Just two weeks after protecting Tampa General Hospital from Hurricane Helene, AquaFence faced a bigger test with Hurricane Milton…and once again it passed.

The hospital, the only Level 1 trauma center in the region, is located in the low-lying Davis Islands neighborhood of the city, a high-risk flood zone that was under a mandatory evacuation warning from Milton. But the staff stayed put during the storm, confident the building would be safeguarded by innovative, temporary bulwarks made by the company AquaFence the hospital first invested in four years ago.

It worked: As Milton moved inland overnight, Tampa General posted on X that it was “weathering the storm” and “power, water and supplies are holding strong.”

What is AquaFence?

The company’s watertight fences, which cost anywhere from $350 to $1,000 per linear foot, are made of one-inch-thick panels that secure to the ground and can withstand high winds while protecting buildings from flooding. Launched in Norway in 1999, AquaFence says it now protects more than $30 billion worth of real estate in the US across 24 states, shielding everything from hotels to banks to a Shake Shack.

• They also go up quickly: According to the company’s US president, 100 feet of AquaFence can be installed in 30 minutes.
• And crucially, AquaFence walls are reusable, able to be deployed up to 60 times.

Big picture: As climate change intensifies natural disasters, more private companies are working to develop tech to protect against the damage. And as the risks rise, so does the cost of keeping you and your stuff safe. AquaFence is developing a residential model that would cost around $20,000 per household.

The latest on Milton: As of 5am ET, Milton is exiting Florida’s east coast as a Category 1 storm after making landfall on the state’s west coast near Sarasota last night as a Category 3. More than 3 million homes and businesses are without power. You can read live updates here.—MM

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Tesla will (finally) introduce its robotaxi. In the company’s most anticipated event in years, CEO Elon Musk plans to unveil a fully autonomous taxi prototype he’s called the “Cybercab” tonight. Musk has staked Tesla’s future on autonomous technology, prioritizing it above other initiatives, like a cheaper electric vehicle that would protect its leading market share against rivals. The robotaxi has been a long time coming: As far back as 2016, Musk promised that Tesla self-driving cars were “two years away,” per The Verge. This car could be worth the wait: According to Bloomberg, it’ll have butterfly wings that open upward.

The Biden administration warned against price gouging during the hurricane. Ahead of Milton’s landfall in Florida, FTC Chair Lina Khan said the agency was “hearing troubling reports of price gouging for essentials that are necessary for people to get out of harm’s way.” An official at the DOJ added that companies that use the natural disaster to jack up prices and exploit consumers are “on notice.” One item that’ll be scrutinized in the coming days is fuel: As of noon ET yesterday, almost 25% of Florida’s gas stations were out of gas, according to GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan. Some major companies, such as airlines and retailers, told CNBC they froze their prices days prior to the storm’s arrival.

CBS is in turmoil over Ta-Nehisi Coates interview. A contentious morning show interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates has escalated into a major internal dispute at the network, pitting media mogul Shari Redstone against her executive team at CBS News. In the interview, aired on Sept. 30, anchor Tony Dokoupil challenged Coates on arguments in his new book, The Message, which criticizes Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians on moral grounds. In an editorial meeting this Monday, CBS News management reportedly said Dokoupil went too far in his questioning and violated the network’s editorial standards. Yesterday, Redstone, the controlling shareholder of CBS parent Paramount Global, pushed back on those executives’ handling of the situation, saying, “I think they made a mistake here.”—NF

Google execs were on the edge of their seats this week like fantasy football managers on a Sunday morning. The Department of Justice revealed on Tuesday that it’s considering recommending a breakup of Alphabet’s Google, a move that comes two months after a federal court found Google acted as an illegal monopoly to secure its position as the No. 1 search engine.

What does it mean? If District Judge Amit Mehta (who ruled with the DOJ in the initial trial) decides that a breakup of Google is necessary, the company would have to divest its other businesses, like Google Chrome and Android. But many legal experts are skeptical about the reality of a breakup, which is viewed as an extreme outcome.

Realistically, Mehta is likely to choose from other remedies recommended in the DOJ’s filing, including:

• Forcing Google to stop its exclusivity agreements with phone companies that set it as the default browser.
• Ordering Google to share its search engine data with competitors, including the data used in AI-assisted search features.
• Limiting Google’s ability to use other websites to train its AI, which would decimate its edge in the AI race.

Zoom out: Mehta will make his ruling by August 2025, though Google will undoubtedly appeal, setting up a yearslong legal back-and-forth.—CC

Fast-foodflation is taking a toll on America’s favorite side order. In response to a pullback on fries ordering, the largest fry producer in North America, Lamb Weston, is closing one of its plants and laying off the 375 people who worked there, about 4% of its total staff, CNN reported this week.

Lamb Weston’s opp: self-control. Since grocery prices have risen more slowly than dining prices, and most fast-food no longer costs couch change, more people are slimming their orders or white-knuckling it past burger chains to cook at home instead.

On top of that, according to the fry company:

• Not many people make french fries at home—80% of the pommes frites consumed in America come from fast-food orders. So, Lamb Weston probably can’t depend on its supermarket brand to plug gaps.
• The value meals that restaurants like McDonald’s launched to lure back customers actually dented french fry demand because they mostly included small fries.

Lamb Weston is likely crossing its fingers that today’s launch of the Chicken Big Mac will help reverse slumping foot traffic at McD’s, which is its largest customer, accounting for 13% of sales.

Gimme the beef boys. McDonald’s has more concerns: The burger chain is suing the world’s largest meat processors—Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef Packing—for allegedly conspiring to inflate prices for nearly a decade.—ML

The true MCU (Moneyball Cinematic Universe) might finally get a sequel. The Detroit Tigers, an MLB team made up of players who sound like they were cut from the Backyard Baseball video game (e.g., Dillon Dingler), are in the midst of a generationally improbable playoff run. Their entire payroll is just $18.4 million, less than the individual salaries of 21 different players still playing in this year’s playoffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s also less than half of what New York Yankees star Aaron Judge makes on his own.

In a strategy many companies can probably learn from, the Tigers elected to count on their promising young players and develop internal talent rather than spend big on known commodities. The results have been stunning: In August, they were seven games below .500 and had a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs. Now, they’re a handful of victories away from the World Series. It’s a genuine rags-to-riches story that demands a Hollywood adaptation starring Austin Butler as Tigers President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris.—AE