• A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
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Micron crossed $1 trillion in market value this week, a milestone that would have sounded absurd to most investors even a few years ago. The memory-chip business has long been one of the cruelest corners of tech: brutal booms followed by catastrophic busts.

I’ve covered this story before. Back in 2017, I wrote about Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy arguing that the DRAM market had finally changed for good. His thesis was that fewer suppliers and rising demand from cloud computing and AI would reduce the industry’s historic tendency to destroy itself through overproduction.

That argument turned out to be early, not wrong.

Micron shares have soared roughly twentyfold since then. Samsung crossed the $1 trillion market-cap threshold earlier this month, and SK Hynix joined the party on Tuesday. There are fundamentals behind these moves: Samsung made more than $30 billion in profit during the first quarter alone.

Now investors are asking the most dangerous question in finance: Is this time different?

Maybe.

The first big change is consolidation.

In the early 1990s, there were more than 20 meaningful DRAM makers globally. Today, the industry is effectively controlled by three companies: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.

For decades, memory makers responded to rising demand by flooding the market with new supply. Prices eventually collapsed and profits evaporated. Fewer competitors may mean fewer incentives to repeat that cycle.

The second change is AI demand itself.

Modern AI systems are ravenous consumers of memory because they constantly move and process huge amounts of data inside giant data centers. Even advanced techniques designed to reduce computing bottlenecks still run into memory constraints. Startup Lightmatter is using photonics — essentially light instead of copper — to speed up AI data centers, but CEO Nick Harris told me recently that this does nothing to eliminate the memory bottleneck.

So, rampant AI demand is colliding with constrained supply. UBS analysts noted this week that memory makers are signing multi-year agreements with cloud giants that lock in both volume commitments and partially fixed pricing. That should add another layer of stability. UBS estimates these deals could keep the DRAM market undersupplied into 2028.

Of course, this could still prove to be an unusually large up-cycle that eventually ends. The remaining players could flood the market again. New entrants could emerge. AI demand could cool, or a new technology might reduce the need for memory.

But investors clearly believe the old memory business may finally be becoming something new.

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• The head of the DHS says he wants to punish sanctuary cities by limiting customs processing at certain airports.
• That sparks a lot of questions. And industry watchers say it would unleash massive travel chaos.
• A major airline trade group and the administration’s transportation secretary are against the plan.

If the Department of Homeland Security follows through on a threat to yank customs agents from major airports housed in sanctuary cities, industry watchers say fliers would face travel chaos that would make long TSA lines look like child’s play.

Airlines would be forced to redraw route maps on the fly — triggering all kinds of questions about staffing, facilities, and travelers themselves.

Consider, for instance, just one flight: American Airlines Flight 101, scheduled to depart London-Heathrow each day at 10:30 a.m. and land at New York’s JFK at 1:20 p.m.

• Where to land the plane? The airline would have to reroute Flight 101 to another one of its hubs that can accept international flights — but only in a city that isn’t a so-called “sanctuary city.” That means its hubs in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia are off the list. So it could use its hubs at Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, or Miami.
• Do those airports have room? DFW, Charlotte, and Miami are already busy airports, and American has only so many gates and so much room in its schedule at each airport each day. How does it weave in Flight 101 and the two other flights from London that arrive at JFK each day?
• What about staffing? The airline has gate agents, ramp workers, baggage handlers, and contracts with caterers, cleaners, and other staff at the airport. Will there be enough people to work the additional flights that are diverted to different airports? If not, what does the airline do? Send workers from JFK to Dallas? If so, for how long? And where does it house them? Who pays?
• What about passengers? Of the passengers aboard Flight 101, from London, let’s say one was going on to Santa Ana, California; two were going to Des Moines, Iowa; and five were going to Chicago. What happens if American lands the flight at its Miami hub? It doesn’t have direct flights to Santa Ana from there. So does it have to pay to put those passengers on another airline to get them to their destinations? Or does it have to fly them to somewhere else in its network — say, Dallas-Fort Worth — that can get them to their final destinations? In that case, who pays?

  And those Chicago and Des Moines passengers: Let’s say the American flights are already full that day. Are the passengers just stranded? If not, how do they get to where they want to go? Does American have to figure that out, or are the passengers on their own? And again, who pays?

And that’s just one example flight on one airline. There are so many variables that removing customs agents from major gateways like JFK, LAX, or Newark, New Jersey, could cripple the entire international flight operation to the US — or at least slow it way down.

DHS hasn’t detailed its potential plan, so it’s unclear which airports would be affected if it were put into place. When asked for comment, DHS referred to recent television interviews by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“They don’t want us to enforce immigration, but they want us to process immigration at their facilities? Nothing about that makes sense to me,” Mullin said.

American Airlines referred Business Insider to a statement from the industry’s trade group, Airlines for America, which also represents United and Delta. The group said reducing Customs and Border Protection staffing at major US airports would “have a devastating effect on the airline and tourism industries.” It warned of major disruptions to airlines, travelers, and international cargo.

Richard Aboulafia, managing director of the aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, said that people clear customs at their point of entry, not necessarily their final destination. “The idea of hitting entry points in blue states and not having this impact businesses in red states is just extremely foolish,” he said.

Why Markwayne Mullin is suggesting changes at customs

Mullin has said taking customs agents out of US airports that are housed in sanctuary cities might be necessary to protect the country. He first floated the idea in April and reiterated his support for it again this week.

“If they’re a sanctuary city and they’re receiving international flights, and we’re asking them to partner with us at the airport, but once they walk out of the airport, they’re not going to enforce immigration policy — maybe we need to have a really hard look at that,” Mullin said on Fox in April.

Mullin’s idea has been questioned by President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who said during a congressional hearing earlier this month that it would be “a bad idea to start restricting travel based on political views.”

The US Travel Association, which represents airlines, hotel chains, and other travel-industry businesses, said what Mullin has floated would affect American citizens traveling home from abroad more than it would international visitors.

“Secretary Mullin’s suggestion is impractical,” Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst and the president of Atmosphere Research Group, told Business Insider. “The secretary needs to remember that regardless of where a hub is located, it serves travelers from both red and blue states, and sanctuary and non-sanctuary cities.”

How the DHS plan could affect airports

New York-JFK alone handles roughly 34 million international passengers a year and is the US’ busiest gateway; that’s far more traffic than any single replacement hub would suddenly be expected to absorb.

Mullin said that the policy wouldn’t affect “all” airports across US sanctuary cities, but said situations like those in New Jersey — where he singled out Newark over protests at a Homeland Security detention center — force the department to “prioritize” where it puts federal employees. One solution, Mullin said, is to pull customs officers from nearby airports to help at the ICE facilities.

Airlines can’t simply pack up and move

Forcing airlines to operate within a more restricted landscape would be a bear of a task. One of the biggest obstacles is logistics: Many airports in non-sanctuary cities cannot simply absorb hundreds of additional international flights each day.

Some airports are too small, too old, or already operating near capacity. Expanding terminals, gates, customs facilities, staffing, and ground operations would take years and cost billions of dollars.

Flights from places like Sydney or Tokyo may not be able — or even willing amid sky-high fuel prices — to bypass West Coast gateways like Los Angeles or Seattle for farther-inland non-sanctuary airports.

Plus, security and air traffic control systems across the nation are already dealing with staffing shortages, exacerbated by government shutdowns in late 2025 and early 2026. Concentrating even more flights into already-busy airports could trigger long lines and flight disruptions.

Take the entire state of Texas, for example. It has a blanket “no-sanctuary-cities-allowed” policy, so airports such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio could, in theory, take on additional traffic under Mullin’s proposal.

But not every airport can handle every aircraft. San Antonio, for example, has a shorter runway than larger hubs, which can limit larger long-haul widebodies and reduce passenger or cargo capacity, and therefore, revenue.

• Reid Hoffman responded on X to reports of a DOJ probe tied to E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits.
• Hoffman accused Trump of using the federal government to punish critics.
• The reported scrutiny centers on Hoffman-linked funding for Carroll’s legal fees.

Reid Hoffman is accusing President Donald Trump of retaliation.

The LinkedIn cofounder and Democratic donor responded on Friday to reports that the Justice Department is investigating issues tied to his financial support for E. Jean Carroll’s litigation against Trump, calling the scrutiny “absurdly false” and accusing the president of using the federal government to punish his critics.

“Trump cannot be allowed to use the full weight and power of the US Government to come after women who speak up, or anyone who supports them in doing so,” Hoffman wrote in a five-part thread on X.

His comments came after multiple outlets reported that the DOJ opened a criminal investigation related to Carroll’s civil lawsuits against Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the department was investigating whether Carroll committed perjury. The Washington Post, Reuters, and other outlets reported that the probe was focused more specifically on American Future Republic, a nonprofit backed by Hoffman that helped fund some of Carroll’s legal expenses.

Carroll, a writer and former advice columnist, won two civil judgments against Trump.

In 2023, a Manhattan federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. In 2024, another jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll another $83.3 million for defaming her. Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations and appealed the judgments.

The reported scrutiny on Hoffman’s nonprofit appears to center on a 2022 deposition in which Carroll said no one was paying her legal fees. Her lawyers later disclosed that funds from American Future Republic helped cover some litigation costs nearly a year after she filed the lawsuit.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the disclosure showed Carroll had lied under oath; the judge overseeing Carroll’s lawsuits ruled the funding had no bearing on her credibility and blocked questions about it at trial.

Hoffman framed the reported investigation as retaliation.

“He is investigating me because I supported E Jean’s lawsuit — where a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her, and a court of appeals upheld the decision,” Hoffman wrote. “Trump hopes that these fraudulent investigations will silence those who stand up to him. He is wrong. I will not bend the knee.”

Representatives for Hoffman, Carroll, and the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The DOJ told Business Insider it does not comment on investigations.

• Zig, an open-source programming language, bans contributors from using AI to code, edit, or debug.
• Zig president Andrew Kelley said that the AI-generated contributions have “no value whatsoever.”
• “They have negative value, because they take review time away from the team,” Kelley said.

Zig has put its foot down: No AI code allowed.

The open-source programming language is maintained by a 501(c)(3) and a network of contributors. Any programmer can submit code to its repository — so long as they follow a code of conduct.

One of Zig’s rules bans the submission of AI-assisted code. The policy is clear: They will accept no LLM-generated content, nothing paraphrased from an LLM, and nothing edited, brainstormed, or debugged by an LLM. In short: Keep AI out of it.

On the JetBrains podcast, Zig President Andrew Kelley called AI-assisted contributions “invariably garbage.”

“People are sending us contributions that have no value whatsoever,” Kelley said. “They have negative value, because they take review time away from the team.”

Code contributions are reviewed by a handful of core team members. That’s the “bottleneck,” as Kelley puts it: There are more pull requests than reviewers. At the time of the recording, Kelley said that Zig had 200 open pull requests.

Those AI-generated “slop contributions” slow the whole team down even more, Kelley said. “We’ve wasted everybody’s time.”

While Zig is relatively small, it’s had an outsize impact. The language was used to create Bun, for instance, which was later acquired by Anthropic. The AI ban later stirred drama between Bun and Zig.

AI-assisted code has ripped through Silicon Valley, thanks to tools like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. Some use AI to edit or modify their code; others use it to draft it entirely. Big Tech companies have projected lofty goals for the percentage of code that should be — and already is — written with AI.

Zig doesn’t have a mandate to be maximally efficient like these public companies. Instead, “mentorship” is part of its core mission, Kelley said, making AI contributions counterproductive.

“We’re all trying to get better at programming,” Kelley said. “People who are sending AI pull requests, those people are not helping this goal.”

These AI coders are “drive-by contributors,” those who may submit a pull request or two, but will never join the core team, Kelley said.

The AI ban is also simpler. Kelley said that if he tried to say only “good” AI pull requests would be accepted, the reviewers would have to judge each one.

“If I say none whatsoever, then it’s a very easy policy to enforce,” he said.

• I made Ina Garten’s chocolate cake with mocha frosting. 
• Both the cake and icing feature instant espresso powder to help enhance the chocolate flavor.
• Garten said this cake is a dessert “everyone will remember,” and now I know why!

Neither cooking nor baking has ever been my forte, but I forced myself to start learning a few years ago, realizing I couldn’t live solely on takeout and Trader Joe’s frozen meals.

I had grown up watching “Barefoot Contessa” reruns on the Food Network and thought Ina Garten’s cookbooks would be a great place to start. I figured her easy and foolproof dishes would help me feel a little less intimidated in the kitchen, and I wasn’t wrong. In the years since, I’ve made dozens of Garten’s delicious recipes. I’ve even picked up baking!

Garten’s desserts always shine when chocolate is involved. She once proclaimed that her no-bake mocha chocolate icebox cake is so good “it makes grown men weep,” and has said her recipe for Beatty’s Chocolate Cake is “the most fabulous chocolate cake that I’ve ever made.” Talk about knowing your own worth.

The “Barefoot Contessa” star also has high praise for her chocolate cake with mocha icing, calling it a “dessert everyone will remember,” so, obviously, I had to try it.

Garten’s chocolate cake features cocoa powder, espresso powder, and “good” vanilla.

To make Garten’s chocolate cake, which serves 12, you’ll need: 

• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature  
• 2 cups of sugar 
• 1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) of unsalted butter, at room temperature 
• 1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour 
• ⅔ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 
• ⅔ cup of half-and-half 
• ⅔ cup of the hottest tap water 
• 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt 
• 1 teaspoon of instant espresso powder 

You’ll also need some ingredients for the mocha frosting.

To make the frosting for a 9-inch-by-13-inch cake, you’ll need: 

• 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate 
• 1 ¼ cups of heavy cream 
• 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature 
• 1 tablespoon of Kahlúa
• 2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder 
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract 

Before the baking began, I needed to prep my pan.

I buttered the bottom of a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking pan, then lined it with parchment paper. Once that was done, I buttered and floured the entire pan. 

“There’s no point in making a cake if you can’t get it out of the pan,” Garten said in the “Barefoot Contessa” episode where she demonstrated this recipe. 

I also prepped my dry ingredients …

I sifted the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. 

… and my chocolate-and-coffee mixture.

I added the hot tap water, cocoa powder, and espresso powder to a liquid measuring cup and whisked them together.

Then I added the half-and-half and whisked again until the mixture was smooth. 

It was time to start the batter.

First, I placed the sugar and butter into the bowl of my electric mixer, which was fitted with the paddle attachment. 

Garten says to beat the butter and sugar for around four to five minutes on medium speed.

I knew the mixture was ready once it had turned light and fluffy. 

Then I added the vanilla and eggs.

The eggs should be added one at a time, on medium speed, until they’re incorporated and the batter is smooth. 

I turned my mixer to low and started adding my flour and chocolate mixtures.

Garten says the flour and chocolate mixtures should be added alternately in thirds, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

My cake batter was ready!

I used a rubber spatula to scrape down the bowl and make sure the batter was well mixed.

I poured my chocolate batter into the prepared pan and smoothed the top.

Now it was ready to bake.

I placed my cake in the oven, which had been preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Garten says the cake should bake for 25 to 35 minutes.

When your cake tester (or knife) comes out clean from the center, you’ll know it’s ready.

Once my cake was out of the oven, I let it cool completely in the pan.

I let it sit for about 45 minutes. By the time my frosting was ready, the cake had cooled.

While my cake was cooling, I began making the frosting.

First, I chopped my chocolate into ¼-inch pieces, per Garten’s instructions.

Then I placed the chocolate in a bowl with the butter and espresso powder.

Garten explained in the “Barefoot Contessa” episode that she uses the instant espresso powder to help enhance the chocolate flavor.

I also prepped the cream.

Garten says you should heat the cream to a simmer.

Once the cream was ready, I poured it over the chocolate mixture.

I continued to stir the mixture until the chocolate had melted. 

If your chocolate isn’t melting, don’t stress! Garten says you can just pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds.

Then I stirred in the Kahlúa and vanilla.

I stirred everything until the mixture was smooth. 

I covered my frosting and refrigerated it for 30 minutes.

Garten says you shouldn’t leave the frosting in the fridge for longer than 30 minutes. It should be cool, but not cold.

Once it had chilled, I scraped down the bowl and beat the frosting with a handheld mixer.

Garten says to mix your frosting on high speed for about 15 to 20 seconds, until the mixture forms soft peaks. Make sure not to overbeat it or the frosting will curdle.  

I should note I struggled a bit to get the right consistency with this frosting. When I first took it out of the fridge, the frosting just didn’t look thick enough. I let it chill for another 10 minutes before I beat it with the mixer, but it still didn’t look as whipped as it did in the “Barefoot Contessa” episode. 

The flavor was still delicious, and the frosting spread easily on the cake, so don’t worry too much if you’re having similar issues. 

It was time to frost my cake.

I carefully flipped my cake onto a serving board, then removed the parchment paper. 

Garten says you should use a metal spatula to evenly spread the frosting over your cake. 

I cut my cake into squares just as Garten had, and voilà — it was ready to eat!

I loved the old-fashioned charm of the thick squares with frosting on top. While it didn’t have the centerpiece appeal of Garten’s mocha icebox cake, it still looked super inviting.

Garten’s chocolate cake with mocha icing tasted rich and decadent.

I loved the moist texture, which reminded me of Beatty’s Chocolate Cake. I’ve had many chocolate cakes that are too dense and heavy, but Garten’s recipe has a springiness and lightness that really help balance everything. And while it’s not overly sweet, the instant espresso powder brings out that chocolate flavor in both the cake and its mocha frosting. 

I will say that I didn’t love the mocha frosting as much as the buttercream in Beatty’s Chocolate Cake. The consistency of the buttercream paired better with the cake, and the flavor was more memorable. If I make this again, I might try swapping the frostings. 

This is definitely a cake for chocolate lovers.

Garten’s chocolate cake with mocha icing is a bit easier to make than her Beatty’s Chocolate Cake recipe, although I’d pick the latter if the two had to go up against each other. 

But this chocolate cake is still a delicious dessert that is sure to impress anyone with a sweet tooth, and it’s a great option when you have a little less time — and want to do fewer dishes.  

And if you’re looking for a super easy dessert to whip up on a hot summer’s day, look no further than her tiramisu or mocha icebox cake. 

• After its peak last summer, the Labubu trend has burst.
• Web traffic to the Pop Mart website has cratered.
• But Pop Mart is still optimistic about its business, and other toy makers see it setting trends.

I can’t completely say that the Labubu trend is over, because I bought a Labubu just last month. Ok, technically it was a “Lafufu” — a fake knockoff version that I got for $15 at a sidewalk stall on Canal Street for my daughter’s birthday.

So yes, among kindergarteners, Labubus still hold sway. But among the fashionable young adults who first adopted the fuzzy monster plush? Old news. Rihana and Blackpink’s Lisa kicked off the craze over a year ago when they were spotted with Labrabus as bag charms. The frenzy peaked during the summer of 2025, when surging demand left them constantly out of stock online.

By the holidays that fall, the tides had turned, and Labubus were plentiful and easy to buy. You could even buy them in person, with Pop Mart (the Hong Kong-based maker of Labubu) starting to open more stores and vending machines in the US. [In a cruel twist of fate, my daughter is convinced that the real Labubu that she got for Christmas is a fake, and because it’s from Santa, I cannot demonstrate its legitimate provenance. Real Labubus from Pop Mart feature blind packaging to hide the toy’s color, and it turned out to be a beige disappointment. The fake one, in the blue she wanted, has made her much happier.]

This chart, based on Comscore web traffic data collected by Emarketer, shows web traffic to the Pop Mart website over the last year. Because of the unique demand, rarity, and risk of fakes, Pop Mart’s official website was the key place to buy Labubus — unlike other toy brands, where sales happen more often at other retailers rather than directly through their website. (Hasbro also saw a decline in web traffic during this period, but that’s not as clear an indicator since most Hasbro sales happen in stores or other sites like Amazon).

You can see a sharp decline after September — coincidentally, when they restocked and became easier to obtain. There’s an uptick for the holidays, and then it craters.

There are other factors that might have affected this drop — the opening of several brick-and-mortar stores in the US may have shifted sales away from the website and into physical stores (or other online retailers). The first Pop Mart store opened in 2023 in the American Dream Mall in New Jersey, and there are now over 65 stores across the US. Pop Mart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In August, I wrote that the Labubu bubble — on its way to reaching $1 billion in sales — was ready to burst. Looks like it did.

By the time I went to Toy Fair, the biggest toy maker convention in the US, in February, every vendor I spoke with agreed that the Labubu craze had peaked. But they also said its impact was lasting: toys aimed at adult collectors and sold in blind packaging had become major trends that are still going strong.

In March 2026, Pop Mart reported that 40% of its revenue was coming from Labubu, which my colleague Aditi Bharade reported made investors a little nervous. A hit product like this can be a blessing and a curse once the fad fades.

Pop Mart believes it has more to offer than a one-hit-wonder product. During a March earnings call, Pop Mart CEO Grant Want said: “Looking back, while we acknowledge there are still many issues to address, we have built solid strengths over the past year: a robust IP portfolio, a highly capable management team we take great pride in, and a deep understanding of brand building and market dynamics that we have accumulated.”