Good morning. It’s Election Day here in the U.S., and a shout-out to all of our readers who will make time to vote today, if they haven’t already done so. Several of my editorial colleagues and I shared our thoughts on what’s at stake for business leaders in this segment of the Fortune Daily show. (It starts at the 17:30 mark.) From AI policy to affordability measures, the political outcomes will shape how the U.S. and its companies compete.
The question is how much. Business leaders have long had to navigate a myriad of policies at the state and federal levels. Right now, concerns over valuations and a possible capital crunch are arguably worrying investors more than who controls Congress. While the frontier labs face growing scrutiny over their models and opaque financing, many CEOs are prioritizing security, safety, and speed because it’s good for business.
I’m heading back from the annual gathering of senior leaders at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in Miami this morning, where I spoke about leadership trends and also interviewed HPE CEO Antonio Neri about his take on the current business landscape. It’s been a good year for the enterprise IT solutions business that spun off from HP in 2015, with HP Inc. retaining the printer and PC business. HPE recently cleared the last legal hurdle to complete its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. While its stock price has lost a quarter of its value over the past month, it’s still up 112% so far this year.
Like a lot of business leaders I meet, Neri is quick to distance himself from the fear of a bubble around AI. “We have zero exposure to that financing architecture that people are concerned about,” he told me, referring to the circular equity, funding, and supply deals between chipmakers, hyperscalers, AI labs, and cloud providers. “We took a more brutal approach at the beginning of the cycle through policies on where not to go … 2026 has been the year where we have built a foundation. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break away. This is the window.”
When it comes to the outcome of the midterms, Neri expresses the kind of sanguine view I hear from a lot of leaders right now: Business has to take the lead in areas like data privacy, sovereignty, security, and AI regulation because customers demand it. Prudence and innovation are ultimately rewarded, regardless of who is in office. Said Neri: “Experience has taught me that eventually, time cures everything.”
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
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The markets
S&P 500 futures are flat this morning. The last session closed down 0.51%. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.34% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.44% in early trading. Japan’s markets are closed today. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 3.59%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.20%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.57%. India’s NIFTY 50 was up 1.58%. Bitcoin is down at $77k.
Around the watercooler
Americans now spend nearly half of their budgets on food and housing alone, the biggest share in 15 years by Joshua Hong
After topping 2024’s donor list, Elon Musk said he’d do ‘a lot less.’ Since then, he’s given more than George Soros has personally in his lifetime by Catherina Gioino
The Pentagon is investigating if rogue freezers are tied to cyberattacks in France. Another wave of hacks is hitting supermarkets across Europe by Sasha Rogelberg
CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.
This story originally appeared on Fortune
