Dwayne Schnell | 500px Plus | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

The Iran war has propelled oil prices to above $94 a barrel, up about 30% since the conflict began in late February. That rally has been a boon for investment firms of ultra-wealthy families who made opportunistic bets on oil in recent years. 

Since the pandemic, private equity funds and other institutional investors have backed away from oil and gas in part due to pressure from environmentally conscious stakeholders. Family offices have stepped in to fill some of that void, investors and advisors told CNBC.

While many family offices are environmentally minded — with a September survey by Citi Private Bank showing more than half of respondents reporting they were likely to make sustainable investments in the next five years — they’re not subject to the same ESG mandates as private equity firms or endowments, which have faced pressure to divest from oil and gas.

“Family offices are contrarian players. A lot of investors left the sector for non-fundamental reasons, like endowment funds, who had students protesting,” said Keith Behrens, head of energy and clean energy investment banking at Stephens. “Family offices saw that flight of capital, and it created really good investment opportunities for them. They were able to come in and invest with pretty reasonable cash flow multiples.”

Family offices also have an edge on private equity players as they generally hold investments for longer periods, meaning they can weather oil price fluctuations and dealmaking downturns, according to Gillon Capital’s Jeff Peterson.

“We back teams who are looking to build businesses over the long term, because that’s where we really differentiate ourselves. A fund can only really hold a business for their fund life,” he said. “We invest for generations in mind so we can look through current cycles.”

Get Inside Wealth directly to your inbox

Peterson has managed investments for the descendants of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt for 14 years. About five years ago, A.G. Hill Partners, one of the family’s personal investment firms, doubled down on oil and gas to take advantage of attractive valuations. 

Multiples for the sector typically range between two to three times cash flow, according to Peterson, who is now chief investment officer for Gillon Capital, a family office spun out of A.G. Hill Partners a year ago.

Peterson said the family has taken the lead on major deals in the sector, such as forming a consortium of family offices and a few PE funds for the $2 billion acquisition of natural gas producer PureWest Energy. The family is also an anchor investor in a minerals and royalty fund that has raised about $500 million in capital and has a substantial position in the Permian Basin, which is the highest-producing oil field in the U.S., he said.

The sector is increasingly drawing interest from family offices without ties to energy, according to Tailwater Capital’s Doug Prieto. He leads upstream energy funds, which back oil and gas exploration and production, for the middle-market PE firm. Prieto said the funds have raised about $500 million from family offices without backgrounds in energy and just last week took a commitment from a family office built from an options-trading fortune. 

Family offices without energy expertise are typically seeking to diversify their portfolio with assets that are uncorrelated to stocks and bonds, Prieto said. Oil and gas are also attractive as inflation hedges, he added.

The Trump administration’s efforts to prioritize oil, gas and nuclear power over clean energy have given investors more confidence in the sector, according to Ellen Conley, lawyer and co-chair of Haynes Boone’s energy finance practice group.

Plus, the potential for cash dividends appeals to family offices, she said.

“Family offices are viewing these assets as cash-flowing real assets rather than a speculative commodity gamble,” she said. “We’re dealing with real assets, particularly in Texas, where you have this repeatable cash flow and predictive models.”

Conley said investors’ interest in energy was already on the rise before the recent oil surge. But headlines about oil prices tied to the Iran war have spurred queries from family offices looking to invest, according to Vicki Odette, global chair of Haynes Boone’s investment management practice group.

However, investors who are new to the space can only realistically take advantage of the current price surge by hedging, Peterson said. 

“For anybody to start a drilling program today, you’re really not looking at production this calendar year. You’re looking at next year,” said Peterson. 

Analysts generally expect the current spike to be temporary.

And while high prices are good for existing investors, they make it harder to get deals done, according to Behrens.

“If someone’s selling a property, they’re going to want to sell it at the highest price possible and get the latest day close,” he said. “The buyer is going to say, ‘Hey, that’s great that oil is at $115 a barrel, but three months ago it was at $60.'”

Prieto added that it is possible to have too much of a good thing. High oil prices for a prolonged period of time poses a recession risk, he said. 

“We like to see a robust U.S. economy. I think for us, somewhere between $75 and $85 a barrel feels pretty darn good,” he said. “When you get over $100, you start to have adverse impacts that don’t benefit anyone.”

Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

The post Family offices see gains after making opportunistic bets on oil appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, takes the stage during the New York Times annual DealBook summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 04, 2024 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Deal-making may have rebounded on Wall Street, but investment firms of the ultra-wealthy are still moving cautiously. Family offices made 54 direct investments in September, down 46% on an annual basis, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth platform Fintrx.

Despite the broader slowdown, billionaire family offices are still investing in mega-rounds for high-flying startups. Last month, the firms of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined a $300 million seed round for Periodic Labs. Founded by former OpenAI and DeepMind researchers, Periodic Labs seeks to automate scientific research with artificial intelligence-powered robots running lab experiments.

Health-care and biotech startups also still garner interest from high-profile investors. Primary-care clinic group Harbor Health raised $130 million from Michael Dell’s DFO Management, Breyer Capital and Martin Ventures. The startup’s chief medical officer, Dr. Clay Johnston, was previously the dean of Dell’s namesake medical school at the University of Texas at Austin. Much of the funds will be used to expand Harbor’s insurance offerings and open more clinics.

The private equity slowdown has also left room for family offices to make opportunistic bets. In September, Birmingham, Michigan-based Mitchell Family Office acquired luxury beauty retailer Cos Bar for an undisclosed amount. Principal Mark Mitchell told CNBC that his offer was accepted within a month. Cos Bar had been held by a private equity owner for nine years and was the last deal in its fund, he said.

Mitchell founded his family office in 2015 after selling a majority stake in his home health-care business, U.S. Medical Management, to Centene. He later exited, receiving a total of $325 million, he said.

Having made his fortune in health care, Mitchell primarily invests in the sector, from adolescent in-patient psychiatric hospitals to bone marrow harvesting technology.

However, MFO is increasingly making investments in other industries to meet the needs and interests of Mitchell’s family, he said. In the case of Cos Bar, its high-end locations will be used to showcase AI-powered smart mirrors developed by his wife Colby’s startup, Swan Beauty. Retailing at $695, the mirrors analyze skin complexion to recommend beauty products and can also be used to virtually try on makeup.

“I would say the last few investments we’ve made are less, let’s say ‘patriarchal Mark Mitchell decisions’ and more second-generation decisions,” he said.

Get Inside Wealth directly to your inbox

Mitchell, 60, has five children ranging from 6 years old to 30. His adult son and daughter founded an automotive business and clothing line, respectively, that are owned by MFO. Involving his children in the family office has helped keep them motivated to succeed, he said.

“My son is the first one in and the last one to leave every day, and he’s actively looking at real estate investments. And my daughter is actively running her company 14 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “Sometimes the second generation of a wealthy family, in my experience, those adult children don’t grind after college. Mine are truly grinding, which also sets a good example for their younger siblings.”

In April, Mitchell bought women’s soccer team AFC Toronto. He said he initially invested because he was looking for a hobby, but he’s since become more involved with the team’s operations. It’s also brought the family together. Mitchell said his daughter is considering purchasing a women’s soccer team, his younger sons have started playing soccer and his whole family attends the games.

“Going back to the multigenerational thing, it’s been wonderful for the family to focus on and really take an interest in this,” he said.

The post Family offices still bet on AI and health care even as deals slow down appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

As the world’s rich have gotten richer, their investment firms have doubled down on private assets such as direct lending and data centers.

The number of family offices with allocations to private markets has surged by 524% since 2016, rising from 651 to 4,067, per Preqin data. This increase surpasses that of wealth management firms (410%) and endowments and foundations (81%) with allocations to private markets, according to the alternative investment data platform owned by BlackRock.

This growth has been marked in recent years, surging nearly 21% in 2023 and about 26% in 2024. In the first half of 2025, the number of family offices with private markets exposure increased by 8%.

Armando Senra, who leads BlackRock’s institutional business in the Americas, said family office activity reflects broader interest in private credit and infrastructure from investors. A BlackRock survey conducted this past spring reported that nearly a third of single-family offices planned to invest more in private credit and infrastructure from 2025 through 2026.

PwC’s Jonathan Flack told CNBC via email that much of this activity can be attributed to family offices having far more wealth to manage. By Deloitte’s estimate, family offices managed a combined $3.1 trillion in 2024, up 63% from 2019.

Get Inside Wealth directly to your inbox

Family offices have less need for quick cash, so they can afford to make illiquid private investments, Flack said. With family offices known to invest for decades or even generations, private markets appeal to their long-term mindset, according to Flack, the leader of the consulting giant’s U.S. and global family office practice.

“Private markets allow the families to invest longer term in a more stable growth environment as compared to the public markets which have proven to be more volatile over the same period,” he said.

But family offices have become increasingly selective about private offerings. A May survey by UBS found that family offices planned to increase their private debt holdings but trim their private equity bets in favor of developed market equities in 2025. For U.S. family offices, the expected drawdown was especially steep.

That said, when asked about their five-year plans, more family offices intended to increase rather than decrease their allocations to private equity and other private assets.

The post Family offices turn to private markets, allocations up 500% since 2016 appeared first on Our Story Insight.

A vehicle Tesla is using for robotaxi testing purposes on Oltorf Street in Austin, Texas, US, on Sunday, June 22, 2025.

Tim Goessman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In an earnings call this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased an expansion of his company’s fledgling robotaxi service to the San Francisco Bay Area and other U.S. markets.

But California regulators are making clear that Tesla is not authorized to carry passengers on public roads in autonomous vehicles and would require a human driver in control at all times.

“Tesla is not allowed to test or transport the public (paid or unpaid) in an AV with or without a driver,” the California Public Utilities Commission told CNBC in an email on Friday. “Tesla is allowed to transport the public (paid or unpaid) in a non-AV, which, of course, would have a driver.”

In other words, Tesla’s service in the state will have to be more taxi than robot.

Tesla has what’s known in California as a charter-party carrier permit, which allows it to run a private car service with human drivers, similar to limousine companies or sightseeing services.

The commission said it received a notification from Tesla on Thursday that the company plans to “extend operations” under its permit to “offer service to friends and family of employees and to select members of the public,” across much of the Bay Area.

But under Tesla’s permit, that service can only be with non-AVs, the CPUC said.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles told CNBC that Tesla has had a “drivered testing permit” since 2014, allowing the company to operate AVs with a safety driver present, but not to collect fees. The safety drivers must be Tesla employees, contractors or designees of the manufacturer under that permit, the DMV said.

In Austin, Texas, Tesla is currently testing out a robotaxi service, using its Model Y SUVs equipped with the company’s latest automated driving software and hardware. The limited service operates during daylight hours and in good weather, on roads with a speed limit of 40 miles per hour. 

Robotaxis in Austin are remotely supervised by Tesla employees, and include a human safety supervisor in the front passenger seat. The service is now limited to invited users, who agree to the terms of Tesla’s “early access program.”

On Friday, Business Insider, citing an internal Tesla memo, reported that Tesla told staff it planned to expand its robotaxi service to the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment on that report.

In a separate matter in California, the DMV has accused Tesla of misleading consumers about the capabilities of its driver assistance systems, previously marketed under the names Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (or FSD).

Tesla now calls its premium driver assistance features, “FSD Supervised.” In owners manuals, Tesla says Autopilot and FSD Supervised are “hands on” systems, requiring a driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times. 

But in user-generated videos shared by Tesla on X, the company shows customers using FSD hands-free while engaged in other tasks. The DMV is arguing that Tesla’s license to sell vehicles in California should be suspended, with arguments ongoing through Friday at the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings in Oakland.

Under California state law, autonomous taxi services are regulated at the state level. Some city and county officials said on Friday that they were out of the loop regarding a potential Tesla service in the state. 

Stephanie Moulton-Peters, a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, said in a phone interview that she had not heard from Tesla about its plans. She urged the company to be more transparent.

“I certainly expect they will tell us and I think it’s a good business practice to do that,” she said.

Moulton-Peters said she was undecided on robotaxis generally and wasn’t sure how Marin County, located north of San Francisco, would react to Tesla’s service.

“The news of change coming always has mixed results in the community,” she said. 

Brian Colbert, another member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview that he’s open to the idea of Tesla’s service being a good thing but that he was disappointed in the lack of communication. 

“They should have done a better job about informing the community about the launch,” he said. 

Alphabet’s Waymo, which is far ahead of Tesla in the robotaxi market, obtained a number of permits from the DMV and CPUC before starting its driverless ride-hailing service in the state.

Waymo was granted a CPUC driverless deployment permit in 2023, allowing it to charge for rides in the state. The company has been seeking amendments to both its DMV and CPUC driverless deployment permits as it expands its service territory in the state.

— NBC’s David Ingram reported from San Francisco.

WATCH: Waymo testing self-driving cars with human drivers in New York and Philadelphia

The post Tesla plans ‘friends and family’ service in California, regulator says appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Owner Jeanie Buss of the Los Angeles Lakers and Jay Mohr prior to game one of a first round NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 19, 2025.

Keith Birmingham | MediaNews Group | Pasadena Star-News | Getty Images

The Buss family has agreed to sell a majority stake of the Los Angeles Lakers to businessman Mark Walter in a deal that values the team at $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the terms.

The sale would mark a new record for NBA valuations. The Crypto.com Arena, where the Lakers play, is owned by AEG and is not included in the deal.

CNBC’s most recent Official NBA Team Valuations ranked the Lakers as third in the league in terms of value, at $7 billion.

“Mark Walter is entering into an agreement to acquire additional interests in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, which he has been a stakeholder since 2021,” a representative for Walter said in a statement to CNBC.

The Lakers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As part of the deal, Jeanie Buss will retain a minority stake in the team she has owned since her family purchased the franchise in 1979 for $67.5 million. She will also retain her governor seat.

Walter is CEO and co-founder of Guggenheim Partners and is not new to sports ownership. He is also the majority owner of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, WNBA’s Sparks and Cadillac’s forthcoming Formula 1 team. He also owns the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Former Lakers legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who is also a business partner of Walter’s, praised the transaction in a post on X.

“Job well done to my sister Jeanie Buss for striking an incredible deal and picking the right person to carry on the Lakers legacy and tradition of winning,” Johnson said. “Mark Walter is the best choice and will be the best caretaker of the Laker brand.”

NBA valuations have skyrocketed since the league completed its most recent media rights agreement, valued at $77 billion over 11 years.

In March, the Boston Celtics sold for a then-record of $6.1 billion to private equity executive Bill Chisholm.

The Celtics and Lakers are arguably two of the most marquee franchises in the NBA.

In February, the Lakers acquired Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic to team up with LeBron James.

The Lakers finished the 2025 season as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference with a 50-32 record.

The Lakers have won 11 NBA titles since the Buss family took over, the most of any NBA franchise during that period.

— CNBC’s Michael Ozanian contributed to this report.

The post Lakers owners Buss family sell majority stake at $10 billion valuation appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The Taihuttus on a ski trip to Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. They sold everything they owned in 2017 to bet on bitcoin — and now travel full-time as a family of five.

Didi Taihuttu

A wave of high-profile kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency executives has rattled the industry — and prompted a quiet security revolution among some of its most visible evangelists.

Didi Taihuttu, patriarch of the so-called “Bitcoin Family,” said he overhauled the family’s entire security setup after a string of threats.

The Taihuttus — who sold everything they owned in 2017, from their house to their shoes, to go all-in on bitcoin when it was trading around $900 — have long lived on the outer edge of crypto ideology. They travel full-time with their three daughters and remain entirely unbanked.

Over the past eight months, he said, the family ditched hardware wallets in favor of a hybrid system: Part analog, part digital, with seed phrases encrypted, split, and stored either through blockchain-based encryption services or hidden across four continents.

“We have changed everything,” Taihuttu told CNBC on a call from Phuket, Thailand. “Even if someone held me at gunpoint, I can’t give them more than what’s on my wallet on my phone. And that’s not a lot.”

CNBC first reported on the family’s unconventional storage system in 2022, when Taihuttu described hiding hardware wallets across multiple continents — in places ranging from rental apartments in Europe to self-storage units in South America.

The Taihuttu family dressed up for Halloween in Phuket, Thailand, where they recently moved homes after receiving disturbing messages pinpointing their location from YouTube videos.

Didi Taihuttu

As physical attacks on crypto holders become more frequent, even they are rethinking their exposure.

This week, Moroccan police arrested a 24-year-old suspected of orchestrating a series of brutal kidnappings targeting crypto executives.

One victim, the father of a crypto millionaire, was allegedly held for days in a house south of Paris — and reportedly had a finger severed during the ordeal.

In a separate case earlier this year, a co-founder of French wallet firm Ledger and his wife were abducted from their home in central France in a ransom scheme that also targeted another Ledger executive.

Last month in New York, authorities said, a 28-year-old Italian tourist was kidnapped and tortured for 17 days in a Manhattan apartment by attackers trying to extract his bitcoin password — shocking him with wires, beating him with a gun, and strapping an Apple AirTag around his neck to track his movements.

The common thread: The pursuit of crypto credentials that enable instant, irreversible transfers of virtual assets.

“It is definitely frightening to see a lot of these kidnappings happen,” said JP Richardson, CEO of crypto wallet company Exodus. He urged users to take security into their own hands by choosing self-custody, storing larger sums on hardware wallets, and — for those holding significant assets — exploring multi-signature wallets, a setup typically used by institutions.

Richardson also recommended spreading funds across different wallet types and avoiding large balances in hot wallets to reduce risk without sacrificing flexibility.

That rising sense of vulnerability is fueling a new demand for physical protection with insurance firms now racing to offer kidnap and ransom (K&R) policies tailored to crypto holders.

But Taihuttu isn’t waiting for corporate solutions. He’s opted for complete decentralization — of not just his finances, but his personal risk profile.

As the family prepares to return to Europe from Thailand, safety has become a constant topic of conversation.

“We’ve been talking about it a lot as a family,” Taihuttu said. “My kids read the news, too — especially that story in France, where the daughter of a CEO was almost kidnapped on the street.”

Now, he said, his daughters are asking difficult questions: What if someone tries to kidnap us? What’s the plan?

One of the steel plates the Taihuttu family uses to store part of their bitcoin seed phrase. Didi etched it by hand using a hammer and letter punch — part of a decentralized storage system spread across four continents.

Didi Taihuttu

Though the girls carry only small amounts of crypto in their personal wallets, the family has decided to avoid France entirely.

“We got a little bit famous in a niche market — but that niche is becoming a really big market now,” Taihuttu said. “And I think we’ll see more and more of these robberies. So yeah, we’re definitely going to skip France.”

Even in Thailand, Taihuttu recently stopped posting travel updates and filming at home after receiving disturbing messages from strangers who claimed to have identified his location from YouTube vlogs.

“We stayed in a very beautiful house for six months — then I started getting emails from people who figured out which house it was. They warned me to be careful, told me not to leave my kids alone,” he said. “So we moved. And now we don’t film anything at all.”

“It’s a strange world at the moment,” he said. “So we’re taking our own precautions — and when it comes to wallets, we’re now completely hardware wallet-less. We don’t use any hardware wallets anymore.”

To throw off would-be attackers, Didi Taihuttu encrypts select words from each 24-word seed phrase — then splits the phrases into four sets of six and hides them around the world.

Didi Taihuttu

The family’s new system involves splitting a single 24-word bitcoin seed phrase — the cryptographic key that unlocks access to their crypto holdings — into four sets of six words, each stored in a different geographic location. Some are kept digitally through blockchain-based encryption platforms, while others are etched by hand into fireproof steel plates using a hammer and letter punch, then hidden in physical locations across four continents.

“Even if someone finds 18 of the 24 words, they can’t do anything,” Taihuttu explained.

On top of that, he’s added a layer of personal encryption, swapping out select words to throw off would-be attackers. The method is simple, but effective.

“You only need to remember which ones you changed,” he said.

Part of the reason for ditching hardware wallets, Taihuttu said, was a growing mistrust of third-party devices. Concerns about backdoors and remote access features — including a controversial update by Ledger in 2023 — prompted the family to abandon physical hardware altogether in favor of encrypted paper and steel backups.

While the family still holds some crypto in “hot” wallets — for daily spending or to run their algorithmic trading strategy — those funds are protected by multi-signature approvals, which require multiple parties to sign off before a transaction can be executed.

The Taihuttus use Safe — formerly Gnosis Safe — for ether and other altcoins, and similarly layered setups for bitcoin stored on centralized platforms like Bybit.

Didi Taihuttu during a recent visit to Sierra Nevada, Spain. The family’s lifestyle — unbanked, nomadic, and all-in on bitcoin — makes them outliers even in the crypto world.

Didi Taihuttu

About 65% of the family’s crypto is locked in cold storage across four continents — a decentralized system Taihuttu prefers to centralized vaults like the Swiss Alps bunker used by Coinbase-owned Xapo. Those facilities may offer physical protection and inheritance services, but Taihuttu said they require too much trust.

“What happens if one of those companies goes bankrupt? Will I still have access?” he said. “You’re putting your capital back in someone else’s hands.”

Instead, Taihuttu holds his own keys — hidden across the globe. He can top up the wallets remotely with new deposits, but accessing them would require at least one international trip, depending on which fragments of the seed phrase are needed. The funds, he added, are intended as a long-term pension to be accessed only if bitcoin hits $1 million — a milestone he’s targeting for 2033.

The shift toward multiparty protections extends beyond just multi-signature. Multi-party computation, or MPC, is gaining traction as a more advanced security model.

Didi, Romaine, and their three daughters live largely off-grid, managing crypto through decentralized exchanges, algorithmic trading bots, and a globally distributed cold storage system.

Didi Taihuttu

Instead of storing private keys in one place — a vulnerability known as a “single point of compromise” — MPC splits a key into encrypted shares distributed across multiple parties. Transactions can only go through when a threshold number of those parties approve, sharply reducing the risk of theft or unauthorized access.

Multi-signature wallets require several parties to approve a transaction. MPC takes that further by cryptographically splitting the private key itself, ensuring that no single individual ever holds the full key — not even their own complete share.

The shift comes amid renewed scrutiny of centralized crypto platforms like Coinbase, which recently disclosed a data breach affecting tens of thousands of customers.

Taihuttu, for his part, says 80% of his trading now happens on decentralized exchanges like Apex — a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to set buy and sell orders without relinquishing custody of their funds, marking a return to crypto’s original ethos.

While he declined to reveal his total holdings, Taihuttu did share his goal for the current bull cycle: a $100 million net worth, with 60% still held in bitcoin. The rest is a mix of ether, layer-1 tokens like solana, link, sui, and a growing number of AI and education-focused startups — including his own platform offering blockchain and life-skills courses for kids.

Lately, he’s also considering stepping back from the spotlight.

“It’s really my passion to create content. It’s really what I love to do every day,” he said. “But if it’s not safe anymore for my daughters … I really need to think about them.”

WATCH: ‘Bitcoin Family’ tracks moon cycles to make crypto investment decisions

The post ‘Bitcoin Family’ changed security after recent crypto kidnappings appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Dollar Tree said Wednesday that it’s gaining market share with higher-income consumers and could raise prices on some products to offset President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The discount retailer’s CEO, Michael Creedon, said the company is seeing “value-seeking behavior across all income groups.” While Dollar Tree has always relied on lower-income shoppers and gets about 50% of its business from middle-income consumers, sustained inflation has led to “stronger demand from higher-income customers,” Creedon said on an analyst call.

Dollar Tree’s success with higher-income shoppers follows similar gains from Walmart, which has made inroads with the cohort following the prolonged period of high prices.

Trump’s tariffs on certain goods from China, Mexico and Canada — and the potential for broad duties on trading partners around the world — have only added to concerns about stretched household budgets. While Dollar Tree will use tactics like negotiating with suppliers and moving manufacturing to mitigate the effect of the duties, it could also hike the prices of some items, Creedon said.

Dollar Tree has rolled out prices higher than its standard $1.25 products at about 2,900 so-called multi-price stores. Certain products can cost anywhere from $1.50 to $7 at those locations.

The retailer weighed in on higher-income customers and the potential effect of tariffs as it announced its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Dollar Tree also said it will sell its struggling Family Dollar chain for about $1 billion to a consortium of private equity investors.

Dollar Tree said its net sales for continuing operations — its namesake brand — totaled $5 billion for the quarter, while same-stores sales climbed 2%. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.11 for the period.

It is unclear how the figures compare with Wall Street estimates.

For fiscal 2025, Dollar Tree expects net sales of $18.5 billion to $19.1 billion from continuing operations, with same-store sales growth of 3% to 5%. It anticipates it will post adjusted earnings of $5 to $5.50 per share for the year.

Creedon said the expected hit from the first round of 10% tariffs Trump levied on China in February would have been $15 million to $20 million per month, but the company has mitigated about 90% of that effect.

Additional 10% duties on China imposed this month, along with 25% levies on Mexico and Canada that have only partly taken effect, would hit Dollar Tree by another $20 million per month, Creedon said. The company is working to offset those duties, but did not include them in its financial guidance due to the confusion over which tariffs will take effect and when.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

The post Dollar Tree discusses Family Dollar sale, earnings and tariffs appeared first on Our Story Insight.