• OpenAI says it isn’t changing its plans after the 2026 midterms.
• CFO Sarah Friar said the company will keep investing in data centers.
• Across the country, Democratic candidates who pledged to rein in the AI industry were successful.

The 2026 midterms haven’t changed OpenAI’s IPO plans, OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar says.

“Look, we are paid as operators to manage scenarios,” Friar said on Friday during a live interview on CNBC. “I don’t think there was something that dramatically changed for us.”

Friar referred back to OpenAI’s previous plans to target an IPO sometime next year. All eyes are on Anthropic, OpenAI’s chief rival, and whether it will forge ahead with an IPO, perhaps as soon as this month.

Democrats turned in a generational-level rout of Republicans in the midterm elections, not only flipping control of Congress but coming into the new year with healthy majorities. At the state level, Democratic candidates flipped governorships in Texas, Georgia, and Ohio after running on promises of reining in new data center development.

Friar said OpenAI, which is trying to rebrand data centers as “compute campuses,” will continue to invest in the sprawling facilities that are central to both OpenAI and the broader AI industry’s future.

“When I think about the midterms, I need to keep thinking about how do we keep investing to meet that customer demand,” she said. “It starts early with having built relationships with all of the hyperscalers, and it will continue to mean that we raise capital.”

On Thursday, OpenAI announced what it called “a new standard for responsible AI infrastructure.” Under its pledge, OpenAI said it would pay the full cost of the electricity it uses and any necessary grid improvements, do away with non-disclosure agreements with public officials (with narrow exceptions), and publish data on the jobs it expects to create.

“If the midterm means more focus on data centers and communities, we’re going to keep doing the work to get into those communities and to build trust with them,” she said.

Friar said that OpenAI’s business remains healthy. She said that in the third quarter, OpenAI’s revenue grew 70%, including a doubling of its enterprise sales. She said that OpenAI’s latest private funding round is at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation, though she likely misspoke and meant $1.25 trillion. In March, OpenAI announced that it had closed a funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation.

“I genuinely think that is a good indication of our Q3 momentum and how that momentum carries into 2027,” Friar said.

Friar said one reason she’s excited for an IPO is because a market debut would be in line with OpenAI’s mission to ensure artificial intelligence for all.

“I personally feel very driven to put that economic value creation that’s happening into as many hands as we can,” she said. “Like, why should it just be limited to institutions?”

• Helen Sharp was one of the victims on board the Learjet that crashed in Florida on Sunday.
• She was a PR professional, ceramics artist, and world traveler.
• Sharp was remembered by friends as being an ambitious, determined person who lived life to the fullest.

On Sunday, a private jet flying from Austin to the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach, Florida. The nine people on board were all killed.

One of the victims was Helen Sharp, a 40-year-old PR professional and ceramicist, who was flying with her husband, Adam Robinson; their children, Emma and Charlie; their friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr; and their children’s nanny, Anita Maria Cetina.

Based on accounts from friends, family, and fellow artists who knew her, Helen Sharp was a talented ceramics artist, a world traveler, a loving mother and wife, and a beloved friend.

“Helen embodied a life well lived,” said a statement posted on her ceramics Instagram page on behalf of friends and family. “She embraced the world, made beautiful things, built lasting relationships, and loved her people fiercely. “

She graduated from the University of Arizona

Sharp grew up in Houston and attended the University of Arizona.

According to a tribute Facebook post from the University of Arizona School of Art, she graduated in 2009 with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a focus in art history and anthropology.

She traveled the world

Her LinkedIn showed that she spent time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as an ESL teacher from 2008 to 2009 and in Taipei, Taiwan, as a writer and editor from 2013 to 2014.

“I left my family, friends, and everything I knew to be alone — to grow up away from society as I knew it,” she wrote in an Instagram post in November 2025 about her time in Taiwan. “My isolation and regrowth were pivotal to my development as an adult.”

According to her LinkedIn, she returned to Argentina in 2015, where she worked for several years, first as a business development manager and then as an account executive.

It was in Buenos Aires that she “met the love of her life, Adam,” the Instagram statement said.

She made a career in public relations

In 2019, Sharp founded her own boutique public relations agency, Influential PR, which focused on sustainable and mission-driven brands.

She announced in May 2024 that her close friend of 20 years, Molly Ford Leibowitz, would be joining Influential PR as COO and partner.

She had a love for ceramics and opened her own studio

Sharp had a self-professed “lifelong love for clay” which started when she first touched clay in kindergarten.

Sharp posted on LinkedIn in February that she had started her own ceramics studio in Aspen, and that Leibowitz would continue to run Influential PR.

“Helen was incredibly ambitious, talented, and a light to be around,” Texas-based ceramic artist Rebeca Proctor commented on Instagram.

Proctor told Business Insider that she and Sharp were family friends growing up in Houston and became closer when Sharp began taking a class at the community pottery studio Proctor owned.

At the time, Proctor recalled, Sharp was in the third trimester of her pregnancy with her son Charlie, whom she called her “miracle baby.”

“I remember her coming into the studio, very pregnant, just glowing and beaming with joy, working on this huge piece,” Proctor recalled. “She was incredibly strong though, and determined, but also knew when to accept help. We were all amazed by her.”

Sharp went on to pursue her goal of having a successful career as a ceramics artist, taking workshops with artists such as Austin Coudriet, Paul Briggs, and Bari Ziperstein.

Proctor remembered Sharp as being humble and ready to learn.

“I think in every part of her life, Helen had a vision, and she would always see it through, even through challenges — which, in ceramics, there are many!”

She was beloved in the ceramics community and beyond

After the tragedy, tributes to Sharp and her family flooded in.

“She was my ceramics sister,” a fellow ceramics artist commented on Instagram. “I can’t even say how much her just being her inspired me to be the woman I am today, and to believe in my own power and talent and the possibilities in front of me.”

“She had this beautiful ability to turn any moment into something fun, to make people laugh, and to make even an ordinary day feel special,” wrote another commenter, who said he’d met Sharp in Argentina and hired her.

Bari Ziperstein, one of the artists Sharp had learned from, commented, “I’m in total shock! What a loss for the ceramic community & all that she was building.”

She loved her children and family

Sharp was remembered as having been deeply devoted to her family and husband.

“Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever,” the families’ joint statement read.

The Instagram post on her ceramics account remembered her and Robinson having “built a life rooted in family, adventure and love.”

“Her happiest place was next to Adam and their two beautiful children, along with their dog Bonnie, who was always by her side (and usually in her lap),” it continued.

“She was a wonderful mother and an incredible person who lived life to the fullest,” Proctor told Business Insider.

• Apple said the waitlist for Siri AI is now reserved only for periods of “high demand.”
• It’s an important update as the tech company leans into its fresh AI capabilities.
• Siri AI will be a better assistant, Apple said, because it gets more user context.

The new AI-ified Siri is getting closer to ditching its waitlist.

On Monday, Apple published an updated blog titled “How to get Siri AI,” where the tech company said the feature would automatically download for eligible users who opt in.

Previously, Apple device users who wanted Siri AI would join a waitlist. Consumers reported that the queue lasted anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days.

Apple now says it will use a waitlist only during periods of “high demand.”

The update is a small but notable shift for Apple’s fresh AI bet — it shows that the company is getting more comfortable opening the gates to its more powerful Siri assistant.

Siri AI, which was revealed in June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, can draw on a user’s personal context across apps like iMessage, Calendar, Mail, and Photos to perform tasks such as quickly finding a flight number or identifying products on a device’s screen. It also gets its own independent app.

“With Siri AI, we really have the Siri that we always wanted,” John Ternus, the company’s new CEO, said during the company’s earnings call on Monday. “It is primarily request-based today, but as we talked about at WWDC, it is built on a modern, orchestrator-driven architecture that gives us real room to expand its capabilities over time.”

The feature is still in beta and requires an Apple Intelligence-capable device. For iPhone users, that means they need an iPhone 15 Pro or later model.

• Nicole Bernard Dawes built Late July into a successful snack brand before selling it and launching Nixie.
• A tortilla-chip launch helped Late July rebound from debt and grow before it was sold to Campbell’s.
• Nixie, her current business, sells organic, zero-sugar soda in more than 11,000 retailers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicole Bernard Dawes, the 53-year-old founder and CEO of Nixie, a zero-sugar soda brand based in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was very fortunate to grow up in an entrepreneurial environment.

I watched my father, Steve Bernard, start and run Cape Cod Potato Chips, and my mom owned a health food store. They shaped who I am as a founder.

Growing up, I spent many days after school at the factory or at my mom’s store. My dad really wanted me to understand the business, so he would show me how to do things like read a P&L.

I went on to found Late July Snacks in 2003 and sold an 80% stake to Snyder’s-Lance in 2014. I remained CEO until Campbell’s acquired Snyder’s-Lance in 2018, adding Late July to its portfolio.

After the sale, we started looking into something we had been thinking about during the Late July days. We saw a gap in the market for a USDA-certified organic, zero-sugar beverage to pair with our chips.

Nixie was born in late 2019, and we’re now in over 11,000 retailers nationwide.

I’ve been working with my husband since Late July

We have two kids. I was pregnant with my oldest son when I started Late July. I decided I wanted to have dinner as a family every night and be present in their lives.

My husband left his film career to join me at Late July, which allowed one of us to always be home with our kids. We didn’t travel at the same time for many years.

I started Late July with my father as a cofounder. He died relatively suddenly, and our bank put a big loan we had in default due to his passing. It was the height of the recession.

I have a roll-up-my-sleeves, get-it-done mentality

I had to get myself out of my comfort zone and network as much as possible because I had to repay that loan. I had to fix the company by figuring out why we weren’t reaching the next level.

We had trouble affording our groceries. One of the things I’m really good at is budgeting, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably are. We definitely were not spending money on much of anything, and it was very stressful, but I always believed we would find a way out.

We were able to persuade the bank to give us more time. I rejected some options, such as selling more equity in the company. In the end, a mission-driven lender agreed to refinance the debt.

The breakthrough was starting our tortilla chips line in 2010

Late July started in crackers, then we innovated into tortilla chips and eventually other types of snacks. I was never afraid to compete in a competitive category. Our tortilla chips were gluten-free, allergen-free, and delicious, so almost everybody could eat them. That line basically catapulted us into the future.

I don’t think any of it was a mistake, because it led us to learn what we needed to know about our brand and probably made us stronger.

The company went from about $8 million in sales and struggling to repay its loans to being on track to reach $100 million within three years. By the time Campbell’s acquired Snyder’s-Lance, we were a large, profitable company.

Most of our team wasn’t being retained by Campbell’s

We’d spent 10 years building a team of around 27 people we respected and trusted — smart people who were great at their jobs and who really liked working together.

That’s one of the hardest things to find when you’re building a company. We were able to retain a lot of the leadership team for Nixie.

We had that great team, and we saw a part of the supermarket that needed what we could bring to the conversation. Those two things drove us to start Nixie almost right away.

Initially, we self-funded Nixie

Having $0 in revenue and starting from scratch was quite different, but there are enormous advantages to it being your second time around. I made so many mistakes along the way with Late July. I’m not going to make zero mistakes at Nixie, but hopefully I won’t repeat the same ones.

We decided to start with sparkling water and put in our own money after the Late July sale. We brought in a few angels who’d been part of Late July, including Short List Capital. Nixie later raised at least $8 million in a 2022 financing.

Last year, we raised more than $26 million from investment firm Invus, and its managing director, Evren Bilimer, joined our board.

The best way you can spend your marketing dollars is trade marketing

That’s spending it directly with a store. You’d be hard-pressed to get a better ROI anywhere than a display with a key retailer.

The second-best way is sampling. If you’re passionate about your products and they taste great, getting other people to try them should translate into sales. If you can sample with your retailers, even better, because you’re sampling the people who work in that store, too, and they’re some of your best evangelists.

We partner with organizations like HeadCount, which does voter registration drives at festivals and events, so we get to both support a cause we believe in and hand out samples.

The hardest decision at Nixie so far has been who to bring in as a partner investor

It is so important. It’s really like a marriage. You need to think long and hard about it, and really feel great about it. You should not have any reservations, because whatever you’re seeing as red flags will come back 10 times once the relationship unfolds.

My husband and I took that extremely seriously. In the end, we feel very lucky and really grateful for who we partnered with. Especially if you’re a mission-driven or organic brand, you need to make sure you’re in lockstep with your partners.

I’ve learned that the bigger you are, the more change you can drive

One of my investors in Late July was an organic activist who helped change the market with his brand. He taught me a lot, and I’ve since testified before Congress about the importance of organic agriculture.

What I want to build is a healthy beverage brand that’s a market leader, one that helps make the beverage aisle a healthier place for everybody. I love this brand, I’m so proud of it, and all I care about right now is building something strong.

• Several US colleges have numerous alums who went on to prolific political careers in the Senate.
• Many of the colleges are Ivy League or have extremely low acceptance rates.
• Harvard University has produced the most graduates among the senators in the incoming Congress.

US senators come from all sorts of different educational backgrounds.

Some graduated from the US Naval Academy or smaller private schools, but at least 43 of the 100 senators who will serve in the incoming 120th Congress attended just 10 prominent universities.

Alaska’s Senate race is still uncalled; if Sen. Dan Sullivan retains his seat, the total will rise to 44.

Using public biographies of returning and newly elected senators as of the 2026 midterm elections, Business Insider compiled a list of the institutions with the most alums who hold undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, law, or medical degrees.

Some have graduated from multiple of the listed universities. Honorary degrees and schools a senator attended without graduating were excluded.

Harvard University, the oldest college in the country and one of the hardest to get into, tops the list.

Here’s a look at the 10 US colleges with the most senator alums who will serve in the 120th Congress.

Brigham Young University

Senators: Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Lee (R-UT), and John Curtis (R-UT).

Sen. Crapo graduated from BYU in Utah with a bachelor’s degree in political science, as did Sen. Lee.

Sen. Curtis earned a bachelor’s degree in business management.

Dartmouth College

Senators: Angus King (I-ME), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

Dartmouth is the smallest Ivy League school by undergraduate enrollment.

Sen. King earned a bachelor’s degree in government, Sen. Hoeven earned a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Sen. Gillibrand graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies.

Duke University

Senators: Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Rand Paul (R-KY).

Sen. Alsobrooks studied public policy, Sen. Moore Capito studied zoology, and Sen. Paul received a medical degree.

Princeton University

Senators: Ted Cruz (R-TX), Dave McCormick (R-PA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

Princeton is an Ivy League university.

Sen. Cruz earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy, Sen. McCormick earned a Ph.D. in international relations, and Sen. Merkley earned a master’s degree in public affairs.

University of Chicago

Senators: Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Todd Young (R-IN).

The University of Chicago’s five Senate alums span the political spectrum, from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts.

Both Sen. Sanders and Sen. Kim earned a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Sen. Ricketts graduated with both a bachelor’s degree in biology and an MBA. Sen. Young also earned an MBA, while Sen. Klobuchar earned a law degree.

University of Virginia

Senators: Incoming Sen. Andy Barr (R-KY), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), John Kennedy (R-LA), Angus King (I-ME), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Sen. Kennedy, Sen. King, and Sen. Whitehouse earned law degrees from the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.

Sen. Moore Capito earned a master’s degree in education. Incoming Sen. Barr earned his bachelor’s degree in government and philosophy.

Stanford University

Senators: Cory Booker (D-NJ), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Sen. Booker, Sen. Schiff, and Sen. Wyden all earned bachelor’s degrees in political science. Sen. Booker also earned a master’s in sociology.

Sen. Hawley earned a bachelor’s in history, and Sen. Merkley earned a bachelor’s in international relations.

Georgetown University

Senators: John Barrasso (R-WY), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

Georgetown University’s appeal is partly due to its location in the nation’s capital.

At least two of its Senate alums earned law degrees: Sen. Hirono and Sen. Van Hollen. Sen. Sullivan — whose race remained uncalled as of Thursday — also earned a law degree from Georgetown.

Sen. Barrasso, meanwhile, earned a medical degree from Georgetown’s School of Medicine.

Yale University

Senators: Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), senator-elect Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chris Coons (D-DE), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Five of Yale’s eight Senate alums earned law degrees from the university: Sen. Bennet, Sen. Blumenthal, Sen. Booker, Sen. Coons, and Sen. Hawley. Sen. Coons also earned a master’s degree in religion.

Sen. Klobuchar earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, while Sen. Whitehouse earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture. Incoming Sen. Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies.

The Ivy League school is in the top 5 most selective schools in the US, with an acceptance rate of 4%.

Harvard University

Senators: Kurt Alme (R-MT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Jack Reed (D-RI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), James Talarico (D-TX), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA).

Half of the Ivy League school’s Senate alums earned Juris Doctor degrees from there: Sen. Cotton, Sen. Cruz, Sen. Kaine, Sen. Crapo, Sen. Reed, Sen. Schiff, Sen. Schumer, Sen. Warner, and incoming Sen. Alme.

Sen. Blumenthal earned a bachelor’s degree in government, as did incoming Sen. Pappas. Sen. Fetterman and Sen. Van Hollen each earned a Master of Public Policy degree.

Sen. Gallego earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations, and Sen. Sullivan earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. Incoming Texas Sen. Talarico earned a master’s in education policy.

• When my husband and I announced our move to the UK, I was surprised that my family felt surprised.
• My British husband had spent years in the US for me, and I’d always wanted to live abroad.
• I made a presentation explaining our choice to move, which helped us spark honest conversations.

In the spring of 2024, my husband, Paul, and I bought a house in England and were preparing to move that summer.

We’d been talking about leaving the US since we started dating a decade prior, but now that it was happening, several of my family members seemed shocked. I kept hearing our decision to move was “weird.”

The idea that my loved ones considered this decision “weird” stressed me out and left me feeling confused.

I’ve wanted to live abroad since I was an exchange student in Australia in 1989. Over the decades that followed, I considered moving to Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Serbia, Vietnam, and Canada, but life kept getting in the way.

When Paul and I got together, I had a shared custody arrangement and moving wasn’t possible, so Paul, who is British, sacrificed and made his home in America. We agreed that when my son graduated from high school in 2024, we’d reconsider where we wanted to live.

In 2022, we began seriously exploring our options. We house-hunted in Ireland and Oxford before discovering Portishead, a seaside town near Bristol that reminded us of our former home on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.

By then, Paul had spent roughly a decade away from his family. His mother had died, he’d suffered a major heart attack, and his adult son was settling down in England. We wanted to be closer to him as he started his own family.

I didn’t think I needed to explain to my family why we were leaving

As moving day approached, I began to feel increasingly misunderstood.

I’d spent years talking about living overseas, and Paul had spent a decade away from his family to be with me. I knew our decision would be emotional for everyone, but I hadn’t expected to feel as though I needed to justify it.

I was sad that I didn’t feel I had everyone’s full support.

I wanted to find a way to clearly explain myself to all of my family members at once, but I assumed they wouldn’t read a long letter or text. That’s when I got the idea for a photo-heavy presentation to refresh their memories and reframe the story.

I spent an entire weekend making a 33-slide PowerPoint presentation titled “Is It Weird That I’m Moving to the UK?”

In it, I went all the way back to 1989, documenting 35 years of international adventures, abandoned relocation plans, and conversations about eventually leaving America.

I explained why we’d chosen England, why the timing made sense, and I addressed the question I suspected was troubling everyone: How could I leave my son and aging parents?

Minutes after sharing the presentation, the conversations shifted.

For the first time, I felt we were discussing the actual emotions surrounding the move rather than whether my decision made sense.

Looking back, I wonder if calling the move “weird” was simply another way of expressing sadness about the distance that would separate us.

Two years later, our family relationships are thriving

My American family has embraced our new home, and a new family saying is “normalize going to England.”

Last year we did Christmas here, and this year, some of my English family members are traveling with us to celebrate it in the US.

We’ve also been able to participate in milestones that we might otherwise have missed. We attended Paul’s son’s wedding, and in September 2026, we welcomed our grandson, Benjamin.

Living across an ocean from family still requires effort. The time difference is absolutely brutal, and I have to accept that we can’t be present for every occasion.

I also understand my family’s initial reaction better now: It’s difficult when someone you love chooses to live thousands of miles away.

Ultimately, I’ve learned that a major life decision can make perfect sense to the person making it and still be painful for the people affected by it.

And that sometimes the best way to finally get everyone communicating openly is to explain several decades of personal history in a PowerPoint presentation.