• April was a massive bounce-back for global markets, with stocks hitting all-time highs.
• Hedge funds across the board had strong Aprils; Hedge Fund Research states it was the best month since 2020.
• Funds such as Tiger Global, CastleKnight Management, Light Street, and more surged.

Claims of historic performance are often exaggerated on Wall Street. But April was one for the record books.

The sharp rebound across global markets pushed stocks to all-time highs, with the S&P 500 rising more than 10% in April. Hedge Fund Research called it a “historic gain” for the industry, with the average fund up 4.8% — the second-best monthly return since 2009, behind only November 2020.

And still there were funds that stood out for their eye-popping performance.

Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global, the long-running stockpicking firm, was up 15% in its flagship hedge fund strategy, putting it at roughly 3% for the year, a person close to the New York-based firm told Business Insider. Another of the firm’s growth-stock-obsessed peers, Glen Kacher’s Light Street Capital, returned 18.2% in April, pushing its 2026 returns to 11.3%.

But it wasn’t just stockpickers focused on US tech companies that dominated.

CastleKnight Management, the $3.6 billion event-driven fund run by billionaire David Tepper’s nephew, Aaron Weitman, was up 21.2% last month and has made 26.9% on the year. Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital, which manages $21.6 billion in assets, made 6.6% in its Tactical Trend strategy and 4.2% in its Quant Macro offering in April; those two strategies are now up 20.5% and 11.1%, respectively, in 2026.

Emerging-markets-focused manager Carrhae Capital, a London-based firm run by former SAC trader Ali Akay, was up 10% on the month through April 24 in the firm’s long-short strategy. It pushed the strategy’s year-to-date gains into black, with returns of 5.5%, HSBC’s Hedge Weekly stated.

In Hong Kong, another former investor for Point72 founder Steve Cohen, Angus Wai, has his Asia-focused multimanager firm firing on all cylinders. A person close to Polymer Capital, which runs fundamental and quant strategies, said the firm was up more than 7% in April and more than 15% on the year. The managers mentioned declined to comment.

Liberation Day lessons pay off

Several factors contributed to the stellar month for hedge funds. The commodity shocks and inflation fears in March stemming from the US-Iran war eased in light of ceasefire discussions, however tenuous.

AI and technology stocks also staged a comeback, ripping late in the month after robust earnings from hyperscalers Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.

“For most funds, April was less about embracing a benign macro regime and more about monetizing crisis hedges, covering shorts, and deciding how quickly to rebuild equity risk into a tape moving faster than most risk frameworks anticipated,” industry research firm PivotalPath said in a research report.

A common theme among outperformers was holding on to core positions during the chaos in March. One prime broker told Business Insider that client activity was more muted, focused on hedging rather than selling longs and cutting shorts, a contrast with the Liberation Day tariff mayhem a year ago.

That tactical adjustment was rewarded, PivotalPath noted, as the managers “who recovered fastest had maintained high-conviction core longs beneath index-level hedges through March and when ceasefire headlines improved the risk tone, they did not need to rebuild from cash.”

• Microsoft is offering buyouts to US employees who want to retire.
• The buyout includes cash, insurance, and stock vesting based on employee level and service years.
• The program helps Microsoft cut costs as it plans significant spending.

Microsoft released details of its buyout offer for long-serving employees in an internal document viewed by Business Insider.

Microsoft last month announced it would offer buyouts to employees at level 67 and below in the US who have 70 or more years of age and service. Microsoft said it would share the details with employees on May 7.

The buyout offer helps Microsoft cut costs as it plans significant spending, including $190 billion in capital expenditures this year, primarily related to its AI infrastructure buildout. The company recently said it expects head count to decrease in the coming quarters.

Business Insider obtained a full copy of the document, an internal explanation of the so-called Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP). According to the document, eligible employees who take the buyout will receive:

• A lump-sum cash payment equal to a minimum of eight weeks and a maximum of 39 weeks of base pay, based on seniority and tenure. Employees levels 64 and below will receive one week of base pay per six months of service, and employees levels 65 to 67 will receive two weeks of base pay per six months of service.
• Up to five years of insurance coverage, including medical, dental, and vision for the employee and their dependents. Microsoft pays for the first year.
• Continued regular stock vesting for six or 12 months, based on years of service.
• Continued retirement stock vesting for employees who meet certain requirements.
• Last day of employment July 1.

Employees with less than 24 years of service will receive six months of unvested stock awards after their employment ends. That vesting period will expand to 12 months for employees with more than 24 years of service.

The document states Microsoft has no plan to offer another voluntary retirement program in the future.

Read the full details of Microsoft’s buyout package (edited for length and clarity):

“What is included in the VRP Benefits Package?

…

VRP extended healthcare

VRP participants may be eligible for up to 5 years of continued post-employment access to Microsoft medical, dental, vision, and Wellbeing at Microsoft coverage for themself and their eligible dependents.

Year 1: Microsoft subsidized

Years 2-5: VRP participants will pay a monthly premium

Coverage may end sooner than 5 years from termination date, depending on personal circumstances and timing, including eligibility for Medicare or other coverage options.

Cash Lump Sum payment

A lump sum cash severance payment payable following termination of employment equal to the following:

For employees at Levels 64 and below: One (1) week of base pay for every 6 months of regular service to Microsoft, with a minimum of 8 weeks and a maximum of 39 weeks.

For employees at Levels 65-67: Two (2) weeks of base pay for every 6 months of regular service to Microsoft, with a minimum of 8 weeks and a maximum of 39 weeks.

Continued Stock Award vesting

6 months of continued scheduled vests of unvested stock awards following the termination date.

This 6-month continued vesting period will be extended to 12-months if the VRP participant has 24 years or more of continuous service.

Stock plan retirement

If the VRP participant’s most recent date of hire was before August 1, 2023, and if their unvested stock award provides for continued vesting following an eligible “Retirement,” and if on their termination date they are either (1) age 64, or (2) within one year of attaining age 55 with 15 years of continuous service, then they will be treated as meeting the age and service requirements for Retirement under the award agreement(s) for any and all unvested stock awards.

This will result in continued scheduled vesting of any unvested stock awards that were granted more than one year before their termination date and are eligible for Retirement vesting under the terms of the award agreements (generally non-SSA awards). All other requirements for Retirement set forth in the award agreement(s) must still be met.

What are the actions & timeline for VRP?

This one-time program has specific and fixed timeline as shown here.

… [Business Insider removed some administrative deadlines here for length and clarity]

July 1: Last day of Microsoft employment for VRP participants.

July 2: Microsoft employment termination date for VRP participants.

Will VRP be offered again in the future?

We understand why people ask this question—it’s natural to want clarity when you’re thinking about your future.

At this time, there is no plan or commitment to offer another voluntary retirement program. This is a unique one-time action.

How does the VRP impact employees who are not eligible?

The VRP is a one-time, voluntary program for eligible employees. If you are not eligible, you may experience changes on your team if colleagues elect to retire from Microsoft with VRP. Eligibility for VRP does not influence how decisions are made regarding other workforce changes. Organizational and workforce decisions continue to be based on business priorities and needs and are not determined by VRP eligibility.

Who is eligible for the VRP and how was eligibility determined?

Eligibility is based on objective, predefined criteria applied consistently across the US employee population and finalized prior to the program launch. Managers and leaders do not determine eligibility.

To be eligible for the VRP, employees must have met these requirements:

• Microsoft employees on US Payroll at Level 67 or below who are not on a sales and services incentive plan (namely a S, T, D, V, M, or P (other than P2) Plan); and
• Employees whose age + years of service (as of June 30, 2026), each rounded to the nearest whole number, equals 70 or more (Rule of 70).

For this purpose, years of service will include non-continuous service with Microsoft as well as continuous service as an employee of an acquired company immediately prior to and continuing through the date of the acquisition by Microsoft or a subsidiary.

Any service before a break in employment with an acquired company, prior to the acquisition by Microsoft or a subsidiary, will not be included.

Employees must also be active or on approved leave and in good standing (have not resigned or been notified of an involuntary separation) and remain in good standing through their separation date of July 2, 2026.

Why are there eligibility exclusions?

This program was designed very intentionally around a narrow population where both tenure and role structure aligned with a one-time retirement offering funded within this fiscal year. Roles on sales incentive plans have fundamentally different compensation structures and fiscal commitments, which made inclusion in this program not viable. In addition, individuals who have previously been notified of a job elimination and have not yet separated employment as a result (for example, their termination date has not passed yet or they are on a leave of absence) are not eligible for VRP.

This very small population is already eligible for severance benefits and therefore will not be eligible for VRP.

Why is this program only available to US employees?

The VRP is limited to US employees for a few reasons:

First, the largest number of employees who meet the program criteria are based in the US, so this is where the program would have the greatest impact. Second, the design of the package reflects US-specific realities — particularly around healthcare. Across the US, more than a few employees delay retirement primarily because of uncertainty around their healthcare coverage until eligibility for Medicare, which is the US government program assuring coverage for Americans at a certain age.

A key feature of the VRP is extended healthcare coverage access geared towards helping employees mitigate or even close this gap.

Finally, the complexity of designing and delivering this first-of-a-kind program led us to concentrate on a single-country rollout.”

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• A 2023 text exchange between Mira Murati and Sam Altman was exposed during the OpenAI trial.
• It’s a reminder to employees about the risks of putting sensitive information in writing.
• An employment attorney says even if you’re using a personal device, it can become fair game in litigation.

You might think twice before sending that text in your work group chat.

The Musk v. Altman trial has exposed a 2023 text exchange between Mira Murati and Sam Altman — and it’s a reminder for workers of the risks of putting sensitive information in writing.

The two-day viral conversation took place amid Altman’s high-profile ouster from OpenAI. The messages show him repeatedly asking for a meeting with a board and Murati, who was acting as interim CEO, repeatedly telling him they didn’t want him back.

Murati was having conversations with OpenAI’s board in real time, so it may not have made sense to switch to a call. Generally, though, it’s a lesson that just about anything and everything in writing can come up in legal proceedings — or at least be monitored by your employer.

Good digital hygiene

Most workers won’t find themselves facing a similar situation to Altman — but in the era of AI and hybrid work, workplace communication is being increasingly documented.

As teams exchange larger volumes of information across digital platforms, there’s a greater risk of sensitive information being shared.

Peter Rahbar, an employment attorney in New York and co-host of the “Across the Bar” podcast, says he often sees clients who have work content on their personal phones. He recommends that people carry two phones and keep work content confined to one.

That’s because even if you’re using a personal device, it can become fair game in litigation if you do work on it, Rahbar said.

“Anything that’s potentially relevant to the case is subject to discovery. It doesn’t matter what device it’s on,” he said.

Rahbar said that subject matter determines whether something can be roped into a legal dispute. Litigation requests capture any relevant information, regardless of location or platform. That could include Instagram DMs, WhatsApp messages, or ChatGPT prompts, he said.

Those AI notetakers that are popping into more and more work calls are often also creating written and audio records.

The legal risk isn’t limited to digital communications, Rahbar said. Journal entries, for example, could be used as evidence, as shown with OpenAI President Greg Brockman.

Rahbar recommends that people delete personal communications, such as text messages, at least once or twice a year. Even then, he said, deleting your message doesn’t mean the other person will do the same. That’s why Rahbar recommends in-person conversations or — sorry, Gen Z — phone calls for sensitive subjects.

The risks of putting it in writing

Texting a coworker instead of messaging them on Slack or Teams may reduce the risk of workplace oversight, but it doesn’t protect those conversations from legal scrutiny.

In many cases, people don’t learn these lessons until it’s too late, Rahbar said. While most workers may not think they’re saying anything risky, they aren’t likely to enjoy having their devices seized in an expansive search.

As ever, people should be careful about what they put in writing — unless they’re comfortable having it repeated or used against them later, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

“We make assumptions about how we communicate,” Tobias said. “And then maybe they come back to bite us.”

• Lorraine English, 72, loved living in Florida, but hurricanes made life there difficult.
• In 2025, she moved from Bradenton — a city along the Manatee River — to Asheville, North Carolina.
• English says that with fewer natural disasters and lower housing costs, her quality of life has improved.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lorraine English, a 72-year-old Floridian who moved to North Carolina in 2025. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I lived in San Francisco for many years, but in 2000, I moved to Bradenton, Florida, a town between Sarasota and St. Petersburg. I lived there for more than 20 years, right along the Manatee River, which runs into the Gulf of Mexico.

Bradenton is a medium-sized town, but like a lot of places in Florida, it’s been growing by leaps and bounds. It has a similar feel to Sarasota, and it’s close to beautiful white-sand beaches. It’s also very much a boating community. Overall, it’s a nice town and a good place to raise a family.

But there are downsides to living in Bradenton. Being so close to the Manatee River means seeing the effects of rising sea levels up close. The city’s roads are prone to sunny-day flooding, which happens when rising sea levels and high tides push water up through storm drains, even on clear, sunny days.

When I first moved to Bradenton, the road near my home would flood only a couple of times a year. But over time, it happened more often. Starting about five or six years ago, it flooded nearly every day during the summer, and the water began creeping into people’s yards.

Over time, I also started noticing fiddler crabs in people’s yards. They’re tiny — about an inch long — and they burrow in the sand, leaving little holes behind. I remember thinking, “Oh my God, the ocean is starting to take this back.”

I didn’t want to endure another hurricane

Bradenton has become very unaffordable — and that’s happening all over Florida because of rising property taxes and homeowners’ insurance costs.

Two years ago, my homeowners’ insurance with hurricane coverage — not including flood insurance, which is a separate policy — went up to $7,000 a year. On top of that, my property taxes were about $3,000 a year. Altogether, I was looking at around $10,000 a year just for insurance and taxes.

Even though I’m financially stable and technically could have afforded it, I didn’t want to keep paying those costs.

I started seriously thinking about leaving Bradenton — and Florida altogether — in August 2024, when Hurricane Debby hit. I was completely dumbfounded. My home wasn’t directly impacted, but I saw so many communities completely flooded.

That’s when I truly realized hurricanes in Florida, and the impacts of climate change, are only going to keep getting worse — and they did.

In September, Hurricane Helene brought a 7-foot storm surge into my neighborhood. Thankfully, my house didn’t flood, but in some cases, homes closer to the river saw as much as 7 feet of water. Afterward, a lot of my neighbors sold their homes as teardowns. Others decided to completely rehab their houses and stay, or eventually sold them.

The last storm I went through in Florida was Hurricane Milton. The worst damage to my home was to my pool cage. Milton took down one side of it, basically knocked it right down. I spent about $6,500 fixing it, and honestly, I consider myself very lucky.

Asheville, North Carolina was exactly what I was looking for

In 2023, I started looking at other parts of the United States where I might want to live — places with lower homeowners’ insurance and property tax costs. Asheville, North Carolina, was one of those places.

Before moving, I put my home in Florida on the market. It was built in 1951 and was a ranch-style house with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a garage. The property was really large, with a pool and three 150-year-old oak trees.

When I listed it, I got a contract pretty quickly and even had offers above my asking price. One offer was $25,000 over the list price, but I ended up taking the list price because it was a cash offer. At that point, I just wanted out of Florida.

In 2025, I moved to Asheville, and I absolutely love it here. It’s neither too big nor too small, which I really like. It’s also beautiful and surrounded by forests and mountains. I live about half a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway, so there are tons of trails nearby. There are so many songbirds and so much wildlife.

I live in a small community tucked into a wooded area. I bought a three-level condo here, which works out really well because my son lives with me and works from home.

I told him, “I’m getting older, and one day you’re going to be my caregiver, so you might as well live with me.” The setup is great because he has his own space on the bottom floor, and I have mine upstairs.

I miss Florida, but I’m not moving back

Asheville does get its share of natural disasters, too, but for me, the climate and the change of seasons make it worth it. The summers aren’t boiling hot, and the weather actually feels livable — especially after dealing with Florida’s relentless heat and humidity.

I do miss Florida from time to time, especially my little home and neighborhood.

I had some really great friends in Bradenton, and it was such a nice place to be in the evenings. I could walk west along Riverview Boulevard and see the sunset, or sit under the oak trees in my backyard.

But when I think about all the storms and the destruction I saw, I couldn’t be happier to have left Florida in the rearview mirror.

• Google is piloting a new interview process where software engineering candidates use AI in interviews.
• It’s part of a bigger overhaul of Google’s interview process.
• The changes will “better align with the modern engineering landscape,” Google said in an internal doc.

Want a software job at Google? Bring your AI wingman.

The company is piloting a new interview process for software engineering candidates that will let them use an AI assistant, according to an internal document reviewed by Business Insider.

The change is part of a broader overhaul of Google’s interview process, which the document says is being made “to better align with the modern engineering landscape.”

Google will test the new format, which applies to junior to mid-level roles, to select teams in the US and plans to scale it more widely across the company and regions later if it’s successful.

Starting in the second half of the year, Google will permit the use of an “approved” AI assistant during its “code comprehension” round. Candidates will be expected to “read, debug, and optimize” an existing code database, the document states.

“Interviewers will evaluate Al fluency, including prompt engineering, output validation, and debugging skills,” it adds.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the plans and said its own AI model, Gemini, would be the AI assistant used by candidates during the pilot phase.

“We’re always evolving our interview processes to ensure we’re recruiting and hiring the best talent,” Brian Ong, vice president of recruiting at Google, told Business Insider. “As a part of that, we’re rolling out a pilot for software engineering interviews to be more reflective of how our teams are operating in the AI era.”

The new interview process reflects the significant changes that AI has brought to software developer roles. In late 2025, Anthropic and OpenAI launched new models that dramatically improved the capabilities of coding agents.

Now, three-quarters of new code created inside Google is generated by AI, the company said in April. That same shift is happening elsewhere. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, recently said that AI has gone from writing 20% of code to 80%.

‘Human-led, AI-assisted’

The Google document outlines several other changes the company intends to make to its interview process, which will be piloted first.

The “Googleyness and Leadership” round — which has typically focused on behavioral questions — will now also involve a technical design discussion about a candidate’s past project.

For more junior candidates, one of the technical rounds will be replaced with an interview that will require them to “tackle open-ended engineering challenges,” the document states.

The company will pilot the new formats across several orgs, including Cloud and its platforms and devices unit, this month.

Google’s move follows what some tech startups have been embracing for a while. Graphic design giant Canva and AI coding startup Cognition are among the companies allowing candidates to use AI in technical interviews.

Emily Cohen, who heads people and operations at AI coding company Cognition, told Business Insider last week that it has changed its interview process to incorporate AI use.

“I guess this is like asking a kid to take a math test without a calculator,” she said about not allowing AI use in interviews. “For the bulk of building something similar to what you would do on the role, you can and should use AI tools.”

The document about Google’s new interview process describes it as being “human-led, AI-assisted” and says the format should better simulate a software engineer’s “workflow in the GenAl era.”

Additional reporting from Shubhangi Goel.

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• Most Americans eat half the recommended daily amount of fiber.
• A vegan cardiologist eats 90 grams of fiber a day thanks to her plant-based diet.
• Fiber can lower “bad” cholesterol levels, help you feel full, and reduce the risk of cancer.

Most of us don’t eat enough fiber. Not Dr. Danielle Belardo, though.
She routinely eats a whopping 90 grams a day, more than most Americans get in a working week.

“There’s no guideline that says anyone should reach 90 grams of fiber a day, it just happens to be what I eat,” Belardo, a vegan cardiologist practicing in Los Angeles, told Business Insider.

The general recommendation is for fiber to make up 14 grams of each 1,000 calories we consume. That amounts to at least 25 grams a day or the fiber in two cups of black beans. But only 10% of Americans actually get that much fiber. Most are lucky if they get even half of that.

A high-fiber diet packed with foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, helps the body remove waste products, like bile acid, and effectively sucks “bad” cholesterol out of the bloodstream. Low-fiber diets are linked with poor heart health, higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancers, including colon cancer and breast cancer.

But “fibermaxxing” by suddenly increasing the fiber in your diet if your body isn’t used to it can lead to bloating, gas, and stomach cramps. So, it’s advised to add fiber to your diet slowly and steadily, making sure you’re staying well-hydrated along the way.

Here’s how Dr. Belardo beats out just about everybody else when it comes to packing fiber (and protein) into her daily meals.

Breakfast: a smoothie, with berries, protein powder, and frozen spinach

Belardo’s typical breakfast smoothie:

• 1 cup of frozen raspberries (8 g of fiber)
• 1 cup of frozen blackberries (8 g)
• 1 cup of spinach (1 g)
• 1 scoop of protein powder (4 g)

Fiber from breakfast: 21 g

Belardo has nearly hit the daily target for women, which is 25 to 28 g, and she has only just started her day!

Lunch: avocados, beans, and whole grains

At lunchtime, Belardo does some variation on a grain bowl.

A fiber-rich lunch:

• 1 whole avocado (10 g)
• 1/2 cup of black beans (7.5 g)
• 1 cup of quinoa (5 g)
• 1 cup of Brussels sprouts (4.5 g)
• 1 Tbsp of chia seeds (5 g)

Fiber from lunch: 32 g

Total fiber consumed so far: 53 g

Dinner: pasta, chickpeas, broccoli, and beans

“Bean pastas are such a great option to get high fiber in,” she said. She often recommends these to her patients looking to lose weight and improve their heart health.

Fiber fills you up, and fiber-rich foods tend to replace other, less nutrient-dense foods in a person’s diet.

“If you’re eating 30 grams of fiber from fruits and vegetables, that is naturally only going to displace something else that may be less health-promoting,” she said.

Belardo added: “You can do lentil or chickpea, but one that’s got a super high amount of protein and fiber that I love is edamame and mung bean pasta.”

A high-fiber dinner:

• 1 1/2 cups of cooked edamame and mung bean pasta (24 g)
• 1/2 cup of cooked chickpeas (6 g)
• 1 cup of broccoli (5 g)
• 1 Tbsp of black beans (1 g)

Fiber from dinner: 36 g

Total daily fiber: 89 g (Her average daily fiber intake, she said, tends to be about 90 grams, give or take).

It’s better to get fiber from foods than supplements

Supplements can help level out deficiencies, but Belardo doesn’t typically recommend them, because fiber-rich foods have so many benefits that simply can’t be replicated by a pill or powder.

“It’s not just the fiber itself that’s beneficial, it’s the food it comes packaged with,” Belardo said. “It’s also coming with phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and all these other things.”