Good morning. It's Thursday, May 14, and welcome to this week's Business & Finance newsletter. Today, in light of the recent news that Spirit Airlines has shut down, we're covering the ins and outs of the airline industry. We're also covering the buzzy tech company Palantir and, given Elon Musk's recent lawsuit against OpenAI (in which he claims that the AI behemoth betrayed its original nonprofit mission), OpenAI itself.
—Phoebe Bain, 1440 Business & Finance Section Editor
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What is Palantir?
Named after a magical stone from "The Lord of the Rings," Palantir is a data analytics company that develops software created to connect large, messy datasets, allowing government agencies and companies to track predictive patterns and spot trends.
Palantir was founded in 2003 by PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, its current CEO, Alex Karp, and three others. Its leadership team has said the company was started to protect Western institutions from the threat of terrorism and non-Western adversaries. Today, the company is worth more than $300B.
Palantir markets two core products: Gotham for government agencies and Foundry for large enterprises. US government agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Department of Defense, have used Palantir's services. The company aided logistics during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and has streamlined data for police departments, airline manufacturers, electric and gas utilities, and more.
Critics have accused Palantir of enabling government surveillance with little accountability and locking in vendors by refusing to transfer data. Karp's political commentary, including a 2026 book and manifesto, argues Silicon Valley has a moral debt to the US military.
Explore everything else we've found on Palantir.
Also, check out ...
> Palantir cofounders Peter Thiel and Alex Karp met at Stanford Law School. (Read)
> Learn about Palantir CEO Alex Karp's background—including his history of social activism. (Listen)
> What do Palantir's products actually do? (Listen)
> A rare early interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp. (Watch) |
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Out With The Old, In With The Apple |
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It’s 2026. Our cars are driving themselves, our computers are making their own videos, and our dogs have finally mastered the art of the self-service water bowl (okay, that one’s a stretch). So why do you still have a credit card that feels like it belongs in 1995?
Unlike other credit cards, Apple Card estimates how much interest you’ll owe with a payment wheel and suggests an amount to help you pay off your balance faster. Add to that no fees whatsoever (annual, foreign transaction, late, or otherwise), the ability to earn unlimited Daily Cash back on every purchase, and a high-yield Savings account available through Apple Card, and you have a credit card that supports your financial health. Imagine that.
See your Apple Card credit limit offer right now.
Terms apply. Savings provided by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC. |
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The airline industry, explained
The commercial airline industry is a global network of airline companies that provide customers with seats on their flights in exchange for money, miles, or points. The global industry's publicly traded companies have a market cap of roughly $400B, with the top three US airlines by market cap being Delta (valued at roughly $47.9B), United (about $32.2B), and Southwest (about $20.1B) as of May 8, 2026.
Commercial airlines date back to the early 1900s, when the first commercial passenger airlines (like Florida's St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line) were founded. In its early days, all fliers got the same level of service, as flying was a luxury that only the equivalent of today's first-class travelers could afford. But after WWII in the late 1940s, airlines began retrofitting cheaper military aircraft, packing in more seats, and introducing coach class to attract mass-market travelers.
As a result, differentiated pricing became the only viable business model. Today, most traditional airlines generate roughly two-thirds of passenger revenue from those in first, business, or premium economy classes combined. About 10% to 21% of their revenue stems from loyalty programs, and most earn no money on economy travelers, with the exception of budget airlines.
Explore everything else we've found on the Airline Industry.
Also, check out ...
> The largest US airlines by market share, visualized. (View)
> How airlines make money. (Watch)
> Why Spirit Airlines shut down earlier this month. (Listen)
> "Skiplagging," a money-saving travel hack, explained. (Read) |
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OpenAI 101
OpenAI, the research lab that created the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, is generally considered the most influential company at the forefront of the artificial intelligence boom. Its goal: to develop "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work."
Led by CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI burst into the public consciousness in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT. By February 2023, it had become the fastest-growing consumer app in history, with a reported 100 million monthly active users.
OpenAI launched as a nonprofit in 2015 after it was conceived over dinner by tech leaders at a Silicon Valley hotel. Altman convened the gathering with a guest list including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and others. The topic under discussion? Countering Google in the race to achieve systems with human-level cognition (termed artificial general intelligence).
Musk ended his affiliation with the company in 2018, leaving OpenAI in need of funds to cover things like the rapidly increasing computing costs needed to train large models. In response, the company adopted a somewhat unique structure, with the original nonprofit overseeing its for-profit arm.
Explore everything else we've found on OpenAI.
Also, check out ...
> The story of the time Elon Musk tried to make himself CEO of OpenAI. (Read)
> OpenAI initially focused on novelty projects, like training bots to win video games. (Watch)
> Sam Altman says OpenAI released ChatGPT early as a public service. (Read)
> Everything you need to know about Elon Musk's recent OpenAI lawsuit. (Read) |
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One Story We're Taking Stock In |
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You may have heard about white-collar bosses using AI to track remote workers' productivity levels. But now, it seems they're taking things a step further, using new AI tools to track workers' emotions and agreeability levels.
This so-called "emotion-AI" market is expected to triple in value to $9B by 2030, according to the feature story below, which was perhaps the most fascinating article we read this week. One app, called Morphcast, can tell whether a worker is amused, impatient, determined, or interested, among many other traits. Learn more about the growing emotion-AI market—and what it might mean for the future of work—below. |
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> The rise of emotional surveillance. (Read) |
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> The "bossware" bots some companies use for productivity tracking. (1440 Topics) |
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Your Credit Card Has Competition |
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It may feel dramatic, but if you’re still holding onto the same credit card from a decade ago with less-than-stellar perks (and large fees), it’s time to think about upgrading to Apple Card.
Apple Card is all about helping you lead a healthier financial life—that means intuitive tools, no fees of any kind, great perks like Daily Cash back, and even a high-yield Savings account available through Apple Card so your money can make you more money. When you put it that way, it’s a wonder we didn’t ditch our current card years ago. Apply for Apple Card here to see your credit limit offer upfront.
Terms apply. Savings provided by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC. |
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Please support our sponsors! |
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We curate hundreds of resources into 1440 Topics each week. Here are some of our favorites from the world of business and finance.
> The jobs with the highest divorce rates.
> Where venture capital dollars landed in 2025 by stage and destination, visualized.
> The salaries needed for each generation to be considered upper class today.
> Which universities are producing the most startup founders?
> Inside the company headquarters designed by a Disney architect.
> How to rebuild your credit score.
> Why the US stores hundreds of millions of oil barrels in caves.
> See how a bitcoin transaction works.
> How many American workers have retirement accounts at their current jobs?
> Visualize the differences between the NYSE and the Nasdaq. |
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"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it." |
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