SUCCESS

April is almost over. May is the month to watch.

Michael Jackson is getting a new, highly detailed action figure as the King of Pop’s biopic, “Michael,” is packing audiences in theaters worldwide.

Concerned about what might show up the next time you’re applying for a job or renting an apartment? You may be interested in conducting background research on your record trail and online identity.
“Doing a background check” can have different meanings. Private background check companies offer online services that can help you obtain information and records on other people, including yourself, often for a fee. A self background check can also refer to research that you do on your own. This could include researching address histories, contact information, online identities, criminal records and more.
This guide will cover everything you need to know about how to do a background check on yourself.

Here’s what you need to know about doing a background check on yourself
Unless you’re worried about an application or a specific prior incident on your record, conducting an extensive background check on yourself with a paid service is likely unnecessary. But here are some reasons you would want to think about a background check:
To find out what employers can see
Job seekers anticipating screenings from potential employers can get ahead of potential issues by conducting basic background checks on themselves.
In the application process, employers are likely to — at a minimum — look you up on Google. Every job seeker should be aware of the results that come up under their name in search engines. (It might be time to delete your hot takes on Facebook from 2012.)
Beyond that, employment background checks can be rigorous and may involve work histories, an academic record search, a criminal record check and a Social Security number trace (also called an SSN trace). In some industries, employees are subject to regular background checks every few years, so it’s not just applicants who have to go through these. Researching your own background first, regardless of which situation you’re in, can provide peace of mind.
By the way: It might be worth taking the time to brush up on the laws around employer background checks. Federal policy states that employers can legally inquire about your background and require a background check — with some conditions. Employers can’t ask for medical information until they actually offer you a role, and they’re generally not supposed to ask for genetic information. They’re also required to treat you the same as anyone else without regard for your race, sex, religion and other protected factors.
Privacy concerns
Are you worried about information like your address, phone number, email, names of relatives and other details being available online for anyone to access?
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to maintain total privacy due to the sheer number of records that exist and the mass distribution of certain datasets. But you can take action to remove your info from popular data broker websites.
If you have a criminal history
Criminal records — including those with misdemeanors — can show up in the job application process or during tenant screenings for house and apartment rental applications.
For some job seekers, criminal records can be a hurdle to employment, but there are resources to help folks overcome related challenges in the job search process.
A background check that surfaces one’s criminal history can show a person what employers will see. Also, if you’ve been involved in civil lawsuits and want to know what records are public, that would be another reason to consider a background check.
You were denied for an apartment application
In the event that you’re denied an apartment application, you may want to conduct research to find out what was the basis of the denial. If the reason for the denial wasn’t given, it could be as simple as your income or credit score being too low to qualify. Checking your credit report is a good first step here.
In some states, landlords can also deny applications based on criminal history, past bankruptcy or other possible incidents in an individual’s record. More extensive background research may be necessary in these scenarios.
You have fraud concerns
Doing a background check probably isn’t your top priority if you find out you’ve been a victim of identity theft. With that said, checking your credit report (and credit score) is crucial in the event of financial fraud. It’s also a key step in a self background check, as your credit reports can show if someone is using your identity or taking out accounts in your name.

Types of background check research you can do on yourself
The main categories of background check research you can do on yourself include credit checks, online identity research and criminal record checks.
Conduct online searches
Any self background check should involve a dive into your digital footprint. To start, look yourself up in Google, and check other search engines like Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, too. In addition to your name, try searching your usernames and email addresses to find additional links associated with your identity.
You can then look up your name on background check sites like AdvancedBackgroundChecks.com or CyberBackgroundChecks.com, which offer limited free functionality.
“People search” tools compile data from various sources, allowing anyone to search a name and pull possible addresses, emails, phone numbers, relatives and more. You can (and should) run these same searches on yourself. This step will show you what address history and contact information is out there.
Some people search sites and background check tools claim to include employment records, criminal records and traffic offenses — though these features may require payment.
Here are some people search websites with free tools:

CheckPeople.com
FastPeopleSearch.com
PeekYou.com
TruePeopleSearch.com
USA-People-Search.com

These are just a few of the dozens of people search sites out there. Overwhelmed by how many websites have your information? In some cases, you can request to be removed from the sites, but with dozens of different data brokers collecting data, it’s tricky. Google does have some resources if you’re concerned about personal information in results.
If you’re applying for a job, or just for peace of mind, you can also look up all of your old social media activity.
Delete old content as you feel is appropriate. Even less-obvious accounts like Venmo and Spotify can have public profiles making your activity available to others (former President Joe Biden had to learn that the hard way). You may want to change your privacy settings to avoid sticky situations.
Check your credit report
During this process, make sure to get a copy of your credit report by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com. You can request free weekly online credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These reports show an individual’s credit accounts and balances.
Although credit reports do not show credit scores, lenders and landlords will be looking at your report, so you want to arm yourself with the same information.
Should you identify any inaccuracies or items you would like to dispute, you will need to follow the appropriate procedures. It would also be wise to consider a credit freeze, which helps prevent bad actors from obtaining lines of credit using your name.

Check criminal records
Note: You can skip this step if you already know you don’t have criminal records.
Given that background checks typically involve a search of criminal records, it’s crucial for anyone with these records to know what potential red flags employers and landlords may find.
There are some national criminal record search tools, but you can also search for these records locally on court websites. A good first step would be figuring out which court has your information and visiting that court’s website for information on how to access their records.
Keep in mind that state laws vary in terms of what criminal records can be considered in background checks — and for how long. In some states, a seven-year rule prevents older criminal records from being reported. In other states, a felony can continue to show up in background checks unless it’s sealed or expunged.
Verify other records
While not always necessary, in specific situations an individual may want to verify other records like professional licenses, education records or wage history as part of a background check. This type of research could involve searching government license databases or requesting academic transcripts from your university.

How to do a background check on yourself FAQs
Can you do a background check on yourself?
Yes, background checks are usually performed by employers, landlords and the like, but you can also research your own background. This article is meant to be a guide.
How do you fix background check errors?
Background check errors can be frustrating or even scary if you feel you’ve lost privacy or experienced fraud. During a self background check, you may spot some errors that you need to dispute. Usually, you’ll have to go directly to the source to correct them. In the case of a credit report error, for example, you’d need to file a dispute with the credit bureaus.
Do I need to pay for a background check on myself?
Probably not. There’s a lot you can do for free. But if you appreciate the convenience of a paid service, just make sure to find a quality background check company.

Summary of this background check guide
Conducting a background check on yourself involves multiple steps: Checking your credit, searching criminal records (if applicable) and looking up your digital footprint. During the background check process, you can dispute inaccuracies, report fraud and clean up your online identity.

More from Money:
8 Best Background Check Sites
What Is a Background Check?
How Do You Know Whether You Passed a Background Check?

The rejections are not the obstacle — they are the curriculum. And if you pay attention, they can teach you more about your business than any accelerator program or startup playbook ever will.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the suspect traveled to the gala in Washington from Los Angeles.

Oracle (ORCL) is a tech giant. Its revenue sources are enterprise software, cloud services, and database technologies. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) unit has become the primary driver of the stock’s growth, thanks to the AI boom.On top of everything you’d expect in their offerings, the company also has something special: Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer Isolated. A very complicated name for an “on-premises cloud.” The target audience of this product is governments and regulated industries.Oracle was recognized by Bank of America last October as the fourth AI infrastructure hyperscaler.The stock closed at $173.28 on April 26, representing a 47.22% loss from its highest closing price of $328.33 on September 10, according to Yahoo Finance.This drop was predicted by Rothschild & Co. Redburn’s analyst Alex Haissl. Haissl initiated coverage of Oracle in September 2025, setting a $175 price target and a sell rating.Considering that the stock has dropped below his price target, even he may have been a tad optimistic.

Morgan Stanley lowered Oracle’s stock price target.Shutterstock

Key news for Oracle stockOn March 6, Bloomberg reported that Oracle and OpenAI had dropped plans to expand an AI data center in Texas.Oracle refuted the claims from the report in a post on X:“Recent media activity about the Abilene site [is] false and incorrect. First, Crusoe and Oracle are operating in lockstep to deliver one of the world’s largest AI Data centers in Abilene at [a] record-breaking pace. Two buildings are completely operational, and the rest of the campus is on track. Second, Oracle has completed leasing for the additional 4.5GW to deliver on our commitments to OpenAI.”Oracle gained $100 billion in market cap after announcing an expanded partnership with Amazon Web Services (AMZN) on April 16.The company canceled a huge order of Nvidia GB300 NVL72 racks from Super Micro Computer (SMCI). This was a contract estimated at $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion.Oracle laid off 20,000 to 30,000 employees, according to Forbes on April 6.TD Cowen warned in January that this was what the company would likely do to resolve its AI datacenter financing challenges, according to The Register.Key issues with Oracle Q3 earningsOracle reported its Q3 results on March 10. The company touted its Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) of $553 billion, up 325% year-over-year. This might sound great until we look at deferred revenues.In Q3, short-term deferred revenues were $9.9 billion. But if we go back to the Q2 report, RPO was at $523 billion, and short-term deferred revenues were also $9.9 billion. The RPO keeps growing, but deferred revenue isn’t, and the gap between the two is glaring. Meanwhile, the company’s debt is skyrocketing.More Tech Stocks:Bank of America resets Nvidia stock forecast after meeting with CFOBank of America resets Amazon stock price target ahead of earningsBank of America resets Microsoft stock forecast ahead of earningsThe company disclosed the following in its FORM 10-Q filing: “Based on the trading prices of the $130.9 billion and $90.3 billion of senior notes and other long-term borrowings and the related fair value hedges, if any, that we had outstanding as of February 28, 2026 and May 31, 2025, respectively, the estimated fair values of the senior notes and other long-term borrowings and the related fair value hedges, if any, using Level 2 inputs at February 28, 2026 and May 31, 2025 were $118.4 billion and $81.3 billion, respectively”This growing debt comes along with $261 billion in additional lease commitments, as stated in the same filing.A significant part of RPO is supposed to come from OpenAI, and we know that part is at least $300 billion, which translates to 54% of RPO.Relying on OpenAI for that much revenue is a big risk, as the company isn’t profitable.Morgan Stanley lowers Oracle stock price targetMorgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss and his team updated their opinion on Oracle stock in their research note from April 23.The team said that while Q3 results were strong on topline and operating profitability, gross margins ticked approximately 590bps lower year-over-year. This drop was due to the capacity ramp for GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS).Related: Bank of America resets Google stock forecast ahead of earningsAnalysts believe this will continue given that the company is in the early stage of its data center buildout. They noted that Oracle’s customer concentration is a key risk, but they believe recent data points and ecosystem developments are constructive.The team raised their fiscal year 2027 and 2028 Cloud Database Estimates by 3% and 15%, respectively.In a research note shared with me, Weiss reiterated an equal-weight (hold) rating for Oracle stock and lowered the price target to $207 from $213, based on a 25 multiple of his estimate for non-GAAP EPS for fiscal year 2028 of $8.28.Along with the base case for Oracle’s stock, Morgan Stanley’s bear case shows a price target of $75.00. They wrote: “Our bear case assumes Oracle below historical averages given lack of confidence towards accelerating EPS growth in the out years as GPUaaS opportunity falls meaningfully short of expectations.”Analysts noted downside risks for Oracle stock:Challenges in ramping up OCI capacity.Weaker than expected OCI gross margins.GPUaaS capacity investments drive substantial leverage.Disruptive technologies in the data management market.Upside potential for Oracle:Faster than expected OCI capacity ramps.Stronger than expected OCI gross margins.Accelerated adoption of Fusion Apps and Cloud.Database across the installed base.Accelerated market share gains in non-AI Cloud.Related: Bank of America resets Intel stock price target after earnings

The squad at the manager’s disposal is largely comprised of players hired to match the attacking style of Ange Postecoglou, the boss who was fired in favour of Frank.

Golf nut Brian Baumgartner is best known for his role as Kevin Malone in NBC’s “The Office,” but you’re almost as likely to see him at a golf course as you are on TV.

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham said that the largest contributors are Mantle and Aave DAO, having raised a combined $127 million.

Four days ago, Amazon made a move that sent a signal across the AI industry. Now Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) has answered with something even larger. And the company at the center of both bets — Anthropic — is one and the same.The scale of what is happening around Anthropic right now is unlike anything the AI industry has seen before. And the terms of Google’s latest commitment reveal exactly why.What Google is committing to with AnthropicAlphabet is investing $10 billion in Anthropic now, at a $350 billion valuation, with another $30 billion to follow if Anthropic hits specific performance milestones, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the deal.The $350 billion valuation matches what Anthropic achieved in a February funding round. That matters because investors have since been eager to back the company at $800 billion or more, TechCrunch reported. Google is getting in at a significant discount to where secondary market sentiment currently sits.Related: Anthropic CEO makes shocking admission about AIThis is not Google’s first bet on Anthropic. The company has invested in the AI startup since 2023, with total prior investment exceeding $3 billion and a roughly 14% stake before this latest round, according to CNBC.Google deal is about compute as much as capitalCash is only part of the story. Alongside the investment, Google is committing to support a significant expansion of Anthropic’s computing capacity. On April 6, Anthropic signed a new agreement with Google and Broadcom for multiple gigawatts of TPU chip capacity expected to start coming online in 2027, according to PYMNTS.That 5-gigawatt commitment is as strategically significant as the dollars. Frontier AI models are extraordinarily compute-hungry, and the companies that can guarantee infrastructure access are increasingly the ones shaping which AI labs can compete at the highest level. Access to chips, cloud capacity, and power has become a defining advantage in this race.Anthropic has been scrambling to lock in that capacity from multiple directions. The company also struck a data center deal with CoreWeave earlier in April, and is spending up to $100 billion to secure around 5 gigawatts of capacity from Amazon under a separate arrangement, TechCrunch noted.Amazon moved first, then Google followedOn April 20, Amazon announced a fresh $5 billion investment in Anthropic, with the option for up to $20 billion more tied to commercial milestones, according to CNBC. Four days later, Google announced a commitment more than twice the size.Related: Bank of America resets Amazon stock price target ahead of earningsThe sequence is not a coincidence. Both Amazon and Google are Anthropic’s cloud infrastructure partners. Both compete with Anthropic’s Claude in the market for AI models and services. And both have now made major financial commitments to the same company within the same week.That dynamic reflects something unusual about the current AI landscape. The biggest technology companies are simultaneously competitors and backers, funding startups they also compete against because no one can afford to be left out of a category-defining shift.Why Anthropic is attracting this scale of investmentThe numbers behind Anthropic’s growth explain the urgency. The company’s annualized revenue has topped $30 billion, and the number of customers spending more than $1 million annually has doubled in less than two months, according to Axios.Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding assistant, has been a major driver of that growth. Enterprise demand for coding tools has expanded rapidly, and Anthropic has positioned itself as one of the leading suppliers of that capability alongside OpenAI.More AI:Micron sits at the center of a red-hot chip rallyIBM CEO sends blunt message on AI and quantum computingAnthropic CEO makes shocking admission about AIThe company is also reportedly considering an IPO as soon as October, TechCrunch noted. If that timeline holds, both Amazon and Google’s investments would be made ahead of a public listing that could crystallize the value of their stakes significantly.Key figures from the Google-Anthropic deal:Total investment commitment: up to $40 billion, with $10 billion now and $30 billion tied to performance milestones, according to BloombergAnthropic valuation at time of deal: $350 billion, matching its February funding round, Bloomberg confirmedInvestor appetite for Anthropic on secondary markets: $800 billion or more, TechCrunch reportedGoogle’s prior investment in Anthropic: more than $3 billion, roughly 14% stake, according to CNBCAmazon’s investment four days prior: $5 billion now, up to $20 billion more tied to milestones, CNBC notedCompute commitment: 5 gigawatts of Google and Broadcom TPU capacity starting 2027, according to PYMNTSAnthropic annualized revenue: more than $30 billion, according to AxiosPotential IPO timeline: as soon as October 2026, TechCrunch noted

Google just made one of the largest private tech investments ever recordedMarin/Getty Images

What this means for the AI investment landscapeThe Google-Anthropic deal is the latest and largest signal that AI investment is no longer about picking winners at an early stage. It is about securing infrastructure relationships and strategic positioning with the companies most likely to define the next era of AI deployment.For investors watching the broader market, the deal reinforces two things. First, the biggest AI labs are not going public at early-stage valuations. They are arriving with annualized revenues in the tens of billions, institutional backing from the world’s largest technology companies, and compute commitments that lock in their competitive position for years.Second, the capital intensity of frontier AI is accelerating. Google committing $40 billion to a single company, days after Amazon committed up to $25 billion to the same one, is a data point about what it costs to stay at the frontier. That cost is rising, and it is rising fast.Google’s strategic position in all of thisGoogle is in an unusual spot. Through Google Cloud and its TPU chips, it is one of Anthropic’s most important infrastructure suppliers. Through its Gemini models, it is one of Anthropic’s most direct competitors. And through this investment, it is now one of Anthropic’s largest financial backers.That combination is not a contradiction. It is a hedge. Google is ensuring that however the AI model market evolves, it has meaningful exposure to the outcome. If Anthropic wins, Google profits. If Google’s own models win, it profits from that too.The blunt message from this deal is simple. Google does not see Anthropic as a rival to be beaten or a startup to be ignored. It sees it as one of the most important companies in AI, and it is putting $40 billion behind that view.Related: Nvidia CEO makes surprising admission on OpenAI and Anthropic