Forbes Daily: Beyond Meat Reaches Meme Stock Territory

Beyond Meat may be plant-based, but investors are beefing up their holdings as the company’s stock becomes a so-called meme asset.

Shares of the firm have surged over 1,000% since hitting a record intraday low last week, as the company announced its creditors had accepted a debt swap. Demand for Beyond Meat and other plant-based meat brands has softened despite initial popularity, with the company quickly becoming a penny stock after trading at around $230 during its 2019 peak.

It’s the latest to be caught up in the meme stock frenzy, like Opendoor, and of course GameStop.

Despite spending billions to ramp up its AI efforts, Meta said in an internal memo that it would lay off about 600 staffers at its Superintelligence Labs. Meta’s AI chief Alexandr Wang, cofounder of the firm Scale AI, characterized the layoffs as a restructuring move.

Uber is incentivizing drivers in select states with a $4,000 rebate program to switch to electric vehicles for use in the company’s “Uber Electric” service. The move comes as the Trump Administration sunsetted federal tax credits for EVs, and could help spur EV demand in the final quarter.

Tesla fell short of expectations in its third-quarter earnings report Wednesday, despite a historic rise in quarterly deliveries in the lead-up to the expiration of the EV tax credits. The automaker’s stock dropped more than 3% in pre-market trading this morning, though the firm actually reported revenues well above Wall Street’s predictions.

MORE: Tesla chief Elon Musk called two shareholder advisory firms that are opposing his proposed $1 trillion pay package “corporate terrorists” during Wednesday’s earnings call.

Even amid tariff uncertainty, small business buying saw a boost in the third quarter—though there could be a downturn next quarter as the government shutdown has frozen approval of SBA-backed loans. Buyers are moving fast and prices are falling, suggesting sellers could be lowering expectations to move before conditions worsen.

Palo Alto-based AI agent startup Genspark is in discussions to raise over $200 million in a new funding round that would more than double its valuation to over $1 billion. The company originally had a search product before killing it off, and intends to launch an enterprise-focused product soon.

Global oil prices spiked early Thursday after the Trump Administration imposed a new set of sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies and threatened further action unless Moscow agreed to a ceasefire in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which announced the sanctions, blamed the move on “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war.”

First Lady Melania Trump’s $MELANIA memecoin is now under legal scrutiny, as a court filing this week alleges the cryptocurrency is part of a broader fraudulent “pump-and-dump” scheme meant to enrich a small number of insiders. The lawsuit does not allege that the first lady played any role in the fraud.

Women’s basketball is surging in popularity, so it makes sense that a number of the figures on Forbes’ 2025 list of America’s Most Powerful Women in Sports come from the sport. But all eyes are on the WNBA’s next contract negotiation, as its current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of the month. As revenues hit record highs, WNBA players received just 9.3% of league income in 2022, according to Bloomberg—compared with roughly 50% for NBA players and 48% for the NFL.

General Motors vehicles will soon feature a self-driving “eyes-off” system, the company said Wednesday, though it will be limited to highway driving upon release. Human intervention will only be needed for things like off-ramps, and the system will be able to handle emergencies and sudden incidents, according to TechCrunch.

DAILY COVER STORY

For the fourth year in a row, the NBA’s most valuable team is the Golden State Warriors, worth an estimated $11 billion.

No other NBA team was within $300 million of the Warriors’ estimated $880 million in revenue last season, with the club far outpacing the rest of the league with its income from sponsorships and premium seating, and ranking in the top three in virtually every category tracked by Forbes. In fact, Golden State more than doubled the $417 million league average for total revenue, and compared with the other North American sports leagues, the Warriors generated more cash than every franchise except the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. But even for the rest of the NBA, business these days is very, very good.

According to Forbes estimates, league-wide revenue last season was up 10% year-over-year, to roughly $12.5 billion, including money from non-NBA events held at teams’ arenas but netting out arena debt service. And another significant jump is coming in 2025-26—the first season of the 11-year, $76 billion national media package the NBA signed last year with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video.

With all of that cash pouring in, Forbes estimates that the 30 NBA teams are worth $5.4 billion on average—or just over $160 billion collectively—representing an increase of 21% over last year and more than doubling the average of $2.5 billion from just four seasons ago.

WHY IT MATTERS “The Celtics sold for a blended valuation of roughly $6.7 billion in August, and the Lakers are awaiting the NBA’s approval for a $10 billion transaction—figures that, given the franchises’ business performance in 2024-25, make them look more like fast-growing tech startups than sports teams in a nearly 80-year-old league,” says Forbes senior editor Brett Knight. “Forbes now values the 30 pro basketball teams at 12.9 times last season’s revenue on average, well ahead of the other major men’s leagues, which demonstrates just how desperate investors are to break into basketball. And no one is expecting that to change anytime soon.”

MORE How Modern Sports Arenas Make Millions More By Building Fewer Luxury Suites

The first half of the year was the costliest ever in terms of climate disasters in the wake of wildfires in Los Angeles, tornadoes in the Midwest and severe storms across the South. Nonprofit Climate Central started tracking the data after federal funding cuts ended NOAA research on the topic earlier this year:

$101 billion: The total damages so far this year

14: The number of disasters costing $1 billion or more

16,000: The number of buildings destroyed by the Los Angeles wildfires in January, which ranks as the 10th most expensive climate disaster in U.S. history

Even if you think you did everything right on your tax return, it’s natural to worry about being audited by the IRS. The basic rule is that the IRS has three years after you file your return to audit you—but there are a number of exceptions, and the agency has no time limit on auditing you if you never file or file fraudulently. It’s critical to keep good records, report all your income and consider having a tax professional prepare your return.

The former home of a late Hollywood producer was listed for sale for nearly $20 million. Which of the following Hollywood stars attended parties at the property?

A. Elizabeth Taylor

B. Frank Sinatra

C. Audrey Hepburn

D. James Dean

Check your answer.

Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.