Elizabeth Holmes: How Theranos founder went from billionaire darling of Silicon Valley to behind bars
“Don’t worry about the future, we’re in good hands.”
So said former US president Bill Clinton in 2015, as he introduced Elizabeth Holmes to an adoring New York crowd.
It seemed an uncontroversial statement at the time, as he hailed the achievements of a woman who had become America’s youngest self-made female billionaire after taking Silicon Valley by storm.
A hub for the world’s biggest tech companies, the only thing more synonymous with this infamous stretch of northern California than scientific breakthroughs and innovative gadgets were the rich white men who were invariably behind them – turtleneck jumpers and smart trouser-sneaker combos in tow.
Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Holmes at the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2015 meeting in New York
Holmes – a high school computer whizz turned Stanford dropout – was a bona fide gatecrasher, her stunning rise to the cover of Forbes magazine powered by her founding health technology firm Theranos and its rapid ascent to a peak valuation of $9bn. Look back on what it was promising to deliver, and it’s easy to see why.
Revolutionary blood tests were at the heart of its pitch, ones which could be performed at phenomenal speed with merely a small drop required – and no needles.
Holmes’s catchphrase became “change the world”, such were her assertions that the equipment her company had developed could test for dozens of diseases in one fell swoop.
She insisted it would change healthcare in the US, not just by speeding up and streamlining trips to the doctor, but by eventually rendering such visits obsolete by selling the gizmos in stores.
It took more than a decade for such claims to be exposed as the stuff of science-fiction, but Holmes’s shameless willingness to talk the talk regardless helped her become one of the darlings of Silicon Valley, raising hundreds of millions from investors and venture capitalists.
As Theranos grew, her public image was crafted to perfection to make her the perfect face of one of America’s most exciting companies, famously adopting the aforementioned turtlenecks from her idol Steve Jobs, the late Apple founder, and speaking in a strikingly deep voice which added extra gravitas to her every word.
Fame isn’t for everyone, but for Holmes it seemed elementary.
Nothing, it seemed, could go wrong. Until it did. Big time.
Theranos reached a value of $9bn
How the lie was exposed
Holmes’s empire began to unravel upon the publication of a bombshell expose by The Wall Street Journal, which reported that Theranos’s technology was profoundly flawed.
The devices used to collect people’s blood, which the firm dubbed “nanotainers”, were said to be so far off the mark that Theranos had in fact been using other companies’ equipment to carry out blood tests in its laboratories.
The most distressing piece of the Journal’s report was that the company’s ex-chief scientist, Briton Ian Gibbons, had tried to take his own life after telling his wife the tech did not work. He died shortly after from liver failure.
The stories emerged just a month after Holmes had shared the stage with Bill Clinton.
Silicon Valley is home to some of the biggest names in tech
As described by Sky’s Ian King when Theranos went bust in 2018, three years after the Journal’s report, key to the company keeping the wool fixed firmly over the public’s eyes until then had been an almost cult-like culture among its executives and staff, and one of extreme secrecy.
Neither are unique to Silicon Valley – some of the big tech personalties who have emerged over the years remain an odd focus of worship in some corners of the internet – but rarely have they combined to such destructive effect.
The journalist who broke the story, John Carreyrou, has since written a book on the scandal called Bad Blood, which stands to be turned into a feature film. There’s perhaps a cruel irony that it’s being produced by Apple, the company whose late co-founder was a source of such inspiration for Holmes.
Her rise and fall also inspired a hit podcast series called The Dropout, and a subsequent Hulu series of the same name starring Amanda Seyfried.
The show presents Holmes as a brave, smart, single-minded young woman determined to succeed, and she is initially easy to root for. As Apple designer Ana Arriola tells Holmes in a scene when she attempts to recruit her following the launch of the first iPhone: “Honestly, it’s just really exciting to me that you’re a young female CEO, instead of a cocky little boy in a sweatshirt.”
But Holmes’s goal of becoming a wealthy star of the biotech scene quickly overcomes all other instincts – including a willingness to tell the truth.
It’s a trait that left some staff feeling deeply uneasy, not just Gibbons and Arriola, who describes her time at Theranos on her LinkedIn page as “altruism through corrupt unethical science-fiction”.
Amanda Seyfried as Holmes in The Dropout: Pic Disney+
How a life unravelled
Carreyrou’s revelations, which Holmes has admitted trying to silence, sparked investigations by medical and financial regulators in the US. In a development which would once have been unthinkable, the now 34-year-old was facing criminal charges in 2018.
She and the president of Theranos, ex-lover Romesh Balwani (who she has since accused of sexual assault), were accused of engaging “in a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors, a separate scheme to defraud doctors and patients”, and each faced two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.
Former Theranos president Ramesh Balwani
Among those defrauded investors were the likes of Rupert Murdoch and the American pharmacy giant Walgreens, while similarly big names had been attracted to Theranos’s board of directors.
Among them were former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and an ex-director of the US Centers for Disease Control.
All of them had been hoodwinked by Holmes, who had founded Theranos aged just 18 and quickly learned how to tell her backers exactly what they wanted – and she needed them – to hear.
As Eric Jackson, a startup founder and author of The PayPal Wars, put it to Sky News: “There is almost endemic to the system a need to, I don’t want to say exaggerate, but to tell a narrative that’s compelling to investors. At a certain point hype does have to be in line with credibility, if not you’re in an instance of good old-fashioned fraud.”
Whether it was a matter of delusion, falling victim to the treacherous “fake it ’til you make it” culture that permeates American startups, or something more sinister, Holmes maintained during her trial that she initially believed her company’s purportedly revolutionary blood tests were real.
“I wanted to convey the impact the company could make for people and for health care,” she told the court of her meetings with investors.
To prosecutors, such assertions were the consequence of a woman who was “out of time and out of money”.
Having launched her company by repurposing family funds meant for her Harvard degree, taking it mainstream meant doing whatever it took to attract her big time investors and venture capitalists.
The once-enamoured former US secretary of defence Jim Mattis, who joined the company board, told the trial: “There just came a point when I didn’t know what to believe about Theranos any more.”
Holmes arrives for a hearing in San Jose in 2019
‘She chose lies when we needed truth’
Holmes’s sentencing on Friday to more than 11 years in prison comes after she was convicted of fraud earlier this year, her years-long scam having failed to move the jury as it had done her backers.
After a case which gripped the world, just as her rise to fame had done, US federal prosecutors had asked the judge to jail her for 15 years, a term considered appropriate for “one of the most substantial white collar offences Silicon Valley or any other district has seen”.
Balwani has been left waiting until next month for his sentencing, having also been convicted of multiple fraud counts during a separate trial.
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In a 46-page brief last week, assistant US attorney Robert S Leach wrote of Holmes: “She repeatedly chose lies, hype, and the prospect of billions of dollars over patient safety and fair dealing with investors.
“Elizabeth Holmes’ crimes were not failing, they were lying – lying in the most serious context, where everyone needed her to tell the truth.”
A counter document from Holmes’s attorneys, totalling 82 pages, insisted her reputation had been permanently and unfairly destroyed, given it had turned her into a “caricature to be mocked and vilified”.
They appealed for a sentence of no more than 18 months.
More than 130 friends, family, former investors and employees have also submitted letters to the judge, Edward Davila of San Jose, California, to appeal for leniency.
Senator Cory Booker used his to hail Holmes, still only 38, as someone who “can, despite mistakes, make the world a better place”.
Whether that’s true or not, she won’t be able to from behind bars.
Donald Trump has announced his “highly anticipated” meeting with Vladimir Putin will take place next Friday in the US state of Alaska.
The two presidents are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine – with the talks potentially leading to a breakthrough in Mr Trump’s effort to end the conflict.
But there’s no guarantee it will stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.
Earlier, the US president told reporters “we’re getting very close to a deal” that would end the war.
Mr Trump added there will be “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both sides”.
Follow latest: Ukraine war live updates
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‘I’m not against meeting Zelenskyy’
The meeting between the two leaders will be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when former US President Joe Biden met Mr Putin in Switzerland.
Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska. Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The meeting was also confirmed by Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, who said the leaders will “focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis”.
He added that the two presidents could meet in Russia in future and that an invitation has already been extended to Mr Trump.
Yesterday, Mr Trump had told reporters at the White House that he couldn’t announce where or when the meeting would take place but he would do so soon.
He also suggested that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia. And we’ll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one,” Mr Trump said.
The US president added: “President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace … in all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he’s getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done.”
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Donald Trump, right, and Vladimir Putin at a summit in Vietnam in 2017. Pic: Reuters
Territory to form part of talks
Speaking about the role that territory will play in the peace talks, Mr Trump said: “You’re looking at a territory that’s been fought over for three-and-a-half years. A lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died.
“So we’re looking at that, but we’re actually looking to get some back, and some swapping.
“It’s complicated, actually. Nothing is easy. It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back.
“We’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”
Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.
Pressed on if this was the last chance to make a major peace deal, Mr Trump said: “I don’t like using the term last chance … when those guns start going off, it’s awfully tough to get them to stop.”
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Trump says he will meet Putin
Western officials ‘to meet in UK’
Meanwhile, senior officials from the US, Ukraine and several European countries are due to meet in the UK this weekend to try and reach common positions ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting, according to Axios.
Ukraine and several NATO allies are reported to be privately concerned that Mr Trump might agree to Mr Putin’s proposals for ending the war without taking their positions into consideration.
Since his return to the White House in January, Mr Trump has moved to mend relations with Russia and sought to end the war – with public comments veering between admiration and sharp criticism of Mr Putin.
In a sign of his growing frustration with Russia’s refusal to halt its military offensive, Mr Trump had threatened to impose new sanctions and tariffs against Moscow – and countries that buy its exports – unless the Kremlin agreed to end the conflict.
A deadline was set for yesterday, but it is unclear whether these sanctions are taking effect, or if they will be delayed or cancelled in light of the talks.
Ukrainian servicemen of the 148th artillery brigade load ammunition into a M777 howitzer before firing in Zaporizhzhia.
Pic: AP
War grinds on ahead of talks
The meeting has been arranged as Russia’s bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armour while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian forces are locked in intense battles along the 620-mile frontline that snakes from northeast to southeast Ukraine.
The Pokrovsk area of the eastern Donetsk region is taking the brunt of punishment as Russia seeks to break out into the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.
US
Chris Hemsworth describes ‘gear shift’ after learning he’s 10 times more likely to get Alzheimer’s
Chris Hemsworth has told Sky News that finding out he had a greater chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease was a “gear shift” in his life motivations.
During a genetic test in season one of Limitless: Live Better Now, the Australian actor discovered that he is, biologically, eight to 10 times more likely than others to have the brain disorder during his lifetime as he carries two copies of the APOE4 gene.
He had first taken part in the National Geographic show to be its “guinea pig” and face new experiences that challenge the body and mind.
But after having the test, the 41-year-old Thor, Furiosa and Transformers star was faced with an unexpected truth.
Reuters file pic
One in every 50 people inherit two copies of the APOE4 gene and research has found that nearly all double carriers showed key early signs of the disease which causes dementia by the age of 55.
Everyone’s risk is different, and evidence suggests there are things you can do to reduce your risk whether you’re a carrier of the gene or not, including not smoking, reducing alcohol intake, daily exercise, monitoring cholesterol and blood pressure and eating a balanced diet.
Speaking of when he found out he was a double carrier, Hemsworth told Sky News: “It was just kind of this point in my life where up until your 40s, you’re kind of gathering data and information and it’s all reactionary and then you get to a point where you think, oh some of this sort of identity that I’ve sort of built doesn’t hold true anymore.
“There’s some inner sort of protest or inner voice that has a deeper need to understand and there’s deeper questions and what is the purpose and the why behind what I’m doing … and what am I seeking, what am I contributing, as opposed to just what I am collecting.”
Reacting on screen, he said it made him shift his focus to living better and increase the chances of him spending as much time as possible with his family and friends.
Pic: Disney
What’s changed in the second series?
The change in mindset is evident in season two.
“This time around, I was very involved in the orchestration and the sort of production and bringing together spaces that I was interested in or there was a deep curiosity or were deeply personal to me. And it was more sort of experiential journalism as opposed to a contestant in a challenging kind of fun, reality show.
He adds: “I was much more committed or invested in the experience.
“And I was a bit more educated on the topics too. I had to research, I had a deeper point of view, I suppose, personally, but also sort of the education I was given prior and I enjoyed that more, to be honest, I didn’t like that I felt very uncomfortable in the first season because I was standing around all these experts and I knew nothing about these topics, yet I was kind of asked to speak on them and so I felt like an imposter the entire time.”
Limitless: Live Better Now looks at the ways in which you can improve your brain and body’s health through endurance challenges and learning a new instrument.
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Chris Hemsworth with Ed Sheeran. Pic: Disney
Teaming up with Sheeran
Hemsworth chose the drums and, taking it to the extreme, was set the task of joining his friend Ed Sheeran on stage to play Thinking Out Loud.
“That fear and that anxiety was incredibly overwhelming,” Hemsworth says, detailing how he felt “underwater” in the weeks leading up to the event.
“It’s weird the way intense situations actually cause a hyper focus; it’s a survival mechanism of the brain.
“Some of the other challenges where if I did the training it was beneficial, but I could kind of muscle my way through it. You can’t do that with a musical instrument and then the realisation that the entire band is relying on you to keep time. And then 70,000 people are sitting there going, ‘please don’t wreck our favourite song’.”
Reflecting on the moment, he says it’s one of the most magical feelings he’s ever had.
“The joy was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. You know, if you could bottle that and have it in a healthy way and not have all the negatives that someone may have for it, it was amazing. It was a true kind of one of my first probably proper out of body experiences, I suppose.
“It was like, I kind of remember being in the out, looking down at myself almost, kind of going, wow, I’m kind of floating along with this thing that’s so much bigger than me and I’m in true sort of flow state with it.”
National Geographic’s Limitless: Live Better Now is available to stream on Disney+ from 15 August.
It could be diplomatic dynamite.
The first meeting between a sitting US and Russian president in more than four years, following one of the bleakest periods in the history of their countries’ bilateral relations.
But a Putin–Trump summit does not necessarily mean there will be a ceasefire.
Ukraine war latest: Kremlin aide’s full statement on Trump-Putin talks
On the one hand, it could signal that a point of agreement has been reached and a face-to-face meeting is needed to seal the deal.
That has always been Russia’s stance. It’s consistently said it would only meet at a presidential level if there’s something to agree on.
On the other hand, there might not be anything substantive. It might just be for show.
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‘Good chance’ Trump will meet Putin soon
It might just be the latest attempt by the Kremlin to diffuse Donald Trump’s anger and dodge his deadline to end the war by Friday or face sanctions.
It would give Trump something that can be presented as progress, but in reality, it delivers anything but.
After all, there has certainly not been any sign that Moscow is willing to soften its negotiating position or step back from its goals on the battlefield.
Tellingly, perhaps, it’s this latter view which has been taken by some of the Russian press on Thursday.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have not met face to face since the US president returned to the White House. File pic: Reuters
“Putin won” is the headline in Moskovsky Komsomolets regarding the Kremlin leader’s meeting with Witkoff.
The state-run tabloid quotes a political scientist, Marat Bashirov, who claims Putin “bought time” ahead of Friday’s deadline.
“It is noteworthy that in his rhetoric [on sanctions] Trump did not mention Russia at all,” the paper notes.
Komsomolskaya Pravda is similarly dismissive.
“Donald Trump has two simple interests in connection with Ukraine: to earn money for America, and political whistles and the Nobel Peace Prize for himself,” it says.
“Russia has its own interests,” it adds, “securing them is what Vladimir Putin will seek at a meeting with Trump.”
At this stage, the most likely location is the United Arab Emirates. Putin met the country’s president in the Kremlin today, and afterwards said it would be a “suitable location”. It felt like a strong hint.
And the UAE certainly makes sense.
It’s played mediator for a number of the prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine; it has good relations with the US (and was one of Trump’s stops on his recent Middle East tour); and most importantly for Moscow, it’s not a member of the International Criminal Court. So Putin doesn’t have to worry about being arrested.
But if NBC’s reports are correct, that a Putin-Trump summit is conditional on the Russian president meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then the summit may not happen at all.
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Until now, Putin has refused to meet Zelenskyy, despite numerous demands from Kyiv, because he views him as illegitimate.
The Kremlin said the prospect of a trilateral meeting between the leaders was mentioned by Witkoff on Wednesday, but the proposal was left “completely without comment” by Russia.
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