Raphael Stevens

Gunnar Wiedenfels is the chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery and the CEO-elect of Discovery Global, one half of the soon-to-be-split company.
His financial background and recent initiatives at WBD have earned Wiedenfels a reputation as a shrewd decision-maker focused on the numbers.
Colleagues from across the Warner Bros. Discovery business said Wiedenfels has also been integral to investment, growth and preparing the business to be split into two viable companies.
Discussions have already started about growth strategies for Discovery Global’s streaming and the international business, among other units.

Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels walks to a session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 9, 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

By day, Gunnar Wiedenfels is the chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery and the CEO-elect of Discovery Global, one half of the soon-to-be-split company.
In his off hours, Wiedenfels is a beekeeper.

The media executive picked up apiculture with his children as a way to soften their fears about insects. He called it “an unforgettable experience” and a great life lesson. It’s also provided holiday gifts of honey for his colleagues.
“Although it has been frustrating at times to just keep these hives surviving,” Wiedenfels told CNBC in an interview, “one of the greatest lessons with bees is you have to keep calm. Never try inspecting your hives when stressed or in a rush. It won’t end well. The same hive, when approached 15 minutes later in peace, may be the most welcome.”
Wiedenfels said the same wisdom applies to his day job and his next step.
In June, Warner Bros. Discovery announced its intention to split into two public companies, effectively reversing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery three years ago. Wiedenfels will take the helm of Discovery Global, the company that will house WBD’s TV networks including CNN, HGTV and TNT.
The streaming and studio assets of Warner Bros. Discovery, to be renamed Warner Bros., will be run by current CEO David Zaslav. Both companies will trade publicly by mid-2026, according to corporate filings.

The separation puts Wiedenfels in the CEO seat for the first time to lead a company with one of the largest portfolios of cable networks in the U.S. His financial background and recent initiatives at WBD have earned Wiedenfels a reputation as a shrewd decision-maker focused on the numbers.
“I think with Gunnar, he’s the cost-cutting guy. He’s the hard-nosed accountant, cost-focused, cost-cutter,” said John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS. “And that’s what this business is going to need. His job is to stay ahead of the declines on the cost side, and frankly, he’s perfect for it.”

Gunnar Wiedenfels became a beekeeper as part of a hobby with his children. He gave out the honey as holiday gifts to colleagues.
Courtesy: Gunnar Wiedenfels

After the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Wiedenfels had to contend with a debt load that initially totaled $56 billion. It’s since been cut down to roughly $35 billion.
“We’ve come a very long way over these 3½ years,” Wiedenfels said.
Colleagues from across the Warner Bros. Discovery business said in a series of interviews that Wiedenfels has done more than cut budgets, however. He’s also been integral to investment, growth and preparing the business to be split into two viable companies.
He takes the helm at a pivotal moment for media, as yearslong declines in pay TV customers show signs of stabilization and a rebalancing of priorities brings a new crop of decision-makers like Wiedenfels to the fore.
Turning Discovery Global into an investor darling won’t be easy. Warner Bros. Discovery shares have fallen more than 50% since the April 2022 merger, largely because shareholders viewed cable networks as declining assets that weighed down the company’s growth prospects.
Most of WBD’s remaining debt will be transferred to Discovery Global, which could put the company in a difficult position to simultaneously demonstrate growth and pay off debt. Wiedenfels said he believes both can be done, noting the networks are still a cash cow and there are no near-term debt maturities, leaving room to do deals.
Still, the onus is on Wiedenfels to give investors a reason to believe in Discovery Global’s narrative.
He doesn’t expect the business to return to its glory days. Streaming services have finally begun to reach profitability and while traditional pay TV networks are still profitable, that number is shrinking.
“I’m not trying to position it as a growth company,” Wiedenfels said. “We know the secular trends, but these are enormous assets we can build on and build around.”
He’ll also have to manage a wearied group of employees, many of whom have lived through several value-draining mergers, including AOL’s 2000 acquisition of Time Warner (still the largest U.S. deal ever at $165 billion and occasionally called the worst deal of all time), AT&T’s 2018 acquisition of Time Warner ($85.4 billion, and also in the running for worst deal ever) and WarnerMedia’s 2022 merger with Discovery.
Much of the necessary cost-cutting at WBD has taken place since the merger, according to a person close to the company, and discussions have already started about growth strategies for Discovery Global’s streaming and the international business, among other units.

Fighting for the job

Zaslav, who spoke to CNBC in an interview, championed Wiedenfels for the role of CEO for Discovery Global, saying he was struck by how quickly the finance chief learned all aspects of the Warner Bros. Discovery business.
“There’s only one meeting with Gunnar,” said Zaslav. “He’ll ask all the questions and put it out on the table. He’s a very real guy. He’s very direct, and he’s extremely likable.”
That likability should help appease an employee base which has become shell-shocked with cuts and layoffs over decades of mergers.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Having employees’ backs will be pivotal in positioning Discovery Global as a sustainable new media company.
“There’s almost no business that I’ve been involved in that we’ve gotten right when we launched and it worked. You have to fight to get it right,” said Zaslav. “[Wiedenfels is] a fighter. I mean, he’s literally a fighter. He gets up early in the morning and he takes boxing classes.”
Wiedenfels and his family came to the U.S. in 2017 when he was offered the CFO role at Discovery. Before that, he had been CFO at German entertainment company ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE since 2015 and was considered heir apparent to the CEO.
“He was really an unusual CFO, in a way, because he could equally do a tough restructuring or building of a new business. He could also do deals,” said Thomas Ebeling, the former CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. “His leadership style was always an energetic one and positive.”
While at the German company, Wiedenfels was involved in the expansion into the digital space and identifying synergies between TV, advertising and digital, said Ebeling. In two or three years, Wiedenfels was instrumental in the company inking 24 deals, Ebeling added.
“I think most of them worked out well,” Ebeling said.
While he has continued on the deal-making path at WBD, Wiedenfels’ mandate also expanded as he dug into various parts of the media business.

Doing the math

The early days after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger were marked by a series of cost-cutting measures as Zaslav and his executives set out on a mission to find at least $3.5 billion in synergies.
Many of those money-saving decisions grabbed headlines.
Weeks into the start of the new company, CNN’s then newly launched streaming platform, CNN+, was shut down in a jarring reversal of what had been a buzzy expansion into direct-to-consumer.
Star-studded HBO shows like “Westworld” were canceled, and straight-to-streaming movies like DC Comics’ “Batgirl” were scrapped. Content was pulled from its flagship streaming platform, HBO Max, and some of HBO’s marquee shows like, “Sex and the City,” were licensed out for the first time to Netflix.
WBD has also cut thousands of jobs in the span of three years. As of December, the company had more than 35,000 employees.
Zaslav said much of this cost-cutting followed the data. Wiedenfels built a team focused on the analytics of WBD’s content, Zaslav said. For every piece of content, questions about its value on streaming or international platforms, as well as potential viewership and demand, were front and center.
“It gave us the conviction to say we’re not going to do [movies direct-to-streaming] anymore; we’re going to theater. It was unpopular but it was demonstrable,” said Zaslav.
Then last year, TNT Sports walked away from NBA media rights, ceding ground in live sports to NBCUniversal, Disney and Amazon.
TNT Sports Chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser told CNBC that WBD was smart to drop NBA media rights, which it had been paying $1.4 billion annually for.
“We held the line on the NBA and said there’s going to be a point where it’s not worth it and it’s going to put tremendous risk on the business,” said Silberwasser in an interview.

TNT Sports at Roland Garros, the French Open.
Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery

Silberwasser and Zaslav both cited other live sports rights that the company has picked up.
“He’s spent a lot of time over the last three years really getting into the trenches,” said Silberwasser. “He’s the person that greenlit all of the investments that we made in Roland-Garros, NASCAR, among others, so he has shown he’s willing to spend, too.”
The company also renegotiated distribution deals with six major pay TV providers and kept rates steady despite the loss of NBA rights, a key move for the future Discovery Global, Zaslav said.

Adding growth

Wiedenfels’ analysis didn’t just identify areas to pull back, according to his colleagues. It also highlighted areas for further investment.
He identified Warner Bros.’ animation unit as a potential source of growth, provided it received more investment. And soon after, its team was resurrected, industry veteran Bill Damaschke was hired and content was in development.
Similarly, the company focused on rebuilding its film studio — a bright spot in WBD’s August earnings report.

The upcoming “Cat in the Hat” movie from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery

WBD also invested more heavily in HBO Max, particularly to update its technology and push international expansion. Under Wiedenfels, the company hired more engineers to improve HBO Max’s algorithm and search engine and to help it support live content, Zaslav said. After being “stuck” at roughly 95 million subscribers for about two years, launching the global streaming platform “paid off,” he added.
The company reported earlier in August it had nearly 126 million streaming subscribers and was on track to meet its goal of more than 150 million by the end of 2026.
Though these divisions will remain with Warner Bros. after the split, they will owe at least some of its recent trajectory to Wiedenfels.
CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said in an interview that Wiedenfels is “very much committed to continuing the investment in CNN.” He and Wiedenfels have recently been on a tour of the network’s various bureaus in preparation for the launch of a reimagined CNN streaming platform this fall.
“I tease him about the reputation for cost-cutting,” Thompson said. “If I’m being fair to him, however, in CNN’s case he’s more than met our ask on investments. In fact, he’s asked whether we need any more.”
Wiedenfels said the company would be investing in building out CNN’s future streaming and digital products, calling it “a pretty significant financial commitment in an industry with declining linear secular trends.”
The company is on track to invest at least $100 million in the network so far, with plans for further investment next year.

Looking ahead

A ‘Shark Week’ blimp flies over the San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2022.
Aaronp/bauer-griffin | Gc Images | Getty Images

Although Wiedenfels is still very much the CFO of Warner Bros. Discovery, he’s already started working on his next role as CEO.
In July, Wiedenfels said, he held a workshop with the future leaders of Discovery Global, many of whom are internal hires. The meeting lasted five hours, with one 10-minute break, and the discussion was solely around what comes after the split.
“It could have gone on for another five hours because there’s so much to discuss and so much excitement to get started and hammer out all these key questions,” said Wiedenfels.
Meanwhile, on WBD’s recent earnings call, Wiedenfels plugged future strategies for Discovery Global, including plans for a streaming service for TNT Sports.
One focus after the split will be reinvesting in the company’s preexisting streaming service, Discovery+, which sat on the sidelines as the focus shifted to HBO Max.
The capital needed for that and other initiatives will be derived from the future Discovery Global business, carefully set up by Wiedenfels and other top executives.
Although Discovery Global will take on much of the remaining debt from WBD’s balance sheet, which investors expect to stand at about $30 billion by the end of the fiscal year, the networks still produce enough cash to make investment possible.
In addition, Discovery Global will retain a 20% stake in Warner Bros., the separated streaming and movie studio entity, which Wiedenfels said will “wash billions of fresh capital” into Discovery Global.
Wiedenfels also told CNBC he believes Discovery Global will have the ability to make strategic moves, including deals and acquiring sports rights.
“If I look at my career so far, I’ve always had a very broad interpretation of the CFO role. I’ve always had certain operating or strategic functions under me,” said Wiedenfels. “I’ve always taken an approach to look beyond the numbers and develop a deep understanding of the business and drivers behind it.”
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. More

Stellantis unveiled a newly designed Jeep Cherokee on Thursday.
The new model marks the iconic brand’s return after being discontinued in 2023.
Jeep has been facing a yearslong streak of slumping sales.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee.

Jeep is rolling out a freshly designed model after six consecutive years of annual sales declines.
The Stellantis automaker unveiled a new Jeep Cherokee on Thursday, the latest move to try to jump-start sales. It’s the first Jeep hybrid system, and the first for Stellantis in North America.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee redesign aims to evoke the iconic Cherokee SUV brand, which has dotted the company’s history for decades. Jeep had previously discontinued the model in 2023 under Stellantis’ former CEO Carlos Tavares as part of various cost-cutting measures.
Thursday’s model marks the debut of Stellantis’ new 1.6-liter turbo-four hybrid powertrain, with more than 500 miles to a tank of fuel. The car will boast a “technology-filled interior,” according to the company, including Stellantis’ new Connect One services package.
The new model, which the company said is longer, taller and wider than the previous Cherokee, also maximizes its space with 30% more cargo capacity.
“The 2026 Jeep Cherokee is an incredibly capable and competitive midsize SUV that’s ready to reclaim ourterritory in North America’s largest vehicle segment,” Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf said in a statement.
The entry-level 2026 car starts at $36,995, including a $1,995 destination charge. The cars will arrive at dealerships toward the end of this year and the beginning of next year, with production taking place at Stellantis’ Mexico plant.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee Overland.
Stellantis

The announcement comes as Jeep tries to reinvigorate its sales in what has been a yearslong slump for the brand.
Amid a six-year sales decline for Jeep, Stellantis is also facing headwinds from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, estimating its full-year impact for the company will reach 1.5 billion euros, or $1.74 billion. Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, who took over the top job at the automaker earlier this summer, said on a July call with analysts that the company has been working with the Trump administration.
Filosa, who was previously the CEO for Jeep, has long aimed to recover Jeep’s market share through a revitalization of the Cherokee brand.
Stellantis touted a gradual improvement over the coming months in its first-half earnings in July.
“My first weeks as CEO have reconfirmed my strong conviction that we will fix what’s wrong in Stellantis by capitalizing on everything that’s right in Stellantis — starting from the strength, energy and ideas of our people, combined with the great new products we are now bringing to market,” Filosa said in a July statement.

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Shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store plummeted roughly 10% after the restaurant unveiled its new logo as part of a larger brand refresh.
Cracker Barrel has said the refresh will still maintain the brand’s “rich history of country hospitality.”
However, many social media users have criticized the new, simplified logo, especially those in conservative circles.

The new Cracker Barrel logo is seen on a menu inside the restaurant on Aug. 21, 2025 in Homestead, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store plummeted roughly 10% on Thursday after the restaurant unveiled its new logo earlier this week as part of a larger brand refresh.
The new logo removes the image of a man leaning against a barrel that was prominently featured in the original, leaving behind just the words “Cracker Barrel” against a yellow background. The phrase “old country store” has also been removed.

The company said the colors in the logo were inspired by the chain’s scrambled eggs and biscuits.
The change is part of a “strategic transformation” to revitalize the brand that started back in May 2024. Under that mission, Cracker Barrel’s brand refresh includes updates to visual elements, restaurant spaces and food and retail offerings.

Cracker Barrel’s old and new logo.
Courtesy: Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel said in March that the refresh will still maintain the brand’s “rich history of country hospitality” and “authentic charm that has made the brand a beloved destination for generations of families.”
“We believe in the goodness of country hospitality, a spirit that has always defined us. Our story hasn’t changed. Our values haven’t changed,” Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Moore said in a media release.
However, many social media users have criticized the new logo, especially those in conservative circles. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., amplified a post on Wednesday suggesting that the logo change was led by CEO Julie Felss Masino to erase the American tradition aspect of the branding and make it more general, as a way of leaning into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck added his commentary on Thursday, writing in a post on social media site X, “Good morning @CrackerBarrel! You’re about to learn that wokeness really doesn’t pay.”
The company has a relatively small market cap of about $1.2 billion compared with other restaurant chains.
Customers have also complained on social media about the interior redesign of many Cracker Barrel restaurants, saying the new decor favors a more sterile and modern style over its tried-and-true country feel.
On the restaurant’s latest earnings call in June, Masino said Cracker Barrel had completed 20 remodels and 20 refreshes. She said the company will be sharing more information about the remodeling initiative in September.
“Employees had given us great feedback about working in those newly remodeled and refreshed stores and guests continue to tell us that they’re lighter, brighter, more welcoming and they’re enjoying them,” Masino said on the call.
Cracker Barrel is not the only stock to see large swings based on political social media posts.
Earlier this month, shares of American Eagle soared after Trump posted that an ad featuring Sydney Sweeney, which faced significant social media pushback from the left, was “the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there.”
Back in 2023, Anheuser-Busch InBev faced heavy criticism from conservatives after a collaboration between Bud Light and social influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender.

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Fujifilm Biotechnologies will open a new biologics manufacturing plant in the U.S. this fall, with Regeneron and Johnson & Johnson as the initial customers.
The Holly Springs, North Carolina, site is five years and $3.2 billion in the making.
Drug companies are increasing U.S. manufacturing as President Trump threatens tariffs.

HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. — A hallway as long as three football fields connects four buildings at Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ new biologics manufacturing plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
The first two buildings are preparing to open this fall to produce drug substance, essentially the base of biologic drugs, for Fujifilm’s initial customers Regeneron and Johnson & Johnson. The second two facilities are still under construction, with plans to open in 2028.

Fujifilm’s timing couldn’t be better, as President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals to encourage companies to make more medicines in the U.S. But the plans for this complex were underway well before Trump proposed higher duties.
It’s taken five years and more than $3 billion to turn the idea into reality. And it shows how difficult it would be for drugmakers to quickly increase production in the U.S., even with a possible grace period that Trump has floated. 
“This is a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, so everything needs to be safe to put into patients,” said Fujifilm Biotechnologies CEO Lars Petersen. “Everything requires an extreme high technology level, very high cleanability. Everything needs to be documented, everything needs to be approved later on by the authorities. So that process is just extremely tedious.”
As companies move to set up more U.S. manufacturing, tariffs may not end up being as big a problem for them as previously thought. The Trump administration on Thursday clarified that under its trade framework with the European Union, pharmaceuticals coming from the bloc would be subject to only a 15% tariff, not a higher one the administration may implement on medicines more generally.
Fujifilm’s timeline for opening the Holly Springs site is in line with the industry average of between three and five years to start up a new plant, depending on the complexity, according to Gabriela de Almeida, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group. It helps that the new facility is identical to the one Fujifilm operates in Denmark.

The company decided to start replicating its plants to speed up the process of designing and building them. The more Fujifilm does that, the faster it can open new sites and customers can start production there, Petersen said. Even once the first tenants move in this fall, they’ll need the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sign off before they can use the products that are made here.

Biologics are particularly complex drugs to make because they rely on living cells to produce the exact same thing, every single time, said Regeneron CEO Len Schleifer.”It’s very expensive, very complicated and takes a very long time,” Schleifer said. 
When all four buildings are open in 2028, the plant should have the capacity to produce 50 million doses of medicine a year with 16 bioreactors that can each hold 20,000 liters. The companies won’t say exactly which drugs will be made at the facility, but it is designed to produce monoclonal antibodies.
It takes almost two months to produce one batch of bulk drug substance. The process involves growing cells that are making a desired protein, purifying the resulting material then preparing it to go to the next step in the complex pharmaceutical supply chain. Opening a valve at the wrong time and letting just one wrong molecule inside could mean an entire batch is lost, Fujifilm’s Petersen said.

Why drugmakers are boosting U.S. manufacturing

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
Courtesy: FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

Regeneron, one of the largest producers of biologic drugs in the world, signed a $3 billion, 10-year contract with Fujifilm for space at the new Holly Springs site, doubling its U.S. manufacturing capacity. By the time Regeneron was looking to increase production, Fujifilm had a head start of multiple years in constructing the facility, so it made sense for the biotech company to secure space there instead of building from scratch, Schleifer said.
Regeneron declined to specify which drugs it will produce in Holly Springs. The company manufactures its medicines at a mix of locations, including its own factories in the U.S. and Ireland, according to regulatory filings. Regeneron is also in the process of opening a new plant in New York, and it acquired another property in that state that it may use for manufacturing. 
It’s one of a number of biopharmaceutical companies that have recently announced plans to increase U.S. production of pharmaceuticals as Trump pressures them to make more of their drugs domestically.
Drugmakers were already ramping up their U.S. manufacturing capabilities before Trump started threatening tariffs specifically on pharmaceuticals, which he exempted from sweeping levies on dozens of countries this spring. The number of U.S. biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the country has increased more than 50% since 2018, according to data from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s main lobbying group. 
Johnson & Johnson Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk said changes in U.S. tax policy made the United States a more attractive place to produce drugs. The company signed a $2 billion, 10-year deal to secure space at Fujifilm’s Holly Springs site as part of its $55 billion commitment to invest in the U.S. in the coming years. Those moves will allow J&J to supply all of its advanced medicines from the U.S., Wolk said, while declining to name which drugs will be made at Fujifilm’s facility.
“It really comes down to good tax policy,” Wolk said. “If you think about the tax policy that’s now in place at the United States at a 21% [corporate] tax rate, that puts us right in the middle of the pack,” allowing J&J to tap into the infrastructure that’s emerged in the U.S. since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, he said.
North Carolina has benefited from the boom. Life sciences companies have announced about $28 billion of investments in the state since 2016, with a record $10.8 billion pledged last year, according to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Down the street from Fujifilm’s new facility in Holly Springs, Amgen is building a $1 billion drug substance manufacturing plant, following another it opened there in January. Genentech will break ground later this month on a $700 million fill-finish facility, where injectable drugs are packaged into containers like vials.
“It’s talent,” said Laura Rowley, vice president of life science economic development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, about what’s driving companies to the state. “It is being here amongst their peers, where there is opportunity still for companies to shine, because we do have that spirit of working together.”

Playing catch-up

FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies’s facilities in Stockton-on-Tees, Britain January 29, 2021.
Lee Smith | Reuters

Biopharma companies are moving to the U.S. to make innovative products with high margins that can withstand the higher cost, BCG’s Almeida said. But catching up will take time.
Only 18% of finished generic and branded drugs originate in the U.S., excluding Puerto Rico, according to an analysis of 2024 Food and Drug Administration pharmaceutical import data by the U.S. Pharmacopeia, an organization that aims to improve the drug supply chain. The country of origin refers to the country where the last major manufacturing step occurred, typically where the active pharmaceutical ingredient was produced.
For branded injectable medicines – like the ones that will be made at Fujifilm’s Holly Springs facility – Europe is the dominant source, with almost half originating there.
Securing manufacturing capacity in the U.S. with a contractor like Fujifilm is one tweak companies can make to reduce their potential tariff exposure in the short term, said Greg Graves, a senior partner in McKinsey’s life sciences practice. Signing on with an external site could be quicker and less expensive than building a new plant.
Simply moving manufacturing to an existing space can take two to three years, BCG’s Almeida said. Called a tech transfer, the process of producing a drug in a new location requires planning, testing to prove the new process works the same, then seeking approval from regulators. 
Regardless, every company is trying to figure out how to prepare for tariffs, Almeida said. Graves and fellow McKinsey senior partner Parag Patel are seeing the same among their clients. However, they said, no one is preparing for a rate as high as 250%, a possibility Trump raised earlier this month. 
“I haven’t come across any organization that’s going that big in their planning because I think they all understand that if this happens, it would fundamentally change the way we’re organized and running, and therefore we’d have to have a different conversation,” Patel said. 
At Fujifilm’s Holly Springs site, the whole point is to give customers flexibility, Petersen said. There’s room to double the entire site, a decision the company will make if the demand warrants it. Should Fujifilm decide to move forward, Petersen thinks it can build that in just three years this time, since the company’s getting faster with each facility clone it creates.
“There’s no question that when you have these discussions like tariffs or like Covid or like any other disruption to the supply chain, it creates a need for flexibility,” Petersen said. “This facility was built before some of these discussions, but it’s definitely built to handle supply chain ability should demand go up or down.” More

Sales of previously owned homes rose 2% in July, according to the National Association of realtors.
There were 1.55 million homes for sale at the end of July, an increase of 15.7% from the same month last year.
Inventory is now at the highest level since May 2020 — and it’s clearly taking the pressure off prices.

A “For Sale” sign outside a house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Sales of previously owned homes rose 2% in July compared with June to 4.01 million units, on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Housing analysts had been expecting a slight decline. Sales were 0.8% higher than July 2024.
These sales are counted by closings, so contacts likely signed in May and June, when the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was in decline. That rate exceeded 7% briefly in May and then ended June at 6.67%, according to Mortgage News Daily.

There were 1.55 million homes for sale at the end of July, an increase of 15.7% from the same month last year. At the current sales pace, that represents a 4.6-month supply. A six-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.
Inventory is now at the highest level since May 2020 but still well below pre-Covid years.
More inventory is clearly taking the pressure off prices. The median price of an existing home sold in July was $422,400, an increase of 0.2% from the same month a year earlier and a record high price for the month of July. Prices have been higher annually for the last 25 months, but the market may now be at an inflection point.
“The ever-so-slight improvement in housing affordability is inching up home sales,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Wage growth is now comfortably outpacing home price growth, and buyers have more choices.”

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Yun noted that condominium sales increased in the South, where prices have been falling for the past year.

Activity continues to be strongest on the higher end of the market. Sales of homes priced over $1 million rose 7.1% year over year, while sales priced between $100,000 and $250,000 declined 0.1%. Sales of homes priced below $100,000 dropped 8%.
It is now taking longer for homes to sell. The average home in July sold in 28 days, up from 24 days the year before. First-time buyers also fell off slightly, representing 28% of sales, down from 30% in June and 29% in July 2024.
Investors made up 20% of all transactions, up from 13% in July 2024. This could be due to the increase in supply.
With mortgage rates still relatively high, the share of all-cash buyers increased to 31% of transactions from 27% the year before.
“This is unusually high,” said Yun, noting stock market wealth or housing wealth could be contributing factors.

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