BMW just embarked on the ambitious goal of making the world’s fastest racing drones, inking a development deal with the Drone Racing League.
According to the league’s CEO, the partnership will boost the German automaker’s reach among millennials.
“We’re attracting a young, excited audience that’s interested in things like technology, video games, drones,” Nicholas Horbaczewski told Cheddar. “So [for brands like BMW] it’s a way to reach those consumers. In the past two years we’ve had over 55 million TV viewers.”
And the DRL is not just about the excitement of the sport, it’s also about the technology. Last year members hand-built a drone with a speed of 162 miles per hour, a record it hopes to break with the help of BMW.
“All the technology that’s used in the league is developed by DRL,” Horbaczewski said. “We design the drones in-house, we design the radio communication equipment in-house … It’s truly a technology innovation company.”
The BMW deal wouldn’t be DRL’s first, though. The league has also partnered with companies such as Swatch, Cox Communications, and insurance firm Allianz.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-drone-racing-league-teams-up-with-bmw).
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
