Hey friends - thanks for your patience with me getting this out. Bouncing back from being a little under the weather. Hope you’re having a great morning.

🌎 The Big Picture

Here’s what caught my attention this week:

American companies are raking in massive AI profits, but they’re not that interested in sharing with their workers. Investors think they should.

A 2026 Just Capital survey of over 1,000 Americans, professional investors, and executives found a pretty stark divide over who should benefit from all that AI money. Nearly two-thirds of investors and everyday people said reinvesting in workers should be a top priority. Corporate leaders? Not so much. They ranked R&D first, shareholder returns second, and only about half even put workforce reinvestment on their list.

That gap between what people want and what's happening is showing up in the job market right now. 

Tech companies have cut tens of thousands of jobs this year while collectively dropping hundreds of billions on AI infrastructure, according to CNBC. Just Capital found that most of the public, and nearly half of professional investors, think companies should put more than 5% of their AI spending toward helping displaced workers through retraining, severance, or transition support. Fewer than one in five corporate leaders are committed to that. The good news? That number has nearly doubled since last fall, so executives might be coming around. Either way, both businesses and workers need to get ready for what's coming.

Finding a home you can afford in America is getting harder. 

Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies dropped its annual State of the Nation's Housing report this week, and they summed up the market in one word: subdued. Construction's down, sales are sluggish, and costs just keep climbing.

Renting is getting brutal. 

Nearly half of all renter households, around 22.7 million, spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2024, a record high for the fourth year running. Over 12 million of those households are spending more than half their income just on rent, leaving almost nothing for food, healthcare, or savings. The number of rentals under $1,000 a month has shrunk by 7 million units over the past decade, and what's replacing them is way out of reach for most working families.

Buying isn't the escape hatch it used to be, either. 

Existing home sales have been stuck near a 30-year low since 2023, and the median age of a first-time homebuyer has hit an all-time high of 40. Home prices are up 54% since 2020, and monthly payments on a median-priced home now cost more than double what they did five years ago. Single-family construction dropped 7% last year. For younger Americans especially, the gap between what housing costs and what paychecks cover has never been this wide.

For the first time ever, America's getting more electricity from the sun than from burning coal. 

Solar supplied 12.8% of the national grid's electricity compared to coal's 12.2% in May 2026, according to Ember, an energy think tank that crunched government data. Five years ago, solar generated less than half of what it does now, while coal was handling nearly 20% of the grid.

Batteries are the real story here. 

Solar paired with battery storage made up 91% of all new US electricity capacity installed in the first quarter of 2026, per the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie. Even with the White House committing $700 million last week to prop up coal, including funding for the first new coal plants in 13 years, solar's economics just kept winning. Natural gas still dominates at 37% of the grid, so fossil fuels aren't going anywhere fast. But the direction is clear: cheaper solar and better batteries are changing how Americans power their lives.

Prices are squeezing American budgets harder than they have in over two years. 

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index, policymakers' go-to inflation gauge, climbed 4.1% over the past year through May, the fastest pace since April 2023. That's more than double what policymakers are hoping for.

It's not just gas prices. Strip out food and energy, and core prices are still 3.4% higher than a year ago, the fastest since October 2023.

Higher prices aren't stopping people from spending, but savings are taking a real hit. Paychecks are still growing. Disposable income surged 0.7% in May, and even after accounting for higher prices, real purchasing power grew 0.3%. Spending's booming, too. Americans spent 0.7% more in May, and real spending rose 0.3%, not just inflation padding the numbers. But keeping up with higher costs means people are putting less away. The personal saving rate held at 3.0%, nearly a four-year low and less than half the pre-pandemic average of over 7%.

Incomes are keeping pace for now, but households need to make sure they're still building a cushion for the future, and businesses should expect spending habits to shift if costs keep climbing.

🏭 The Companies Everyone’s Talking About

❔ The Big Question of the Week

Scoops app users: We have taken the beta app offline for a short period for some major updates. Can’t wait to show you all what we’ve been working on! Reach out if you have any questions.

We’re going to switch up the content in this spotlight for a bit to make sure you all have the info you need to master your week.