Ikea’s new store is in the metaverse.
The company announced Wednesday that it’s piloting a limited-edition pop-up shop in Roblox’s Welcome to Bloxburg game offering players Ikea products they can use to decorate virtual homes. This is the first time that the Swedish furniture retailer has entered gaming in a meaningful way, since an earlier Roblox game in 2024, according to the company. It comes after noticing for years how young adults and teens were building and designing homes in games and wondering why Ikea wasn’t a part of it.
[Photo: Ikea]
“Ikea wanted to better understand how Gen Z and Gen Alpha think about furnishing and self-expression, recognizing the need to meet them on platforms they already use and learn from how they interact with products and spaces in a digital environment,” Ikea’s chief digital officer Parag Parekh tells Fast Company.
“At Ikea we are always curious and eager to develop and connect with people where they are. Today many people are online, and many people are gaming,” he says. “This is an area where we want to see if there is an appetite for Ikea as a brand and our products also in the gaming world.”
[Image: Ikea]
Ikea’s goal: better understand Gen Z and Gen Alpha
The pilot is intentionally small, as its primary goal is to gather learnings for the company. For now it will be available only for people in Australia and Sweden from January 22 to February 5. Located inside the virtual Bloxburg Fancy Furniture Store, which players can access in the the game’s town center, people can choose from items like the Stockholm sofa, the Brännboll inflatable gaming chair, and Ikea’s stuffed toy shark named Blhaj.
The company says it chose its selection of products based on items that are less common in the game, are classic Ikea designs, or are items that the Bloxburg team suggested players might like.
“Overall, the aim is less about ‘selling’ a catalog and more about understanding how customers express home furnishing ideas and how Ikea products can support that in a digital world,” Parekh says.
[Photo: Ikea]
Unboxing Ikea’s tech moves
Ikea’s entry into gaming comes on the heels of other tech-forward moves. Last year the company relaunched its smart home line and opened branded kiosks selling Ikea products in select U.S. Best Buy locations. But it’s also late to the metaverse party.
Brands including Gucci, Nike, and Walmart opened their own Roblox experiences in 2022but the trend never caught on in a big way. Today, the dream of a widely used virtual metaverse has been declared effectively dead, and Meta laid off hundreds in its own virtual reality division on Tuesday. There are signs of a possible resurgence, though, with examples like Ikea’s foray into the space and Coach’s collection on Sims 4 this week proving that brands aren’t abandoning virtual worlds as spaces to show off their products completely.
[Photo: Ikea]
For Ikea, the challenge in translating its physical home furnishings for a virtual world was balancing recognizability and simplicity, since items needed to feel instantly like they had Ikea proportions, colors, and silhouettes while also working smoothly in a gaming context. Luckily, Ikea already has all its products created in 3D, and Bloxburg modified those same models with Ikea’s approval to turn them into gamified objects.
“We are very pleased with the outcome,” Parekh says.
There will also be an in-person component for Ikea’s Roblox experience, with hidden QR codes set to go up at Ikea locations in the two pilot countries that vistors can scan to unlock extra items. And an Ikea in the metaverse could one day come to other countries, too. The company says its virtual shop pilot is just a starting point, and it believes we’ll see more of its home furnishings in games going forward.
The State Department says it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States.
The State Department, led by Secretary Marco Rubio, said Wednesday it had instructed consular officers to halt immigrant visa applications from the countries affected in accordance with a broader order issued in November that tightened rules around potential immigrants who might become public charges in the U.S. The suspension will not apply to applicants seeking non-immigrant, or temporary tourist or business visas.
The Trump administration is bringing an end to the abuse of Americas immigration system by those who would extract wealth from the American people, the department said in a statement. Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits.
The statement did not identify which countries would be affected by the pause, but President Donald Trump’s administration has already severely restricted immigrant and non-immigrant visa processing for citizens of dozens of countries, many of them in Africa.
The suspension will begin on Jan. 21.
Matthew Lee, AP diplomatic writer
After two years of declines, United States greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2025a change driven by increased electricity use, due in part to data centers and cryptocurrency mining, as well as cold winter temperatures that meant homes required more heating.
Emissions increased 2.4% in 2025, according to preliminary data from the research firm Rhodium Group. Thats higher than the countrys GDP growth, which increased by a projected 1.9%.
That the countrys emissions grew more than its GDP is notable: Climate experts have long noted that its both possible and necessary to reduce emissions while still growing the economy. And for the past few years, the U.S. has done just that. (Multiple states have also individually reduced their emissions while growing their economies.)
Now, though, 2025 has broken a three-year trend in which the economys growth outpaced our emissions growth.
Heating, data centers, and crypto mining
The main drivers of this emissions increase came from the buildings and power sectors.
Colder temperatures meant more homes had to rely on natural gas and coal for heating. The winter of 2025 specifically led to increased direct combustion of these fuels in buildings, driving up emissions by 56 million metric tons, or 6.8%, compared to 2024, per Rhodium.
Coal generation grew 13% compared to the year prior, making 2025 just the second year in the past decade in which coal generation increased. (Since its peak in 2007, coal generation has shrunk by 64%.)
Coal use grew in part because natural gas prices increased. Utility companies also delayed planned retirements for coal plants in order to meet a growing demand for power, and due to Department of Energy orders.
At the same time, electricity use increased. Total electricity generation grew 2.4% in 2025, mostly because of commercial buildings where data centers, cryptocurrency mining operations, and other large load customers drove electricity demand, according to Rhodium.
The surge in electricity demand comes as AI has fueled a boom in data center construction. (Rhodium’s report also notes that investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure were a major source of U.S. economic growth, as well.)
While transportation is responsible for the highest share of emissions, that sector only saw a 0.1% growth in greenhouse gases compared to 2024. Road traffic actually increased, but the growing share of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids on the road meant gas consumption declined.
How Trump policies could impact emissions
Though U.S. emissions increased in 2025, theyre still below pre-pandemic levels6% below 2019s emissions, and 18% below 2005s emissions.
But Trump administration policies could mean greenhouse gas emissions grow even more.
The Trump administration has already made efforts to curtail climate progress, bolstering the use of fossil fuels, canceling clean energy products, and removing federal tax incentives that would get more people to buy EVs or other energy efficient technologies.
Despite those efforts, which began as soon as Trump took office in January for his second presidential term, the emissions growth in 2025 wasnt really impacted by recent Trump or congressional policies, Rhodium says.
Apart from some modest contributions to increased coal generation from Department of Energy orders to keep a few plants running, we arent yet seeing the direct effects of these policy changes in U.S. emissions, the report reads.
That could change in the next year or two, though, the researchers note, particularly if data center electricity demand continues to surge and the grid responds with more output from existing fossil generators instead of new, clean resources.
Never skip leg day sounds like something a swole gym bro with killer quads might harp on about. But doctors also sing the praises of lunges and split bench squats, and not for the reason you might think.
In a recent article for Vogue, California-based physician Dr. Chris Renna said: Stronger leg muscles are linked to better cognitive function in aging mainly through their effects on blood flow, metabolic health, brain structure, and physical/social activity patterns.
Muscle mass starts to decline at age 30. As the largest muscle group in the body, maintaining muscle strength in the thighs and glutes is especially important for healthy agingand apparently, brain function.
Multiple studies back this up. A 2015 study of over 300 female twins, ages 43 to 73, found the more powerful their legs (measured by pushing one foot as hard and fast as possible against a pedal), the better their cognition a decade on (measured by a series of tests on memory and processing speed).
Another study of 1,500 older adults, with an average age of 70, conducted in 2018, also found an association between stronger legs and better performance on tests of their cognitive function.
A separate study also in 2018, this time conducted on mice, found exercising the lower extremities to be critical to brain and nervous system health. Researchers discovered that neurological health depends as much on signals sent from the leg muscles to the brain as it does the other way around.
This offers an explanation for why patients with neurological diseases experience rapid decline once their movement becomes limited.
It is no accident that we are meant to be active: to walk, run, crouch to sit, and use our leg muscles to lift things, the studys author, Dr. Raffaella Adami, told academic journals publisher Frontiers. Neurological health is not a one-way street with the brain telling the muscles lift, walk, and so on.
The brain-leg connection can be explained by tiny proteins called myokines. When the leg muscles are exercised, they release these messenger molecules, which reach the brain via the bloodstream. Here, they support learning ability, memory, and neural adaptation, the process by which the nervous system adjusts and improves its functioning.
A simple leg day session that includes weight-bearing exercises like lunges, squats, and calf raises will not only improve physical strength. By increasing blood flow, the brain floods with extra oxygen, helping to decrease harmful inflammation in the body.
If youve been known to skip squats or lunges at the gym, it doesnt help that modern life is, for many, characterized by a concerning lack of movement. Commuting to work to sit at a desk for hours, before commuting home again to sit some more on the couch, means our legs often arent getting the regular exercise they need to keep our brain working optimally.
So drop some squats in front of some Netflix or while listening to a podcast. Your glutes wont be the only part of your body that thanks you.
China’s trade surplus surged to a record of almost $1.2 trillion in 2025, the government said Wednesday, as exports to other countries made up for slowing shipments to the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s onslaught of higher tariffs.China’s exports rose 5.5% for the whole of last year to $3.77 trillion, customs data showed, as Chinese automakers and other manufacturers expanded into markets across the globe. Imports flatlined at $2.58 trillion. The 2024 trade surplus was over $992 billion.In December, China’s exports climbed 6.6% from the year before in dollar terms, better than economists’ estimates and higher than November’s 5.9% year-on-year increase. Imports in December were up 5.7% year-on-year, compared to November’s 1.9%.China’s trade surplus surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time in November, when the trade surplus reached $1.08 trillion in the first 11 months of last year.Economists expect exports will continue to support China’s economy this year, despite trade friction and geopolitical tensions.“We continue to expect exports to act as a big growth driver in 2026,” said Jacqueline Rong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas.While China’s exports to the U.S. fell sharply after Trump returned to office and escalated his trade war with the world’s second-largest economy, that decline has been largely offset by shipments to other markets in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.For the whole of 2025, China’s exports to the U.S. fell 20%. In contrast, exports to Africa surged 26%. Those to Southeast Asian countries jumped 13%; to the European Union 8%, and to Latin America, 7%.Strong global demand for computer chips and other devices and the materials needed to make them were among categories that supported China’s exports, analysts said.Exports of electronics and electrical equipment were by far the largest export category, rising 8.4% from a year earlier.Car exports also grew last year. Auto exports surged 21% in 2025 to more than 7 million units, driven by electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry group, on Wednesday.China also exported more grain and fertilizer, while its sales of furniture, shoes and other labor intensive products fell.Strong exports have helped keep China’s economy growing at an annual rate close to its official target of about 5%. That has triggered alarm in countries that fear a flood of cheap imports is damaging local industries.China faces a “severe and complex” external trade environment in 2026, Wang Jun, vice minister of China’s customs administration, told reporters in Beijing. But he said China’s “foreign trade fundamentals remain solid.”The head of the International Monetary Fund last month called for China to fix its economic imbalances and speed up its shift from reliance on exports by boosting domestic demand and investment.A prolonged property downturn in China after the authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing, triggering defaults by many developers, is still weighing on consumer confidence and domestic demand.China’s leaders have made increasing spending by consumers and businesses a focus of economic policy, but actions taken so far have had a limited impact. That included government trade-in subsidies over the past months that encouraged consumers to buy newer, more energy efficient items, such as home appliances and vehicles.“We expect domestic demand growth to stay tepid,” said Rong of BNP Paribas. “In fact, the policy boost to domestic demand looks weaker than last year — in particular the fiscal subsidy program for consumer goods.”In the case of autos, domestic sales rose 6% in 2025, but they fell back toward the end of the year as those subsidies were scaled back or phased out in some areas.Gary Ng, a senior economist at French investment bank Natixis, forecasts that China’s exports will grow about 3% in 2026, less than the 5.5% growth in 2025. With slow import growth, he expects China’s trade surplus to remain above $1 trillion this year.
Chan Ho-Him, AP Business Writer
A GoFundMe page is raising thousands to support a worker at the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan, after he openly criticized President Trumpto his face.
The worker, identified in media reports as TJ Sabula, heckled Trump while he was visiting the plant on January 13. In a video obtained by TMZ, Sabula can be heard calling the president a “pedophile protector.” In response, the president can be seen mouthing an expletive and telling Sabula “you’re fired” before flipping him off.
Ford reportedly didnt hesitate to act, with the automotive giant immediately suspending Sabula, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Fast Company reached out to Ford for comment.
Predictably, and almost just as fast, a GoFundMe page was launched in support of Sabula.
“TJ is a father of two young children, husband, and is a proud United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 600 line worker,” the page reads. “Funds donated will support TJ and his family to cover expenses during this time of uncertainty.”
At present, the fundraising page, which has only been live for about 11 hours, has raised more than $90,000.
Given that GoFundMe and other crowdfunding platforms are increasingly relied upon to help people going through financial challengessometimes spurred by political eventsit’s not the first time the site has made headlines recently.
Less than a week ago, after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot by an ICE agent in her neighborhood, a fundraiser was launched to support her family. The page has amassed over $1.5 million.
Additionally, a page for Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Good, was also created. That page has raised $700,000 at present, including a $10,000 donation from billionaire Bill Ackman.
Fast Company has reached out to GoFundMe to ask if it has verified the campaign for Sabula.
Engine troubles
Sabula’s suspension is not terribly surprising. While Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley and the president have had a complicated relationship at times, Farley has also expressed optimism about Trump’s second term.
He joined President Trump in December when he announced a proposal to slash Biden-era fuel economy standards. Ford also donated $1 million in cash and a fleet of vehicles to the president’s January 2025 inauguration.
Following his suspension, Sabula told The Washington Post that he has “no regrets whatsoever” about heckling the president. He added that Trump was only standing about 60 feet away and heard him “very, very, very clearly.”
If you’d like to do a thorough review of your portfolio and plan, here are the key steps to take. I recommend doing them over a series of sessions, not all at once.
Step 1: Gather your documentation
This could be your current investment statements, plus Social Security and pension. Pro tip: Set up a My Social Security account to get an overview of your benefits and earnings history.
Step 2: Ask and answer: How am I doing?
To find out if you’re on track to reach your financial goals, review your current portfolio balance, combined with your savings rate. Tally your contributions across all accounts. A decent baseline savings rate is 15%, but higher-income folks will want to aim for 20% or more.Also factor in other goals you’d like to achieve, such as college funding or a home down payment. Are they realistic? Make sure you’re not giving short shrift to retirement.If you’re retired or about to be, the key gauge of the viability of your total plan is your withdrawal rateyour planned portfolio withdrawals divided by your total portfolio balance. The 4% guideline is a good starting point, but aim for less if you can.
Step 3: Check up on your long-term asset allocation
Does your total portfolio’s mix of stocks, bonds, and cash match your targets? High-quality target-date series such as those from Vanguard and BlackRock’s LifePath Index Series can help benchmark asset allocation. My model portfolios can also help.A portfolio that tilts mostly or even entirely toward stocks makes sense for younger investors.If your portfolio is notably equity-heavy and you’re within 10 years of retirement, shifting to bonds and cash is more urgent. Just mind the tax consequences when you rebalance.
Step 4: Assess liquid reserves
Holding some cash is crucial to ensure you don’t have to tap your investments or resort to credit cards in a financial crunch.For retired people, I recommend holding six months to two years worth of portfolio withdrawals in cash investments.For those still working, holding three to six months’ worth of living expenses in cash is a good starting point.
Step 5: Assess suballocations, sector positioning, and holdings
Your broad asset-class exposure largely determines how your portfolio behaves. But your positioning within each asset class also deserves a look. Market strength has recently broadened, but growth stocks and funds that own them have outpaced value by a wide margin over the past decade.Finally, check up on your sector positioning, allocation to foreign stocks, and actual holdings.
Step 6: Identify opportunities to streamline
Why have scores of accounts and holdings if a more compact portfolio could do the job just as well?If you’ve changed jobs, you may have multiple 401(k)s and rollover IRAs. Consider consolidating into a single IRA. If you have several small cash accounts, you may be losing out on a (slightly) higher yield.Could you reduce the number of holdings in your portfolios? Index funds and ETFs provide pure asset-class exposure and a lot of diversification in a single package. I also like target-date funds for smaller accounts to provide diversification without any maintenance obligations.
Step 7: Manage for tax efficiency
At this point, if you think changes are in order, be sure to take tax and transaction costs into account. Focus any selling in your tax-sheltered accounts, where you won’t incur tax costs and you can usually avoid transaction costs, too. Within your taxable accounts, review the tax implications and/or get tax advice before executing trades.Also review whether you’re managing your portfolio with an eye toward tax efficiency. Are you making contributions to your tax-sheltered vehicles? Are your taxable accounts as tax-efficient as possible? For a lot of people, this is as simple as holding equity ETFs and/or municipal bonds and bond funds for their taxable accounts. Finally, think about tax-efficient withdrawal sequencing.
Step 8: Troubleshoot other risk factors
Uninsured long-term-care risk is a significant factor for those who are neither well off nor eligible for Medicaid. Develop a plan in case you have sizable long-term-care outlays later in life.Another common risk factor is providing help to loved ones. In this case, it’s often helpful to talk to a financial advisor and/or estate planner to figure out how you can help without jeopardizing your financial future.
This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.Christine Benz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar.Related Links
5 Smart Ways to Diversify Your Portfolio for 2026https://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/5-smart-ways-diversify-your-portfolio-2026
8 Reasons You Might Need to Tweak Your Portfoliohttps://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/8-reasons-you-might-need-tweak-your-portfolio
An Investing Guide for Every Life Stagehttps://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/an-investing-guide-every-life-stage
Christine Benz of Morningstar
Heinzs newest product isnt a ketchup, or a mayo, or some Frankenstein combination of the two. Its a boxand its solving a problem thats plagued lovers of french fries for decades.
The patent-pending Heinz Dipper, unveiled on January 13, is an innovation the company is describing as a first-of-its-kind fry box. At first glance, it looks like a classic french fry box that youd get at any run-of-the-mill fast-food joint, but a closer examination reveals a pullout compartment (shaped like Heinzs keystone logo) that can hold two packets of whatever condiment you prefer.
The Heinz Dipper is debuting at more than 33 restaurant and sports stadium partners around the world in 2026 as a test for potential broad distribution in the future.
[Image: Heinz]
We dont know why the fry box wasnt always designed this way, Heinzs website reads. We just know you cant have fries without Heinz. So, we fixed it.
Over the past few years, Heinz has become known for its stable of, frankly, strange product developments, including Buffaranch (a mixture of Buffalo and ranch sauce), a burger dipping device, and squeezable turkey gravy. Of these clever, often out-of-the-box concepts, the Heinz Dipper feels the most like a product that could become a genuine mainstay in fast-food joints everywhere because it solves a truly universal design flaw.
[Photo: Heinz]
A fry box built for the modern snacker
According to a new ad from Heinz posted to YouTube, the design of the fry box hasnt changed since 1950. Indeed, the design mightve been perfectly serviceable back when a majority of people dined in. Now that takeout and delivery are vastly more popular, though, the form isnt exactly optimized for eating in the car or in front of the TV after a long night out.
Whether balancing sauce packets on car dashboards or squeezing ketchup directly onto individual fries, fans have long struggled to enjoy their favorite pairing away from the table, a Heinz press release reads, noting that 70% of ketchup-and-fry lovers admit to having spilled ketchup when dipping on-the-go, and 80% say theyve considered skipping condiments altogether due to a lack of dip-friendly packaging options.
For Heinz, a patented fry box is a clever way to expand its physical presence into the kinds of establishments where sauce is kinglike fast-food restaurants and stadiumswhich it currently achieves by serving as a supplier of branded sauces and sauce dispensers.
And unlike some of Heinzs other head-scratching innovations (lets be honest, who really needed Barbie ketchup?) the Heinz Dipper has one key hallmark of good design: It raises the question, How has no one thought of this before?
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears will lead to an exodus of wealth.A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other state a few hundred, by some estimates. Nearly half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly $350 billion budget, comes from the top 1% of earners.A large health care union is attempting to place a proposal before voters in November that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires including stocks, art, businesses, collectibles and intellectual property to backfill federal funding cuts to health services for lower-income people that were signed by President Donald Trump last year.In a state with a vast gap between rich and poor, the plan has resulted in a tangle of competing interests at a time when both Democrats and Republicans are struggling to respond to economic anxiety driven by rising costs ahead of this year’s midterm elections.An online war of words has tech leaders pondering a hollowing out of Silicon Valley, and millions of dollars are flowing to political committees engaged in the fight. That includes $3 million from billionaire Peter Thiel, a founder of PayPal, to a committee tied to a business group opposing the tax.However it’s not clear if the proposal will make the ballot, with more than 870,000 petition signatures required for it to qualify.
Threatened exodus
Although the tax would affect only a minuscule slice of California’s roughly 39 million residents, it would siphon money from an immense pool of wealth. If would apply retroactively to billionaires living in the state as of Jan. 1.At least 25 billionaires listed among Forbes magazine’s 2025 rankings of the world’s 500 wealthiest people either lived in California or had some significant ties to the state, based on a review by The Associated Press. But determining whether they were full-time residents or just frequent visitors could turn into a matter of dispute, since many of them own property elsewhere.“You are really playing with fire with this one,” said Aaron Levie, CEO of the publicly traded Silicon Valley company Box. He fears that the proposed tax would drive entrepreneurs to look elsewhere to run their companies and launch startups.Even liberal-leaning tech pioneers would “find it absurd just on pure economic and structural grounds, even if they might agree that the cause itself is very worthy,” said Levie, who is not a billionaire.
Governor worries about a competitive disadvantage
Newsom has long opposed state-level wealth taxes, believing such levies would be disadvantageous for the world’s fourth-largest economy. At a time when California is strapped for cash and he is considering a 2028 presidential run, he is trying to block the proposal before it reaches the ballot.Analysts say an exodus of billionaires could mean a loss of hundreds of millions of tax dollars.“It’s one of the reasons why Newsom’s path to the Democratic nomination is not going to be an easy one,” Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said. “He’s already facing a (budget) deficit the size of which is uncertain and in the years to come, a billionaires tax that could backfire badly.”
Democrats divided on the issue
The proposal has created a deep rift between Newsom and prominent members of his party’s progressive wing, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed it and said it should be a template for other states.“Our nation will not thrive when so few have so much while so many have so little,” Sanders said on the social platform X.Another supporter, and a potential 2028 Newsom rival, is Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who mocked billionaires for threatening to flee over a tax intended to provide health care for lower-income people.The measure’s lead proponent, the Service Employees International Union, sees the threat of an exodus as exaggerated.The tax is a “workable response to a crisis created by Congress,” Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, said in a statement. She added that it would “keep emergency rooms open, hospitals staffed and health care systems functioning.”The California Business Roundtable, meanwhile, is leading an effort to defeat the measure, saying it would “undermine our economy, decimate the state budget, drive investment out of the state and ultimately make everyday life more expensive for working families.”
A business climate known for heavy regulation and steep costs
Fleeing California because of its high cost of living and reputation for stringent regulations started to gather momentum well before the proposed wealth tax began circulating last year.Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with a $724 billion fortune, bought a home in Texas and moved his electric automaker Tesla to Austin several years ago.The financial threat posed by the proposed tax apparently is pushing even more of Silicon Valley’s renowned pioneers to curtail their exposure to California and its liberal policies, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who moved to the state during the mid-1990s for graduate study at Stanford University.Page and Brin stepped away from their executive roles years ago but remain the largest shareholders in Google parent company Alphabet, with stakes that account for most of their combined fortunes of $530 billion, according to Forbes.But both men have begun moving more of their assets to Florida, according to multiple reports. Google, which has been based in Mountain View for the past quarter century, did not respond to an AP inquiry about their recent moves.
Associated Press writer Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California, contributed.
Michael R. Blood and Michael Liedtke, Associated Press
In a parking lot in Detroit next to the Henry Ford Museum, three streetlights now double as EV chargers.
The site is one of the first installations of the Voltpost Air, a device that taps into existing infrastructure to quickly add charging capability at the side of the road or in parking lots.
The approach is simpler than adding stand-alone EV chargers: Installation takes just a few hours. We don’t have to do costly utility upgrades to the grid in order to this, says Jeff Prosserman, cofounder and CEO of Voltpost. We’re just finding pockets where power already exists and then making it work.
[Photo: Voltpost]
Thats possible partly because the chargers are Level 2, meaning they charge more slowly than others and don’t need large amounts of power. Slower charging is still useful for the target customersapartment dwellers or others who don’t have a garage where they can easily charge at home, but who may park in the same spot next to streetlights during the day for hours at a time.
Installing conventional EV chargers often involves much more work. You would rip up the sidewalk, you rip up the street, and then you’d lay down new wire, and basically that would be a very large expense to repair effectively, Prosserman says.
Instead of digging up the road to install new conduit, Voltpost checks to see whether those conduits have spare capacity under electrical code. Then they open up existing access points and pull a single bundled power cable through. If power is overhead, the cable can drop down the pole from above.
[Photo: Voltpost]
The chargers are mounted about 10 feet above the ground. (In the case of the new installation in Detroit, each streetlight has two charging connectors; in other cases there might be one per pole.) Drivers access the charger with an app or by tapping a credit card, and then push a button to extend the charging cable up to 25 feet to their car. Once charging is complete, the cable automatically recoils inside, protecting the hardware from vandalism or rough weather.
The company partnered with AT&T to add connectivity to the devices for remote diagnostics, firmware updates, and performance monitoring so drivers know that the charger is working before they arrive. AT&T is also exploring the possible use of the same poles and conduit for telecom gear like 5G or fiber alongside the chargers, stacking infrastructure to cut costs for both.
[Photo: Voltpost]
Voltpost now has hundreds of new chargers in its pipeline, including many more in Michigan, where the state’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification and DTE’s Emerging Tech Fund are helping fund the rollout. More funding is likely to come from the federal government, despite the Trump administration’s efforts to roll it back. Trump froze funds for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) charger program a year ago, but courts blocked the move. The money goes first to high-speed chargers, but states that have built out a network of those chargers can also use the money to install Level 2 chargers like Voltpost’s.
Around 820,000 new Level 2 EV chargers will be needed by 2030, according to an estimate from the International Council on Clean Transportation. (That many are needed even without the federal EV incentives that were cut last year.) Retrofitting streetlights could be one of the fastest ways to fill that gap.
