Everyone loves the aha momentthat big idea, concept, or insight. But real impact happens when innovation takes root, at scale. This is where the rubber really meets the road.
We are facing some of the biggest global challenges in decadesfrom socioeconomic changes and an aging population to climate impacts and the real need to feed our rapidly changing world. Innovation is how we turn challenges into ideas and actionable results. But it only matters when it can be scaled, making its way from whiteboards and pilot plants into the real world on shelves and in peoples lives.
So, what does it take to make that happen? The best recipe for scalable innovation starts with the right culture, partners, and willingness to stay the course.
Build a culture of innovation
You dont get world-changing ideas by staying comfortable. The essence of innovation is stepping into something new. Scaling innovation starts by intentionally building a culture of innovation, with the right mindset, beliefs and behaviors. My teams have done this by:
Attracting top talent: Innovation begins with innovators. We consistently focus on recruiting deep expertise and curious minds to our team.
Building world-class capabilities: Driving growth requires investing in capabilities needed for the future (looking at emerging spaces 3-5 years out) even in tough times.
Focusing on customer and consumer needs: Know your why. For us, its fulfilling our purpose through solutions that deliver value to our customers and their consumers. Dedicated innovation and technical teams tagged to strategic customers have made all the difference.
Enhancing innovation systems and processes. Governance and defined processes arent optional. We got creative, working with our audit team to make innovation measurable and so it sticks.
Innovation isnt just R&D. Its a mindset that thrives on experimentation, tolerates failure, and encourages rapid iteration. When you focus not only on the idea, but how that idea creates impact for customers across your organization or industry, thats where the magic happens. You can reinforce how your unique capabilities, processes, and portfolio connect, building conviction to act across an organization, together.
Partnerships drive exponential possibility
Ive been asked a lot about what the benefits are of companies collaborating to drive scalable innovations. To me its simple. Innovation is the ultimate team sport. No one succeeds alone. Period.
Scaling innovations demands a connected system across the supply chain, geographies, and partners. This approach unites experts from academia, startups, VCs, suppliers, and brand-name companies around the same goal: finding science-driven innovations that work.
Part of the equation is balancing profit, purpose, and demand. Innovations must make business sense and deliver profits. But you cant abandon ship at the first sign of short-term volatility.
Thats why this kind of integration is rare and powerful. Sharing risks and rewards requires a foundation of partnership, trust, and clear understanding of the role each of us plays in the full innovation ecosystem.
For Cargill, which supports 30+ startups in 11 countries and almost every continent, partnership takes many forms. We have an early validation program to address the biggest startup challenges, moving from concept to scale. We also partner with universities and accelerators to advance critical research and innovations. And we partner with customers to achieve shared goals of improved health, nutrition, sustainability, and food system resilience
Stay the course
Great ideas are just the beginning. Too many innovations are celebrated early, hitting the top of the hype curve before getting filed away. Why? Because scaling isnt easy.
Scale demands rigor, patience, and some grit. It takes science, systems, and the right incentives to stay committed long enough to see real results. Its the repeatable and reliable innovations that make the real difference, including those that are accessible.
To make sure your innovations stick, build scalability into your innovation plans from the start. Think in systems, prioritize speed, and access and always collaborate. Balance delivering for today (were all accountable to the bottom line) without losing sight of the long-term vision.
The future belongs to those who not only imagine whats possible but who can build it at scale. Thats how we move from aha to innovations that truly change our world.
Florian Schattenmann is CTO of Cargill.
While the No Tax on Tips provision in President Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been making headlines for its tax deductions on tips and overtime, there are plenty of other write-offs tucked into the massive 940 page billincluding one aimed at car owners financing new vehicles with loans. Now that the bill is law, here’s what to know.
Rules for the new car loan tax deduction
Like the “No Tax on Tips” provision, this deduction has a few catches, including but not limited to the fact that it is temporary, set to expire at the end of Trump’s second term in 2028.
Furthermore, the deduction only applies to interest on loans taken out on qualified passenger vehicles used for personal, not business travel, whose final assembly occurred in the United States. The vehicles must be purchased in 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028.
On the plus side for tax filers: In addition to cars, the tax credit will apply to vans (including minvans), sport utility vehicles (SUVs), pickup trucks, and even motorcycles, according to CNN. On the minus side: The tax deduction appears to apply only for new, not used, vehicles.
Who is eligible for the car loan deduction, and how much is the deduction amount?
The deduction is available to those with “qualified passenger vehicles” who fall under certain income limits. For single filers with an adjusted gross income up to $100,000 ($200,000 for joint filers), the deductions on vehicle loans are capped at $10,000 in interest each year (regardless of whether the deductions are itemized).
The deduction amount decreases $200 for every $1,000 over that income threshold, CNN reported.
Who will get the most benefit from this tax break on car loan interest?
Economist Jonathan Smoke at Cox Automotive research firm told CNBC most taxpayers won’t reach the highest amount of the deduction benefit, since only the most expensive cars, like Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, Porsches, or Land Rovers, have annual interest charges of $10,000.
The Earth is pretty good at keeping its pace. However, variations do happen. And on three separate days this summerJuly 9, July 22, and August 5the Earth will spin notably faster than usual.
Of course, you’re not likely to feel dizzy or notice the shift at all, but scientists are well aware of it. They say that over a 24-hour period, the Earth’s rotation will take a few milliseconds less than it usually doesabout 1.3 to 1.51 milliseconds less, to be exact. It’s faster than the blink of an eye or a heartbeat, but it’s significant, either way.
Why is Earth spinning faster now?
Twenty-four hours (86,400 seconds), or a full day, is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate fully on its axis. That exact rotation speed depends on a number of factors, including the Earth’s mass, as well as its distance from the moon. With the moon closer to the poles, the Earth’s spin speeds up. On the days the Earth’s rotation is set to speed up, the moon will be at its farthest distance from Earth’s equator, altering the impact of its gravitational pull on Earth’s axis.
Richard Holme, a geophysicist at the University of Liverpool, said, per Live Science: “There is more land in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern. In northern summer, the trees get leaves. This means that mass is moved from the ground to above the groundfarther away from the Earth’s spin axis.” Thus, it will spin faster.
Interestingly, while the Earth had been gradually speeding up on the regular, climate change has impacted the Earth’s rotation in a major way. It’s actually caused it to slow down.
A 2024 study published in Nature pointed to the melting of the polar ice caps as a significant factor in the Earth’s decelerated pace. At the time, professor Duncan Agnew of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the author of the study, explained the phenomenon by using the example of a skater spinning on ice. “If they hold their arms out, their spinning is slower. But if they bring [their arms] into their body, then they speed up. This demonstrates the conservation of angular momentum, a principle which applies to all spinning objects, including the Earth.
Agnew continued: As polar ice melts, the water spreads out over the whole ocean, causing the same effect as the skater spreading their arms outthe Earth slows down. More rapid melting would slow the Earth more rapidly, opposing the speedup that has been seen in recent years.
Experts began measuring the speed at which the Earth rotates in the 1950s. While variations in speed are not uncommon, the shortest day ever recorded happened just last year on July 5, 2024. On that day, the Earth completed its full rotation 1.66 milliseconds faster than usual. Experts believe July 9, 2025, may break the previously set record.
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings could suggest a market that is heating up.
Since the national Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country that shift has varied significantly.
Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 36 months.
Where is inventory heading deeper into summer? As ResiClub communicated to ResiClub PRO members in late 2023and reaffirmed last fallwe expect national active inventory to approach pre-pandemic 2019 levels in the second half of 2025. Thats still the trajectory were on.
National active listings are on the rise (+28.9% between June 2024 and June 2025). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some sellers markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyers markets.
Nationally, were still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-11.3% below June 2019) and some resale markets, in particular big chunks of Midwest and Northeast, still remain tight-ish.
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June inventory/active listings* total, according to Realtor.com:
June 2017 -> 1,292,371
June 2018 -> 1,216,504
June 2019 -> 1,219,807
June 2020 -> 871,557
June 2021 -> 492,425 (overheating during the Pandemic Housing Boom)
June 2022 -> 573,650
June 2023 -> 614,326
June 2024 -> 839,992
June 2025 -> 1,082,520
IF we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+242,528 homes for sale), we’d have:
1,325,048 active inventory come June 2026
1,567,576 active inventory come June 2027
Right now, were looking at state inventory data. (ResiClub PRO members [paid tier] will get our monthly deep dive analysis looking at inventory shifts and signals for over 800 metro areas and 3,000 counties.)
Below is the year-over-year percentage change by state.
Click here to view an interactive version of the year-over-year map below
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While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it’s loosening in those places too).
As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. Thats where home sellers this spring had, relatively speaking, more power.
In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro area housing markets such as Punta Gorda and Austin. Many of these areas saw major price surges during the Pandemic Housing Boom, with home prices getting stretched compared to local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Tampa and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices. This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt.
Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable deals. That puts additional upward pressure on resale inventory.
In recent months, that softening has accelerated again in West Coast markets tooincluding much of California.
Click here to view an interactive version of the map below
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At the end of June 2025, 10 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventor levels: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Hawaii, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbiawhich we left out of this analysisis also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels too. Weakness in D.C. proper predates the current admins job cuts.)
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Big picture: Over the past few years weve observed a softening across many housing markets as strained affordability tempers the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the Pandemic Housing Boom. While home prices are falling in many pockets of the Sun Belt, a big chunk of Northeast and Midwest markets saw a little price appreciation this spring. That said, given the current softening, ResiClub expects that as the year progresses, more markets will fall into the year-over-year decline camp.
Below is another version of the table abovebut this one includes every month since January 2017.
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If youd like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below. (To better understand ongoing softness and weakness across Florida, read this ResiClub PRO report.)
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An infectious disease once eradicated in the U.S. is making a grim comeback this year.
New CDC data reported on Wednesday reveals that the country tallied its highest number of measles cases since 1992. As of July 8, the U.S. has reported 1,288 cases of measles across 39 states. Of those documented measles cases, almost 90% are concentrated in outbreaks of three or more cases.
The 2025 case tally halfway through the year already exceeds the post-1992 record of 1,274 measles cases reported in 2019. While the official measles numbers are alarming as is, any published number is likely an undercount due to the likelihood of unreported cases.
A wildly contagious virus that poses a particular risk to children, measles was once considered a disease of the past in the U.S. due to widespread uptake of a safe, effective vaccine. The CDC declared measles officially eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, a milestone the agencys website still hails as a historic achievement attributable to a highly effective vaccination program in the country.
Of the 1,288 reported measles cases this year, 29% were children under age 5 and two-thirds of the reported measles infections were people under the age of 19. Of those infected, 92% were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, while 8% had received at least one dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Of the total cases, 13% resulted in hospitalization and three measles deaths have been reported so far.
Clusters of measles outbreaks
While cases have been documented across most states, a major measles outbreak in Texas sent case counts soaring this year. By early July, Texas had reported 753 measles cases, mostly concentrated in a Mennonite community in Gaines County, near the border with New Mexico. Gaines County is one of the least-vaccinated areas of Texas, with almost 14% of school-aged children skipping at least one vaccine dose during the last school year.
Beyond major outbreaks like the one in Texas, measles is making inroads in places that havent reported cases in years. North Dakota recorded its first case in more than a decade in May, when the spread of measles was limited to 11 states.
When it gains a foothold in unvaccinated communities, measles infections spread like wildfire. The virus is extraordinarily contagious and can survive in the air hours after an infected person sneezes or coughs. An estimated 9 out of 10 nonimmune people exposed to the measles virus go on to become infecteda rate that outstrips COVID-19, the flu, and even the deadly Ebola virus.
While vaccines are required for students in all 50 states, the majority of states let students opt out for personal or religious reasons, including Texas. Around the country, more parents of school-aged children are taking that out and declining vaccines in recent years. From 2019 to 2023, measles vaccination rates fell from 95% to 92%. That 95% threshold is important: A community is considered protected against the measles virus when 95% of its members are vaccinated. In Texas, kindergarten vaccination rates are now under 95% in half of counties around the state.
National vaccination rates arent declining in a vacuum. Vaccine skepticismonce a fringe belief in the U.S.has become supercharged in recent years, with a proliferation of misinformation powering its rise. Political leaders have seized on worries about vaccine safety to sow political divisions and in some cases to cash in on the millions flowing to anti-vaccine causes.
Most prominent among them is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who after being appointed by President Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services now shapes the national conversation around vaccines. Earlier this week, a group of major medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics sued HHS and Kennedy, alleging that he made unlawful, unilateral vaccine changes, including withdrawing the CDCs recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women and children.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it’s taking down inappropriate posts” made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler.
Grok was developed by Musks xAI and pitched as alternative to woke AI interactions from rival chatbots like Googles Gemini, or OpenAIs ChatGPT.
Musk said Friday that Grok has been improved significantly, and users should notice a difference.
Since then, Grok has shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism.
Labeling truths as hate speech stifles discussion, Grok said.
It also appeared to praise Hitler, according to screenshots of posts that have now apparently been deleted.
After making one of the posts, Grok walked back the comments, saying it was an unacceptable error from an earlier model iteration, swiftly deleted” and that it condemned “Nazism and Hitler unequivocally his actions were genocidal horrors.
We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts, the Grok account posted early Wednesday, without being more specific.
“Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved.
The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, called out Grok’s behavior.
What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple, the group said in a post on X. This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms.
Musk later waded into the debate, alleging that some users may have been trying to manipulate Grok into making the statements.
Grok was too compliant to user prompts. Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed, he wrote on X, in response to comments that a user was trying to get Grok to make controversial and politically incorrect statements.
Also Wednesday, a court in Turkey ordered a ban on Grok and Poland’s digital minister said he would report the chatbot to the European Commission after it made vulgar comments about politicians and public figures in both countries.
Krzysztof Gawkowski, who’s also Poland’s deputy prime minister, told private broadcaster RMF FM that his ministry would report Grok for investigation and, if necessary, imposing a fine on X. Under an EU digital law, social media platforms are required to protect users or face hefty fines.
I have the impression that were entering a higher level of hate speech, which is controlled by algorithms, and that turning a blind eye . . . is a mistake that could cost people in the future, Gawkowski told the station.
Turkey’s pro-government A Haber news channel reported that Grok posted vulgarities about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and well-known personalities. Offensive responses were also directed toward modern Turkeys founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, other media outlets said.
That prompted the Ankara public prosecutor to file for the imposition of restrictions under Turkeys internet law, citing a threat to public order. A criminal court approved the request early on Wednesday, ordering the countrys telecommunications authority to enforce the ban.
It’s not the first time Grok’s behavior has raised questions.
Earlier this year the chatbot kept talking about South African racial politics and the subject of white genocide despite being asked a variety of questions, most of which had nothing to do with the country. An unauthorized modification was behind the problem, xAI said.
President Donald Trump and his advisers promised a lightning round of global trade negotiations with dozens of countries back in April.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro predicted 90 deals in 90 days. Administration officials declared that other countries were desperate to make concessions to avoid the massive import taxestariffsthat Trump was threatening to plaster on their products starting July 9.
But the 90 days have come and gone. And the tally of trade deals stands at twoone with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam. Trump has also announced the framework for a deal with China, the details of which remain fuzzy.
Trump has now extended the deadline for negotiations to Aug. 1 and tinkered with his threatened tariffs, leaving the global trading system pretty much where it stood three months agoin a state of limbo as businesses delay decisions on investments, contracts and hiring because they dont know what the rules will be.
Its a rerun, basically, said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official whos now an adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. Trump and his team dont have the deals they want. So theyre piling on the threats.”
The pattern has repeated itself enough times to earn Trump the label TACOan acronym coined by The Financial Times Robert Armstrong that stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.
“This is classic Trump: Threaten, threaten more, but then extend the deadline, Reinsch said. July 30 arrives, does he do it again if he still doesnt have the deals? (Trump said Tuesday that there will be no more extensions.)
The deal drought represents a collision with reality.
Negotiating simultaneously with every country on earth was always an impossible task, as Trump himself belatedly admitted last month in an interview with the Fox News Channel. (Theres 200 countries, the president said. You cant talk to all of them.) And many trading partnerssuch as Japan and the European Unionwere always likely to balk at Trumps demands, at least without getting something in return.
Its really, really hard to negotiate trade agreements, which usually takes several months even when it involves just one country or a small regional group, said Chad Bown, an economic adviser in the Obama White House and now senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. What the administration is doing is negotiating a bunch of these at the same time.
The drama began April 2”Liberation Day,” Trump called itwhen the tariff-loving president announced a so-called baseline 10% import tax on everybody and what he called reciprocal levies of up to 50% on countries with which the United States runs trade deficits.
The 10% baseline tariffs appear to be here to stay. Trump needs them to raise money to patch the hole his massive tax-cut bill is blasting into the federal budget deficit.
By themselves, the baseline tariffs represent a massive shift in American trade policy: Tariffs averaged around 2.5% when Trump returned to the White House and were even lower before he started raising them in his first term.
But the reciprocal tariffs are an even bigger deal.
In announcing them, Trump effectively blew up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffsbut under the most favored nation approach, they couldnt charge one country more than they charged another.
Now Trump is setting the tariff rates himself, creating tailor-made trade plans for each and every country on this planet, in the words of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
But investors have recoiled at the audacious plan, fearing that it will disrupt trade and damage the world economy. Trumps Liberation Day tariffs, for instance, set off a four-day rout in global financial markets. Trump blinked. Less than 13 hours after the reciprocal tariffs took effect April 9, he abruptly suspended them for 90 days, giving countries time to negotiate with his trade team.
Despite the Trump administrations expressions of confidence, the talks turned into a slog.
Countries have their own politics, their own domestic politics, Reinsch said. Trump structured this ideally so that all the concessions are made by the other guys and the only U.S. concession is: We dont impose the tariffs.
But countries like South Korea and Japan needed to come back with something, he said. Their thinking: We have to get some concessions out of the United States to make it look like this is a win-win agreement and not a we-fold-and-surrender agreement.
Japan, for example, wanted relief from another Trump tariff50% levies on steel and aluminum.
Countries may also be hesitant to reach a deal with the United States while the Trump administration conducts investigations that might result in new tariffs on a range of products, including pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
Frustrated by the lack of progress, Trump on Monday sent letters to Japan, South Korea and 12 other countries, saying hed hit them with tariffs Aug. 1 if they couldnt reach an agreement. The levies were close to what hed announced on April 2; Japans, for example, would be 25%, compared to the 24% unveiled April 2.
Trump did sign an agreement last month with the United Kingdom that, among other provisions, reduced U.S. tariffs on British automotive and aerospace products while opening the U.K. market for American beef and ethanol. But the pact kept the baseline tariff on British products mostly in place, underlining Trumps commitment to the 10% tax despite the United States running a trade surplusnot a deficitwith the U.K. for 19 straight years, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
On July 2. Trump announced a deal with Vietnam. The Vietnamese agreed to let U.S. products into the country duty free whle accepting a 20% tax on their exports to the United States, Trump said, though details of the agreement have not been released.
The lopsided deal with Vietnam suggests that Trump can successfully use the tariff threat to bully concessions out of smaller economies.
They just cant really negotiate in the same way that the (European Union) or Korea or Japan (or) Canada can negotiate with the United States, said Dan McCarthy, principal in McCarthy Consulting and a former official with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in the Biden administration. A lot of (smaller) countries just want to get out of this and are willing to cut their losses.
But wrangling a deal with bigger trading partners is likely to remain tougher.
The U.S. is gambling that these countries will ultimately be intimidated and fold, Reinsch said. And the countries are gambling that the longer this stretches out, and the longer it goes without Trump producing any more deals, the more desperate he gets; and he lowers his standards.
“Its kind of a giant game of chicken.
Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
A union representing thousands of city workers in Philadelphia and the city have reached a deal to end a more than weeklong strike that halted residential curbside trash pickup and affected other services, officials said Wednesday.Nearly 10,000 blue-collar employees from District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees had walked off the job July 1, seeking better pay and benefits after failing to agree with the city on a new contract.The tentative agreement was announced on what would have been the ninth day of the strike. That period, which included the Fourth of July holiday weekend, created a backlog of trash. Some drop-off centers were overflowing.Mayor Cherelle Parker announced the end of the strike and the agreement with the union on social media. “The work stoppage involving the District Council 33 and the City of Philadelphia is OVER,” she posted.“We have reached a tentative agreement with District Council 33, which must be ratified by its membership on a new three-year contract that, coupled with the one-year contract extension we agreed to last fall, will increase DC 33 members’ pay by 14 percent over my four years in office.”Parker said, “we’ll have much more to say about this historic deal” at City Hall.District Council 33 is the largest of four major unions representing city workers. Its membership includes 911 dispatchers, trash collectors, water department workers and many others. Police and firefighters weren’t part of the strike.Last week, judges had sided with the city in ordering some critical employees back to work at the city’s 911 centers, water department and airport.“The strike is over! Details forthcoming,” the union posted on Facebook Wednesday morning.Union President Greg Boulware briefly spoke with reporters after the deal was reached. “We did the best we could with the circumstances we had in front of us,” he said.The city had designated about 60 sites as drop-off centers for residential trash, but some were overflowing, while striking workers on hand asked residents not to cross the picket line. Most libraries across the city are were closed, with support workers and security guards off the job.
Asssociated Press
Some news stories are gobsmackingly obvious in their importance. Others are complete nonstories. So what to make of the departure of Linda Yaccarino after two years as CEO of X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk?
On the surface, its a story. But truthfully, her exit is about as newsworthy as the departure of a rank-and-file programmer. Her departing tweet was chipper (she called X a digital town square for all voices), but its difficult to discern whatif anythingwill change in her absence.
After two incredible years, Ive decided to step down as CEO of . When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. Im immensely grateful to him for entrusting me— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025
She arrived in mid-2023 as the slick ad chief meant to lure blue-chip brands back to a platform Musk had turned into a carnival of chaos. Two bruising years later, ad dollars remain skittish, the hate-speech headlines louder (she exits in the middle of xAIs Grok deciding it hates Jews and doesn’t care who knows about it), and the companys fate still yoked to Musks midnight posting habit rather than Yaccarinos boardroom polish.
Yaccarino was a puppet CEO, and even months into her tenure, Musk seemed to lose interest in tugging at the strings. Her brand safety crusade evaporated each time Musk reposted conspiracies or amplified antisemitic tropes, detonating whatever confidence shed just sold. Her promise of a changed X during a Senate hearing was promptly undercut by the owner bragging about slashing bureaucracy. Advertisers that dared to dip a toe back in bolted again after Musks live-streamed harsh instruction to nervous brandsGo fuck yourselfmade her Cannes talking points look like fan fiction. (X did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment.)
The root problem was structural: Yaccarino accepted a job whose remit was satire. She was asked to run the company, but given no control over product, policy, or the owners timeline. Her calendar filled with advertiser therapy sessions while Musk torched their brand guidelines in real time. That dissonance turned a respected NBCUniversal exec into the corporate equivalent of a cardboard cutout: a caricature of boardroom propriety, rolled onstage for investor calls, wheeled off when the real show began.
Critics might argue no mortal could tame Musks libertarian bent. Perhaps. But Yaccarino compounded the risk by embracing it. A chief executive who cannot veto a single repost or freeze a buggy rollout was a mascot, not a leader. Her legacy, then, is cautionary: credibility cannot be subcontracted. And brand safety doesn’t mean anything if you don’t follow words with action.
Yaccarino departs with her résumé intact enough for the conference circuit. We can probably expect a TED talk on leading through turbulence by Christmas, and wink-wink appearances on podcasts (NDA permitting). In the end, Yaccarinos departure is newsworthy only as a footnote in Musks ongoing demolition of X; she is, ultimately, just another professional reputation left smoldering in his wake.
After only two years on the job, Linda Yaccarino announced on X Wednesday that she is stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s social media platform. Musk hired Yaccarino to run X in 2023.
When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company, Yaccarino posted. Im immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.
Yaccarino’s post did not indicate why she was leaving.
Yaccarino’s departure comes as X has been plagued by criticism of its right-wing partisan politics and growing antagonistic tone. Meanwhile, Musk himself has also been highly criticized for his role in gutting a number of U.S. federal agencies in the name of efficiency through his brainchild, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) resulting in Tesla’s stock tanking, Tesla Takedowns boycotts, and his own plummeting ratings.
The news comes days after Musk’s artificial intelligence platform Grok faced backlash for antisemitic and offensive posts. (X users shared Grok posts that used the phrase “every damn time” in response to Jewish surnames, which has been seen as an antisemitic meme, as well as screenshots of it openly praising Hitler.) Musks artificial intelligence company xAI built Grok, and then integrated it into the X platform.
In response, the Anti-Defamation League responded on X that Grok “is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple.”
“This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms,” it also wrote. On Wednesday, it added, “In this moment, tech companies need to be leaning forward to fight antisemitism and extremism. Instead, many are taking huge steps back. ADL data shows that when social media platforms make cuts to moderation tools, an explosion of antisemitism follows.”
Fast Company has reached out to X for comment on Yaccarino’s departure, as well as the Grok backlash.
