• The US national debt topped $40 trillion this week, potentially impacting consumer interest rates.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is using debt buybacks to manage high bond yields.
• Rising federal debt since 2015 has increased loan costs and could continue to impact consumer loans.

Owing $40 trillion might sound daunting. But for the American government, ballooning debt has become the new business as usual — even if it takes a bite out of consumers’ wallets.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department announced that the national debt had reached over $40 trillion, up by more than $11 trillion over the last five years.

Also this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stepped in to try to ease skyrocketing yields — the 30-year US Treasury yield hit its highest level since June 2007, as investors looked to offload bonds amid continued oil price uncertainty.

Bessent took some unexpected direct action, implementing debt buybacks on longer-term federal debt, which temporarily eased yields, although they’ve crept back up in the following days. Bessent indicated that new tariff revenue could take a bite out of the deficit, and also signaled that the administration could continue those buybacks.

“Actions like these can make a modest difference for rates in the short term, but only reducing deficits will provide the long-term fix,” Caleb Quakenbush, the director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said.

The growing federal debt could hit Americans in their pockets. As the federal government’s debt load grows, lenders may seek higher interest rates to compensate for higher risk. That in turn can push up interest rates on the larger purchases that are most important to many consumers — think mortgages and auto loans.

“Our nation’s lenders, concerned about the lack of a plan to get our fiscal house in order, are asking taxpayers to pay more for what government borrows,” Quakenbush said. “That also raises the cost of debt for everyone else. If a mortgage is out of reach, or financing for your business has gotten more expensive, the debt is part of the reason.”

The Yale Budget Lab found that when lawmakers raise deficits without measures to offset those costs, interest rates tend to grow. Their model — which looked at the increase in federal debt from 2015 through 2025, and tracks the impact of fiscal policy on interest rates and loans as of the third quarter 2025 — finds that the federal debt growth over that period raised annual costs by $2,500 for the median home mortgage and $120 for the average auto loan.

“While $40T itself is hard to conceptualize in total, per person it’s upwards of $100k,” Abhi Gupta, the author of the Yale analysis, said. “In the same way homeowners take seriously the responsibility of making their mortgage payments, the national debt is large enough to deserve a similar level of consideration — both because any realistic plan to bring it down involves tradeoffs and because its growth makes all sorts of other borrowing more expensive too.”

• Micro1 says it’s making an offer “materially higher” than Google’s for Spirit Airlines’ data.
• The AI startup told the airline it will pay $12.5 million for its data.
• Bankruptcy experts say overturning the deal is possible, but a long shot.

Another AI company wants to get its hands on Spirit Airlines’ data.

Ali Ansari, 25, the founder and CEO of Micro1, a startup that helps train AI models, told Business Insider that his firm is making a “materially higher” offer for Spirit Airlines’ data after Google successfully bid $10 million for it this week.

Micro1 sent a $12.5 million offer to Spirit Airlines’ legal team on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

Spirit Airlines is selling off its assets in bankruptcy court — including troves of corporate data — after going under last year.

Bankruptcy experts told Business Insider it would be unusual — but not out of the question — for the court to consider Micro1’s offer after it missed the deadline to bid in the original auction.

Ansari said Micro1’s interest reflects the value of company data for training AI models, as it contains the kind of messy inputs that help AI models learn to operate in real-world environments.

“Realistic data is very valuable,” he said, calling Google’s winning bid “actually quite low” given Spirit Airlines’ decades of operation. Micro1 pays other companies up to $2 million for their data.

Based in San Francisco, Micro1 pays gig workers to improve AI models for its clients, and runs digital ‘environments’ where AI agents can get better at tasks like booking train tickets. Founded in 2022, it has about 150 employees and has fielded offers at a $2.5 billion valuation, Forbes reported in December.

AI training startups are scrambling to acquire data from companies to supercharge their clients’ chatbots. Mercor, another AI training startup, also bid for the Spirit Airlines data, sparking a bidding war with Google, which initially bit $5 million. Mercor’s final bid of $7.5 million lost to Google’s $10 million.

Google, Spirit Airlines, and Mercor declined to comment on Micro1’s last-minute move. A representative for Spirit Airlines’ creditors committee didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Whether Micro1 can actually disrupt Google’s deal isn’t clear.

Bankruptcy law professors told Business Insider that judges sometimes entertain late bids if they could generate significantly more money for creditors and shareholders, or offer other terms that those parties find more favorable.

At the same time, courts also want to preserve the integrity of the original auction process.

“A duly noticed, well-run auction generally won’t get undone,” Nancy Rapoport, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said. “The higher bidder had the opportunity to bid during the auction.”

Lindsey Simon, an associate law professor at Emory University, said it often comes down to the judge overseeing the case.

“The bankruptcy code isn’t clear on this,” she said.

The federal bankruptcy court in New York has not yet approved the auction results.

On Tuesday, it delayed a hearing on the auction after a group of former Spirit Airlines’ flight attendants objected over concerns about what would happen to their data.

Google previously told Business Insider that any data it receives will be “rigorously scrubbed” of any personally identifiable information by a third party.

A hearing for the data sale will be held on September 9. Ansari said Micro1 is working on submitting details about its offer to the court.

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• Tanium cofounder Orion Hindawi resumes the CEO role as Dan Streetman steps down on Thursday.
• Tanium also had a small round of job cuts last week.
• The $9 billion cybersecurity firm has been facing competition from AI.

Tanium is turning back to its roots.

The $9 billion cybersecurity company is bringing back cofounder Orion Hindawi as CEO, replacing Dan Streetman after less than four years in the role, as the company looks to navigate the AI upheaval reshaping software companies.

Hindawi’s father and another cofounder, David Hindawi, will return to the role of chair, while Streetman leaves the company’s board. Prior to Streetman joining the company, Orion Hindawi served as CEO for over 15 years.

Tanium also had a small round of job cuts last week, affecting around 35 employees in research and development, according to sources familiar with the matter. According to a corporate fact sheet, Tanium had 1900 employees as of 2025.

Like many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, Tanium has been facing more competitive pressure as AI changes how businesses buy and use enterprise software. The company said it plans to expand its AI offerings and autonomous capabilities. This leadership shake-up follows several executive departures this year, as Business Insider previously reported. Tanium has stayed private since its founding in 2007, and it was last valued at $9 billion in 2020.

“AI has made what we do more critical than ever, and Tanium is the platform every organization will rely on as threats grow more sophisticated and the pace of change intensifies,” Orion Hindawi said in a statement.

Tanium hired its chief financial officer, Marc Levine, in 2021 to conduct a “readiness assessment” for an initial public offering. Several employees and executives had left Tanium in the past few years due to uncertainty about whether the company would ever go public, Business Insider previously reported.

Last year, Tanium cracked down on its return-to-office policy by withholding some equity grants from employees who don’t comply, Business Insider previously reported.

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• Disney plans to start a stock purchase program and is changing its health insurance plans.
• The Mouse House cut stock-based compensation for some tech employees in April.
• A Disney spokesperson said the firm is “making measured adjustments” to health plans as costs rise.

Disney is shaking up its employee benefits by launching a stock purchase program and switching up its health insurance plans.

Eric Chaisson, Disney’s EVP of total rewards and employee services, told US-based employees about the changes in a Wednesday memo.

“We’re planning to introduce an Employee Stock Purchase Plan later in 2027, pending approvals, giving eligible employees the opportunity to build company ownership by purchasing Disney stock,” Chaisson said in an email, which was viewed by Business Insider.

Details of the stock purchase plan “are still being finalized,” Chaisson said, including who’s eligible and how the program will be designed.

The new stock program could be a way for Disney to encourage retention and boost morale after multiple rounds of layoffs this year. It could also help Disney staffers make more money without the company giving raises. However, Disney employees won’t strike it rich if the stock continues to underperform the market.

CEO Josh D’Amaro‘s company had a major round of cuts in April and reduced stock-based compensation for some tech staffers shortly after. Disney’s ESPN let go of additional staffers in July, and some staffers in other parts of the company, including Pixar, were also affected.

Two software engineers previously told Business Insider that their long-term incentive awards, which are restricted stock units vesting every six months for three years, were cut from 35% of their base salary to 25%.

Disney is also changing “most medical plans” next year, Chaisson said, which will affect employee contributions. However, Disney isn’t switching health insurers, a person familiar with the updates said.

“Unlike in past years, your current coverage will not automatically roll over: nearly all employees will need to actively choose their plans and re-enroll any dependents for 2027,” Chaisson said. He added that Disney is “encouraging everyone to take a fresh look at their options and choose what works best for them and their families.”

When asked for comment, Disney spokesperson said: “Like a growing number of large employers, we’re making measured adjustments to our employee benefits in response to rising healthcare costs nationwide.”

The spokesperson said Disney would share more details about these changes with staffers in the coming months and said the company is “committed to providing our employees with a comprehensive package of high-quality coverage and other benefits that support their total health and well-being.”

Businesses across the US are grappling with surging healthcare costs. Employers’ healthcare expenses are expected to rise 9.5% next year, insurance brokerage giant Aon said on Thursday.

Disney is also “evolving” well-being programs and consolidating some “to create a more consistent and streamlined experience,” Chaisson said. He added that the company is doubling the number of counseling sessions available in its Employee Assistance Program.

Disney at a discount

Disney’s stock purchase plan announcement comes amid a yearslong share slump. Shares are up over 15% from their late-July low but are down 8% in the past year and 38% in the last five years.

Stock purchase programs let employees buy their firm’s shares at a discount, usually about 15% below the market rate, said Josh Bersin, who runs the HR consulting firm The Josh Bersin Company.

That contrasts with stock-based compensation programs, which give eligible employees shares at no charge. Employees must stay at the company for a certain amount of time to collect their shares.

Stock-based compensation can be a highly effective retention tool, especially for staffers at hot companies like OpenAI or Anthropic, Bersin said. But when a stock doesn’t move much, like in Disney’s case, employees with unvested shares might be less reluctant to leave.

Letting employees buy shares at a discount can be “a better way of managing benefits when the stock is not going up a lot,” Bersin said, since they’ll profit unless shares tank more than the employee discount.

“They end up with employees who are more committed and feel like owners,” Bersin said.

Bill Castellano, a professor of human resource management at Rutgers University, said that an employee stock purchase plan is “much broader based” than stock-based compensation, which is usually reserved for managers or high-ranking staffers.

This new program could be a way for Disney to extend an olive branch to employees and boost morale, given that its April move to cut stock-based compensation “can send a pretty negative signal,” Castellano said.

One Disney software engineer said they were “totally stoked” to join the stock purchase program.

Another software engineer was less enthused, saying their level of interest would depend on the program’s terms.

Shares acquired through these programs would be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income unless they were held for more than a year.

“The tax complexity is such that it would be beneficial to someone who holds and feels the company is a long-term prospect for growth,” the second software engineer said. “It doesn’t seem like an easy win.”

• Meta’s new app, Pocket, is officially launching in the US.
• The app lets users create and share interactive content “you can play with.”
• Pocket comes from the team behind a Gizmo, a similar app.

Meta’s new vibe-coding social app, Pocket, is officially here.

“We’re starting to roll out Pocket, a new app that turns your ideas into interactive creations you can play with and share right from your phone,” a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider.

Pocket, which quietly launched as a test in July, is a social feed that lets users turn text prompts into interactive media. Think mini games and quirky memes.

The app was developed by the team behind Gizmo, a similar app from Atma Sciences Inc., which was founded by ex-Snapchat staffers. Business Insider scooped in March that Meta hired the Atma Sciences team and acquired a non-exclusive license to its technology.

Pocket and Gizmo are pretty much identical app experiences. Atma Sciences announced on Thursday that it is shutting down the original Gizmo app.

Other startups, like Sekai and Wabi, are also taking a stab at turning vibe coding into a social experience, and investors are taking note. Then there are creators who are carving out a niche by turning interactive mini apps into viral content.

How Meta’s vibe-coding app works

You open Pocket to a vertical feed. Instead of scrolling past pictures or videos, you scroll through posts called “gizmos.” You can interact with these posts by dragging, drawing, or tapping on the screen. There are comments, likes, and reposts. You can’t DM, but you can share links to gizmos.

To make a gizmo, all you have to do is type up a prompt. For instance, I prompted: An old desktop computer where when I click on the screen, this image appears. (It’s a meme.) Within seconds, Meta’s Pocket app created an interactive post.

There, I did it! I vibe coded!

If the output isn’t exactly what you dreamed up, you can tweak it. Pocket lets you fine-tune the prompt, adjust the visuals, and add music. And if you like someone else’s gizmo, you can remix it with your own twist.

Pocket runs on Meta’s Muse Spark model, developed by Meta Superintelligence Labs.

Meta doesn’t have plans to integrate Pocket with other apps, like Instagram, at the moment, the spokesperson told Business Insider.

That could be fun, though.

Meta’s ‘family’ of apps is getting bigger

Pocket is one of Meta’s latest stand-alone apps. The company appears to be ramping up its strategy of launching new apps, since reaping benefits from the success of Threads, its X (formerly Twitter) competitor.

Other apps Meta has launched recently include:

• Instants (similar to Snapchat)
• Forum (a new app for Facebook groups)
• Creator Studio (a separate app for content creators)

New apps mean new places to unlock advertising.

I didn’t spot any ads on the nascent Pocket app — but I can see a potential future with interactive advertisements from brands or sponsored content from creators.

• Mark Cuban said that “only idiot startup founders” will stay in California if the wealth tax passes.
• Business Insider put Cuban’s theory to the test by asking founders whether they’d leave.
• One said he would. Another said he’d consider it. A third said founders want to be close to the epicenter of AI.

Mark Cuban said startup founders would leave under a proposed wealth tax. The founders themselves are split.

California will vote on its statewide “billionaire tax” in November. In an X response to Rep. Ro Khanna, Cuban said the tax would adversely affect founders, who may be billionaires in stock but lack the cash to pay it. “If this passes, only idiot startup founders stay,” he wrote.

In an email to Business Insider, Cuban clarified that “not every founder will face the tax.” There are “a lot of incentives to go elsewhere,” he wrote.

“Cali isn’t the only place with a nice climate,” Cuban wrote.

Business Insider put Cuban’s theory to the test. We asked three startup founders: If the tax passed, would you leave? The results were mixed.

The founders ready to run

Jesse Tinsley said the billionaires will flee California if it passes.

Tinsley founded Mainstreet.com, a holding company that houses Employer.com, Bench, and others. He wrote to Business Insider that he’d personally leave the state if the tax passed.

“It’s not just me,” Tinsley wrote. “It’s every CEO or founder over a billion dollars in net worth minus a handful.”

Tinsley said that billionaires don’t want to speak out publicly because they don’t want “the public backlash.” He also cited the Laffer curve, the economic theory that tax revenue will revert to zero as the tax rate increases past a maximized point.

Where would he go? Tinsley said he’d head to Florida. “If I was moving there permanently, I would get a home in Miami/Palm Beach area,” he wrote.

The state — and Miami specifically — has grown increasingly popular with a class of tech leaders.

Others were less committal but expressed frustration. Jaspar Carmichael-Jack said that he’d “seriously consider leaving California in the medium term” if the tax passed.

Carmichael-Jack cofounded Artisan, the AI startup behind those viral “Stop Hiring Humans” billboards. He grew up in the United Kingdom, but moved to San Francisco to build his company.

“It’s a direct hit to illiquid founders building companies, and it makes it harder to justify staying when other states are actively competing for startups,” Carmichael-Jack wrote.

The founders intent on staying

Not everyone is rushing for the exit.

Jensen Huang said he was “perfectly fine” with the tax. “We chose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it,” Huang said in January.

There are perks to being physically in Silicon Valley: the startup scene, ample investors, accelerators, and hacker houses. San Francisco has grown more prized in the AI era as opportunities and money pour in. Why leave?

HiJenny founder Michal Cieplinski wrote to Business Insider that founders “are not going anywhere” while the Bay Area remains central to the AI boom and engineering talent.

“The wealth tax mostly affects founders of public or large private companies and they, on their own, can move,” Cieplinski wrote.

“The companies and most of their employees will remain.”

What do you think of the wealth tax proposal? Tell us in the comments below.