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• President Donald Trump announced a plan to block large investors from buying single-family homes.
• It could affect firms that have moved into the home-rental market.
• Big investors buying into housing have been a target of both political parties.

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he wants to ban “large institutional investors” from buying single-family homes in the US.

“I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “People live in homes, not corporations.”

The decision could negatively impact private equity companies like Blackstone that have bought up significant numbers of homes. Blackstone shares dropped immediately following Trump’s announcement.

Institutional investors own a small fraction of US homes, Business Insider’s James Rodriguez has reported. Parcl Labs found in October 2023 that investors with at least 10 units in their portfolio owned roughly 3.4% of all single-family homes in the country. Big investors with at least 1,000 units — a group that includes major companies like AMH Homes, Invitation Homes, Tricon Residential, and Pretium — owned just 0.73%.

The Government Accountability Office reported in 2024 that institutional investors own about two percent of single-family rental homes in the US. But that share is much higher in certain housing markets, particularly in the southeast.

In a January 2025 memo, Blackstone said that higher home prices are the result of a shortage of housing, rather than institutional investors buying up homes.

Institutional buyers of American homes have also been targeted by Democrats.

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, introduced a bill in 2023 — the Stop Predatory Investing Act — that would prohibit landlords who own more than 50 single-family homes from obtaining interest and depreciation deductions. As a presidential candidate, former Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed that legislation.

Another 2023 Democratic-backed bill in the House and Senate would prohibit hedge funds from buying or owning single-family homes in the US. The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act would force hedge funds to sell all the single-family homes they own over 10 years.

This is a developing story; check back here for updates.

• Rachel Jones is a 28-year-old who loves to form deep friendships, but finds it hard to make time for them.
• She heard about presentation evenings, where friends present about themselves.
• Together with her new friend, Eloisa, Rachel has started monthly presentation nights.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rachel Jones, cohost of the “Is It Normal” podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was recently introduced to Eloisa by a mutual friend who was certain we’d become fast friends.

That friend was right, because Eloisa and I clicked straight away. We shared similar interests — books and art — and had this chemistry that I can’t quite explain. I knew we’d be best friends.

As we began to get to know each other, both of us keen to “dig deep” and understand each other as fully as possible, we would often say things like, “To understand this part of me, you need some context.”

We started presentation nights

Although we would have liked to jump into each other’s histories, we were limited by time constraints.

I work full-time, volunteer, own a house, participate heavily in church activities, and have family and friends I’m already committed to. Eloisa has a husband and is a full-time student. We’re both very busy people, but we’re keen to connect on a deeper level because neither of us wants coffee-once-a-month friendships.

In your late teens and early 20s, forming friendships is relatively easy, as people often have less responsibility and more time. But the older you get, the harder it can be to form meaningful relationships — because there are only so many hours in a day. And yet, when you meet friends at an older age, there is so much more life to catch up on, just not the time to do it.

I’d seen on social media a trending way to get to know friends as adults — presentation evenings. Each person involved gives a short presentation about themselves, which may include both serious and humorous topics.

Typically, people create slideshows with lots of pictures to accompany whatever is being presented. I’d seen a huge range of topics: what’s my love language, favorite books, favorite memories, teenage years, and the list of ideas for these nights goes on and on.

Excited about the possibility, I asked Eloisa if she’d be up for it, and as I suspected, she couldn’t wait.

We started with our childhoods

For our first presentation night, we decided to kick off our monthly series by sharing stories about our childhoods.

Just the process of preparing my slideshow was precious. I went through dozens of photos of my family, reflecting on the significant changes I experienced as a child, and remembering how fortunate I was to grow up in such a close-knit family with my parents and three siblings.

We planned to present after dinner one evening, both allowing each other to share without interruption.

When I’m typically getting to know a friend just through conversation, both of us are lovingly interrupting each other, interjecting thoughts in response to what the other person has said. But in presenting, you’re quiet when it isn’t your turn, so the listener has a chance to fully absorb what the other person says.

I listened to Eloise speak about her childhood, and I immediately could piece together why she is the way she is because of her history.

When I presented, I methodically talked about my birthday, my parents, my siblings, and how I had lived in several houses in multiple countries.

It was a lighthearted theme, but even so, she now understands why stability is so important to me, and why I tend to crave acceptance from people. A lot of that is down to my childhood.

We are hoping to do these monthly

As a visual learner, I found the presentation night so helpful in remembering the people Eloise spoke about. So now, when she tells me about her sister, I can visualize her sister and recall Eloise’s relationship with her growing up. Facts about Eloise get ingrained in my memory because I’ve had photos and so much context.

I expect that as we hold these presentation nights more frequently — we’re hoping to do them monthly — we’ll get to know each other better, both on a serious and a silly level.

As we continue to be friends, carrying on with these presentations, we’ll understand each other’s triggers more and be able to respond better and give informed advice.

It’s the first time I’ve had presentation nights with a friend, but I suspect I’ll bring in other friends to join us on our evenings. I also think it would be a really helpful thing to do with a boyfriend or partner in the future.

The fact that Eloise wanted to have these presentation nights with me felt like a privilege, because it’s someone who wants to know me and invest in our friendship.

To be known and feel seen is one of the greatest desires we have a humans, and these presentations provide a way to do this in our busy, modern, adulting worlds.

Quectel launches the RG660QA and RG660QB 5G modules based on Qualcomm X85 and X82 platforms.

Quectel Wireless Solutions, an end-to-end global IoT solutions provider, today announces the launch of the RG600QA and RG660QB 5G module, based on the Qualcomm® X85 and X82 5G Modem-RF Systems. The RG660QA is based on X85 while the RG660QB is based onX82. Engineering samples of two first SKUs in the RG660Qx series have been already made available to customers and pre-production samples will be available to the market in Q2 2026.

Designed for versatility, this module series supports a broad array of next generation 5G use cases, from home and business wireless broadband to mobile video, camera applications, and high-performance mobile hotspots. In indoor 5G CPE, it unlocks premium performance by enabling Wi-Fi 7 across the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, with integrated Bluetooth to support a full ecosystem of connected devices. With Ethernet speeds reaching up to 10 Gbps, the RG660Qx delivers the high-capacity backbone needed to power ultra-fast, reliable home and enterprise networks. The RG660Qx also supports Power Class 1, enabling extended coverage and stronger performance for fixed wireless access deployments.

Leo Yao, Product Director, Quectel Wireless Solutions, said:

“With the RG660Qx, we’re raising the bar for what customers can expect from a 5G module.”

“Built on the powerful platform from Qualcomm Technologies, the RG660Qx series delivers the performance, flexibility, and scalability needed to power everything from ultra-fast fixed wireless access to next-generation enterprise and consumer devices. By simplifying design, accelerating time to market, and supporting a rich ecosystem of connectivity options, the RG660Qx enables our customers to innovate faster and bring high-impact products to market with confidence.”

Both modules can also work in conjunction with dedicated high-performance co-processors to deliver 24 TOPS to support complex on-device computing workloads.

The RG660QA and RG660QB are designed to deliver exceptional downlink performance, supporting advanced multi-antenna reception with configurations of up to DL 8Rx and DL 6Rx respectively as well as improving uplink throughput also. This enhanced receive capability enables higher data throughput, improved signal quality, and more reliable connectivity, particularly in challenging network environments or high-mobility scenarios. By leveraging advanced MIMO configurations, the modules ensure robust, high-speed performance for next-generation 5G applications such as fixed wireless access, enterprise networking, and high-capacity mobile broadband.

Designed for high speed 5G applications, both modules also include further flexibility with the option of satellite connectivity enabled by narrowband non-terrestrial network (NB NTN) capability. The RG660QA supports both dual SIM dual standby (DSDS) and dual SIM dual active (DSDA), allowing devices to operate with either one SIM at a time or two SIMs simultaneously for calls and data.

For easy upgrading and simplified device design, the module is pin-to-pin compatible with Quectel’s RG650x series of modules. By leveraging the same recommended Wi-Fi and physical-layer chipsets as the RG650x series, the RG660QA and RG660QB help customers simplify procurement and optimize supply-chain efficiency.

The RG660Qx module will ship with a portfolio of compatible antennas, enabling faster, more efficient development and time to market.

The post Quectel Unveils RG660QA and RG660QB 5G Modules appeared first on IoT Business News.

• Meta says there’s high demand for its Ray-Ban Display glasses, with waitlists extending into 2026.
• Meta said Tuesday that it’s pausing on a wider expansion due to supply shortages.
• The delay includes launches in the UK, France, Italy, and Canada, originally scheduled for early 2026.

Meta says it can’t keep its latest AI glasses on shelves.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which came out in the fall of last year, have waitlists that extend well into 2026, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. Due to the “unprecedented” demand for the specs, Meta said it would be pausing its planned expansion to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada, which was originally scheduled for early 2026.

“The demand has been much higher than we anticipated,” Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, said Monday during an ask-me-anything session on Instagram. He was responding to a question about when more units would be shipped to Best Buy.

“As soon as we produce things, we’re bringing them to stores, and they’re selling out, and we’re continuing to do that,” he said.

He added: “It’s a new product, a new category, you kind of don’t really know, and you want to make sure you produce to match your expected demand, and you hope to not be off by as much as we’ve been off here.”

The $799 Display glasses feature a built-in screen that can display text messages, maps, and captions over the real world. It’s a leap forward from the first-generation AI glasses, which functioned more like regular glasses with the addition of cameras and voice controls.

Buying the Display glasses isn’t as simple as clicking “add to cart.” Meta requires shoppers to schedule a demo appointment at a retailer, according to its website. That’s assuming there are any retailers in their area, as the glasses have rolled out to a select number of Ray-Ban, Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, and Best Buy locations in the US.

“We’ll continue to focus on fulfilling orders in the US while we re-evaluate our approach to international availability,” Meta wrote in its blog post.

Meta built a lot of buzz with the first iterations of the AI-powered glasses, which were released in October 2023. Since then, eyewear has been a key topic at Meta’s splashy demo events, such as its annual developers conference, Meta Connect.

The European market has been a sticking point for tech companies, including Meta, on the regulatory front. The EU has been strict with holding global tech giants to its Digital Markets Act, a set of rules governing large digital platforms that provide core services, such as online search engines, app stores, and messenger services.

In April 2025, the European Commission imposed a €200 million fine on Meta, alleging that the company didn’t offer a version of its services — namely its apps, Facebook and Instagram — that uses less personal data from consumers.

The Display delay wouldn’t mark the first time European customers have had to wait for a Meta product. Meta said the EU may miss out on some of its AI innovations, such as models that use visual data, citing “inconsistent regulatory decision making” in an open letter signed by Mark Zuckerberg in 2024.

While the fines and regulatory hurdles may be a headache for the tech giant, selling out of its new glasses may be a problem Meta doesn’t mind having.

• The US carried out widespread airstrikes in Venezuela during its raid to capture Maduro on Saturday.
• Satellite imagery shows damage and craters at an airport along the country’s northern coast.
• The US said its forces targeted military bases, air defenses, and other facilities.

Satellite imagery released in the aftermath of US airstrikes launched in support of the operation to apprehend Nicolás Maduro shows damage beyond a major military base.

A satellite photo taken on Saturday by the US commercial imaging company Planet Labs PBC and obtained by Business Insider shows damage at the Higuerote Airport on Venezuela’s northern coast, several dozen miles east of the capital Caracas.

A crater or burn mark can be seen adjacent to the eastern end of the runway, and another on the apron near a collection of buildings.

Video shared on social media appeared to show explosions and fires at Higuerote Airport during the surprise US operation, Absolute Resolve, which began late Friday night and continued for several more hours into Saturday morning.

Imagery of the airport taken in the aftermath of the US strikes shows rubble on the tarmac, the remains of what looks like a small aircraft, and what some media reports have identified as a BUK surface-to-air missile system developed by the Soviet Union.

Venezuela’s air defenses are primarily comprised of Russian-made technology. US fighter jets, surveillance planes, bombers, and drones targeted these systems at the beginning of the raid, effectively clearing a path for low-flying helicopter apprehension forces to locate and capture the former president, Maduro, and his wife.

“Seems those Russian air defenses didn’t quite work so well, did they?” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during remarks at the Newport News Shipyard in Virginia on Monday.

In addition to the damage seen at Higuerote Airport, satellite imagery taken by the US spatial intelligence firm Vantor revealed significant damage to buildings and equipment at Fuerte Tiuna, a major military installation in Caracas that houses defense ministries, critical commands, official residences, and other strategic infrastructure.

Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said that geolocated footage indicated American forces also targeted port infrastructure, telecommunication towers, and an airbase in and around Caracas.

Neither the Pentagon nor the White House immediately responded to Business Insider’s requests for comment on the targets struck during Operation Absolute Resolve.

More than 150 US aircraft participated in the mission to capture Maduro, which relied on months of extensive planning and rehearsal, including building a replica of Maduro’s compound that American personnel stormed. US intelligence agencies had mapped out details and patterns of his life in advance.

The operation marked a dramatic culmination of months of rising tensions between the Trump administration and Maduro, whom the US has accused of facilitating drug trafficking and other criminal activity. The ousted leader is now in New York facing narco-terrorism charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

The US established a large military presence in the Caribbean over the past few months, deploying an aircraft carrier strike group, cruisers, destroyers, advanced fighter jets, and thousands of troops.

Since early September, the US has carried out dozens of airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing more than 100 people in a campaign that drew sharp criticism from lawmakers and legal experts.

It is unclear how long the US will maintain this force presence in the region. President Donald Trump issued warnings to several neighboring countries over the weekend — including Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico — raising concerns of additional military action. He has also threatened Venezuela with follow-on strikes if it doesn’t cooperate.

• A major investor in Core Scientific says the firm will lease 400 megawatts to new clients this year.
• The deals would demonstrate durable demand for data centers and that AI is in a boom, not a bubble.
• Amid a 47-gigawatt power gap, more crypto miners are expected to repurpose their operations for AI.

The investment manager who helped scuttle one of the biggest data center acquisitions of 2025 believes that his bet against the multibillion-dollar buyout is about to pay off in the new year.

Trip Miller, the founder and managing partner of the Memphis-based investment firm Gullane Capital Partners, believes that Core Scientific, a data center developer and operator, is on the cusp of large new customer deals that will boost its value.

“I think over the next 90 days, you’ll see them announce greater than a hundred megawatts of deals,” Miller said. “It would show that there was a lot more value to be tapped there than we were getting paid for under the CoreWeave deal.”

In October, Miller, a major shareholder in Core Scientific, opposed an offer by the artificial intelligence cloud firm CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in a stock conversion deal that he felt undervalued the company. The purchase was originally valued at around $9 billion when it was announced in July, but fell to almost half of that when shares of CoreWeave dipped in the ensuing months. Shareholders in the firm rejected the deal in a vote on October 30 that reflected the concerns over the deal’s weakened economics.

Miller said that his expectation for the roughly 100 megawatts of near-term commitments was based on conversations he has had with knowledgeable parties outside of the company’s management. He projected that the company will find takers for a total of roughly 400 megawatts this year, citing strong demand for AI computing power.

Asked about the potential for upcoming leasing, a spokeswoman for Core Scientific said the company “does not comment on market rumors or speculation.”

The commitments, if they materialize, would show that data center developers with a runway for growth are increasingly valuable in an energy-constrained building boom.

Core Scientific has disclosed that it has about 1 gigawatt of data center capacity and another 1.5 gigawatts of power for expansion, according to an October investor presentation.

Evidence of an AI boom, not a bubble

It would also offer a competing view that the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on data centers, computer chips, and power infrastructure are in support of a durable AI boom, not a bubble.

“We are in a situation where we’re likely to be systematically short compute —where the demand for compute will outstrip the supply,” Stephen Byrd, Morgan Stanley’s global head of thematic research and sustainability research, said.

In a report published in December, Morgan Stanley suggested that one of the most significant hurdles for the AI industry will be the gargantuan loads of power required to drive its computing.

Morgan Stanley projects that data centers, the vast facilities that handle the training for large language AI models and the inference computations that put them to work in everyday applications, face a 47 gigawatt shortfall of electricity from the grid nationally by 2028 — a gap almost 10 times the size of New York City’s energy footprint on an average day.

Among the chief beneficiaries are crypto mining firms that have access to in-place power and utility contracts to light up new facilities quickly.

From Bitcoins to AI riches

Both Core Scientific and CoreWeave were former crypto mining companies before repurposing their businesses to focus on AI in recent years.

Amid the mounting shortage of power — along with headwinds in the crypto mining business — more of the industry is turning to data center computing.

Byrd said Morgan Stanley anticipates that about 12 gigawatts of mining facilities, about 60% the mining industry’s current gigawattage, will convert over to AI and high-performance computing in the next three years.

In September, Cipher Mining announced it would build a data center in Colorado City, Texas, with 168 megawatts of computing capacity that will be leased to the AI cloud company, Fluidstack. Cipher’s stock, which had been trading in August for around $5 a share, jumped as high as roughly $25 in November after the announcement.

Iren, another mining firm, announced a recent $9.7 billion AI cloud computing deal with Microsoft. Last month, Hut 8, said it had signed a deal to lease a 245-megawatt data center it is developing in Louisiana to Fluidstack.

“Our view is that crypto miners, by and large, are likely to pivot for the most part to delivering high-performance compute infrastructure solutions and services,” Paul Golding, an analyst at Macquarie who covers the crypto mining industry, said.

In July 2025, CoreWeave said it had reached an agreement to acquire Core Scientific in a stock conversion. But in the months after the announcement, CoreWeave’s shares declined and Core Scientific’s rose, effectively reducing the value of CoreWeave’s offer.

Since the deal’s collapse, shares of Core Scientific have traded as low as below $14 a share — less than the $17 per share price that the CoreWeave deal would have amounted to.

Golding covers Core Scientific and has set a $34 target for the company’s stock in October, more than double its current market price — upside that he sees stemming from its ability to tap power in a constrained utility market. That estimate is “based on a sum of the parts that evaluated potential value for the uncontracted megawatts in the portfolio, the megawatt pipeline in load study phase, and the existing co-location deal with CoreWeave,” Golding said.

CoreWeave is Core Scientific’s only data center customer, outside of legacy crypto mining facilities it operates. Core Scientific leases 590 megawatts to CoreWeave, worth roughly $10 billion in revenue over the next 12 years, according to a spokeswoman for the company. It plans to repurpose 400 megawatts of its crypto mining operations over to high-performance computing in the next three years, the spokeswoman said.

Miller said that the upcoming leases he expects Core Scientific to announce will be with new customers.

“I expect them to announce deals for AI with third parties other than CoreWeave,” Miller said.