Good morning, Quartz readers!
Hereās what you need to know
Microsoft and Apple ditched their OpenAI board seats. Theyāre probably trying to avoid antitrust scrutiny.
The Boeing Starliner crew might be stuck in space for a while. NASA hasnāt committed to a hard date for the astronautsā return.
Samsung workers are on strike indefinitely. The National Samsung Electronics Union in Korea has 31,000 members.
Intuit said itās laying off 1,600 workers because of AI. The financial technology firm added that itās not in trouble, just focusing on its āmost critical areas.ā
The S&P 500 is continuing its winning streak. The index hit another record high yesterday as interest rate cuts come into clearer view.
Grindr grinds on
Dating apps are dying. Young people are dreaming of IRL meet-cutes in coffee shops, park dates, and long-term relationships. They want REAL love; not hookups.
So Tinder is out. The Bumble bees arenāt buzzing anymore. And Bumbleās efforts to bring more users to the hive (i.e not just millennial women) hasnāt gone so well ā a lot of people were pretty offended by the companyās splashy ads mocking celibacy earlier this year.
And yetā¦ apps arenāt entirely dead. Grindr and Hinge are defying the odds. Hinge, the app ādesigned to be deleted,ā saw user downloads climb in the second quarter. And Grindr, the LGBTQ+ hookup and dating app, has seen its stock price soar, as Bumble and Match Group (Tinder and Hingeās parent company) flail.
Quartzās Laura Bratton has the story.
Country of (financial) interest: Taiwan
The country thatās home to one of the worldās biggest chipmakers, TSMC, is about to have a lot more rich people. According to a UBS study, there will be a 47% increase in the number of Taiwanese millionaires over the next five years. Thatās the biggest jump of any of the 56 nations analyzed by UBS.
On the other side of the world, the U.K. will see the biggest decline in millionaires (sorry, Brits). Ben Kesslen has the story, but hereās some quick stats to ponder:
23.57 million: Taiwanās population
453,900: Millionaires in Taiwan, according to Statista
21.9 million: Millionaires in the U.S.
More from Quartz
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ā Coffee is getting more expensive thanks to climate change
š Samsung entered the AI smart ring marketĀ
š¢ GameStopās wild ride is tame next to this private jet company
šø A Las Vegas casino has to give away $1.6 million before it closes
Surprising discoveries
Dozens of rivers in Alaska are turning orange. Donāt go in these waters, because theyāre rusting.
Adult fantasy novel sales rose 85% in the first half of 2024. Apparently adults want less real life and more āromantasy.ā
Invasive lantern flies might have spread so fast by clinging to carsā windshield wipers. These pretty little pests can survive 100 kilometer per hour winds.
The site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history might get reactivated. Constellation Energy might bring Three Mile Island back online to meet the growing energy demand for AI ā to the alarm of nuclear safety advocates.
Picassos in an Australian museum exhibit (and at the center of a gender discrimination lawsuit) are fakes. Artist Kirsha Kaechele said she, not Picasso, painted the look-alikes for her ladies-only exhibit.
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Our best wishes as we wrap up the second week in July. Send any news, comments, romantasy novels, and dead lantern flies to talk@qz.com. Todayās Daily Brief was brought to you by Laura Bratton and Morgan Haefner.