström for BI
But Sjöblom, unfazed, tells me he feels a sense of urgency to help secure Europe's future. "My son just turned three, and my daughter 10 months. I don't ever want them to experience an armed conflict," he says. His plant is on track for production in 2028, he says.
In Japan, Tokushige worries that even after manufacturing in Ukraine, traditional government processes would remain painfully slow. After his dozens of visits to the defense ministry and a year's wait for the military's specifications, officials would still have to settle on a budget, then take at least one or two more months to deliberate on a contract winner. Only after securing a contract would Terra Defense be expected to deliver a product — six months later.
"It would be a very, very long history," he says.
In late March, Tokushige beamed before a crush of reporters in Kyiv, as he announced Terra Drone's partnership with a Ukrainian interceptor drone company, Amazing Drones.
"In Japanese mentality, I am a crazy guy," Tokushige says.
Noriko Hayashi for BI
"A friend in need is a friend indeed," Tokushige told the crowd. In the months since, he's consolidated Amazing Drones and another Ukrainian interceptor startup, WinnyLab, buying 50% stakes in each firm. Terra Drone is now working on three different drones.
Tokushige has now settled into a more comfortable pace in Ukraine, learning to stop taking shelter every time his phone alerts him of a drone attack, though he stays in hotel rooms on lower floors to reduce the chance of a Shahed crashing through his window. His wife and two adult daughters no longer fret constantly about his safety, he says.
The defense bet is already starting to pay off. Terra Drone's share price was 12,670 yen when the market opened on Thursday, surging 499% year to date. It's also secured a small order of 300 general-purpose training drones for Japan's defense ministry, to be delivered in September for about $732,000.
Meanwhile, Tokushige is leaving much of the work at his other companies in the hands of his staff. As he buses in and out of Ukraine, his two private companies, Terra Motors and Terra Charge, are both preparing for an initial public offering.
"In Japanese mentality, I am a crazy guy," he tells me.
For Japan's would-be Elon Musk, crazy has gotten him this far.
Matthew Loh is a senior reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau, primarily covering defense and how the war in Ukraine is rapidly changing battle technology and tactics.
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Ted Lasso returns for a fourth season on Apple TV.
Apple TV
More than three years since its last season, Ted Lasso returns with brand-new episodes. We've compiled everything you need to know about the new season, including where to watch Ted Lasso, which cast members are returning, and a look at the trailer.
Season 4 of Ted Lasso will see Ted back in Richmond to tackle a brand-new challenge: coaching a women's football (soccer) team. He'll be joined by several fan favorites in the latest season of the Emmy Award-winning comedy. New episodes are available to stream globally on Apple TV.
Where to watch Ted Lasso in the US
Like the first three seasons, Ted Lasso is an Apple TV exclusive. New episodes drop Wednesdays, beginning August 5. US subscriptions cost $13 a month, but new users can get a one-week free trial. The streaming service carries other comedy series, including Shrinking and The Studio (which won last year's Emmy Award for Best Comedy).
Where to watch Ted Lasso in the UK, Canada, and other countries
The new season of Ted Lasso is available through Apple TV in over 100 regions, including the UK and Canada. Subscription prices vary by region, but Apple TV offers a free trial to new customers in most countries.
How to watch Ted Lasso from anywhere
Due to Apple TV's widespread availability, there's a pretty good chance you'll be able to watch Ted Lasso no matter where you are. That said, if you happen to be traveling through a region where you can't access your usual viewing options, it might be time to try a VPN.
Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy cybersecurity tools that allow people to temporarily alter their virtual locations. This way, their favorite websites and apps work just like they would back home.
NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market and our top recommendation right now. It offers a massive selection of global services, a user-friendly experience, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Ted Lasso Season 4 cast
Ted Lasso Season 4 will see many familiar faces, including the return of Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, and Brett Goldstein.
The new season will also feature a few new cast members, including Tanya Reynolds, Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern, and Grant Feely.
Ted Lasso release schedule
There will be 10 episodes in Season 4 of Ted Lasso. New episodes drop on Wednesdays globally (which sometimes means Tuesday evening in the US).
Episode 1: Wednesday, August 5
Episode 2: Wednesday, August 12
Episode 3: Wednesday, August 19
Episode 4: Wednesday, August 26
Episode 5: Wednesday, September 2
Episode 6: Wednesday, September 9
Episode 7: Wednesday, September 16
Episode 8: Wednesday, September 23
Episode 9: Wednesday, September 30
Episode 10: Wednesday, October 7
Ted Lasso Season 4 trailer
Apple TV dropped an official teaser for Season 4 at the end of April. In it, fans get a first glimpse at Ted and the rest of the AFC Richmond crew as they tackle their latest challenge. Check out the full trailer below:
Note: VPN use is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content may constitute a breach of the terms of use for some services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.
Elon Musk says SpaceX is going all in on Nvidia's GPUs.
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Elon Musk said that SpaceX will only buy GPUs from Nvidia.
"We think it's the best AI computer," Musk said.
Musk and SpaceX have received those compliments from Jensen Huang in return.
SpaceX says it's ready to be a one-chip supplier company.
On SpaceX's highly anticipated earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said his company was committed to buying graphics processing units from only one place.
"Going forward, we've decided to build exclusively on Nvidia because we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture," Musk said on the call, talking about his company's compute capacity. "We think it's the best AI computer, and we greatly value our close cooperation and partnership on many levels with Nvidia. So we're exclusive to Nvidia."
He added that SpaceX will receive a significant percentage of Nvidia's GPUs next year, indicating that the space company could make up a notable share of Nvidia's revenue.
Nvidia has been a key technology partner for both of Musk's public companies, Tesla and SpaceX, supplying GPU platforms that support AI model training, simulation, and advanced computing. Although Tesla has invested heavily in custom AI chips, it continues to use Nvidia GPUs for various AI and data center workloads.
Following the call, Musk reiterated his commitment to Nvidia, announcing it again on X.
In a post on Wednesday night, he wrote: "SpaceX has committed to using Nvidia GPUs exclusively because they are the best."
An exclusive contract with Nvidia cuts out rival chipmakers like Intel, AMD, and Broadcom. The exclusive announcement also runs counter to the diversification strategy that large tech companies often employ to reduce the risk of supply bottlenecks and other challenges stemming from dependence on a single company.
'World class' products
Musk and his companies have received similar compliments from Nvidia in return.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly praised Musk as an "extraordinary engineer," and said that Nvidia does significant business with Tesla and SpaceX's xAI. He has also called Musk's work on xAI's Grok and Tesla products "world-class."
On Wednesday, the space company reported its first quarterly earnings as a listed company, topping revenue expectations. It reported that second-quarter sales rose 92% year on year to $7.8 billion, driven by growth in AI infrastructure and Starlink, its satellite internet network.
On the call, Musk said the company aims to reach a $100 billion annual revenue run rate by year-end, but Wall Street remained cautious over the pace of spending and its impact on near-term profitability.
"I think it may be higher than that," Musk said, adding that the $100 billion ARR is "if we did nothing."
Despite revenue, investors focused on the company's high AI spending anda $541 million loss, sending shares down more than 7% after hours.
