We are honored to welcome Bob Iger back to Thrive. Bob leads with boldness and conviction because he knows what he is building and why. He is rejoining Thrive at a time when that kind of leadership matters most. We are living through the most consequential technology shift of our lifetimes, where AI will democratize access to intelligence in the way the internet democratized access to information. The companies that matter most will not just deploy the most advanced technology. They will understand what their customers truly want and place human judgment, taste, and craft at the center of what they build. Few people understand this as profoundly as Bob does. He has spent his career proving the things that feel the most human can also be the most eternal. Just as important, Bob embodies one of the firm’s core values; it is not just the business that we do, but how we do our business that will ultimately define our impact. We are deeply grateful to have him back and look forward to building together.

It ain’t easy competing against Elon and Tesla. Lucid is selling off massively, with $LCID falling over -40% amid reports the company hired restructuring firm AlixPartners. To be clear… Lucid has NOT yet filed for bankruptcy, but the company is clearly under serious pressure. And Elon has been warning about Lucid for years. When discussing EV startups Lucid and Rivian, Elon said: “Unless something changes significantly with Rivian and Lucid, they will both go bankrupt. They are tracking toward bankruptcy.” And after Rawlinson claimed he was the chief engineer behind the Tesla Model S, Elon mentioned: “Rawlinson was NEVER chief engineer. He arrived after the Model S prototype was made, left before things got tough & was only ever responsible for body engineering, not powertrain, battery, software, production or design.” This is one of the things many people underestimate about Tesla. Building a cool EV and presenting it beautifully is one thing… however, building millions of them, scaling factories around the world, controlling costs, developing your own software and AI, generating a profit, and surviving long enough to do it all is something completely different. Execution matters. Scale matters. Manufacturing matters. Leadership matters. Elon and the Tesla team made building a successful EV company look a hell of a lot easier than it actually is. It ain’t.