Courtesy of Duncan Grant, Rebecca Smith, Rachel Aquino and Gabriel Lesser.
When 16-year-old Riley Galfi met an artist she loves at a concert back in May, she didn’t ask to take any ordinary selfie with him, she asked to take a .5 selfie.
In a flash, Galfi flipped her phone around, angled it above her head and pressed the volume button to capture a fun, wide-angled picture. As she recounted the experience to CNBC, Galfi was beaming.
“I took a .5 with Aidan Bissett,” she said. “What? That’s really cool.”
The wide-angled image is colloquially called a .5 selfie, called a “point five” by Galfi and her peers. The cheeky photo trend has taken social media platforms by storm.
The .5 selfie rose to prominence after Apple first introduced an Ultra Wide camera lens to its iPhone 11 product line. The style is particularly popular with members of Generation Z, or people born after 1997, according to the Pew Research Center.
Gen Z has already witnessed the rise of smartphones, social media, and more recently, artificial intelligence, in their lifetimes, so these savvy users are accustomed to keeping up with ever-changing technology trends.
On platforms like Instagram, for instance, Gen Z users don’t favor a perfectly curated feed full of posed and filtered photos. Instead, many are embracing a seemingly more effortless, messy, I-did-not-have-to-try-very-hard-to-capture-this-cool-outfit aesthetic.
Enter the .5 selfie.
“They’re not like the usual selfie, they shouldn’t be a well thought out picture that you take,” 24-year-old Rachel Aquino told CNBC in an interview. “It’s something that you just usually take on a whim, and something that really captures the moment in real time.”
Aquino has taken a .5 photo every day for the past year. She said she uses them as an easy form of personal record keeping to capture her everyday life, her outfits, events and moments with family.
She also likes to take .5 selfies when hanging out with friends, and she joked that if she doesn’t reach to take one, someone else will. Aquino said it usually takes her just two or three times to nail the shot since she isn’t striving for perfection.
Rachel Aquino takes a .5 selfie.
Courtesy of Rachel Aquino
“Sometimes, I don’t look at the camera, sometimes, it’s literally the back of my head and me walking in the streets of New York, sometimes, it’s me sitting at a table with friends,” she said. “Sometimes, if I’m having a really good time and I don’t want to bother anyone, it’s like the back of everyone’s heads.”
At her job, Aquino is known as “the .5 queen,” and she said she often shares the photos to her Instagram and TikTok accounts.
The .5 selfie is now a fixture of Instagram Stories and a popular Gen Z Instagram trend called a “photo dump,” where users share a group of up to 10 random, nonchronological photos to their main feed. Spliced between gorgeous landscapes and fancy meals, a .5 selfie can serve as a way for Gen Z to show off their personalities on the platform.
Gabriel Lesser, a 21-year-old college student, said lots of his friends share their .5 photos on Instagram, and that they “always make the cut” in a photo dump. He said he has one friend who abides by the slogan “make Instagram casual again,” so she mainly posts .5 photos.
“I think it just creates less of an expectation for the photo,” Lesser told CNBC in an interview. “You get some cool angles and funny, goofy proportions and you’re like, ‘This is hilarious.'”
Members of Gen Z take .5 selfies.
Courtesy of Emma Kelly, Rachel Aquino and Annika Kim Constantino
For many professional social media creators, the more casual online aesthetic has proved to be a lucrative one. Popular Gen Z creators like Alix Earle and Emma Chamberlain, who has more than 15.7 million Instagram followers, have built brands around their relatability.
Chamberlain’s photos are edgy, fun and not totally polished, which means they could theoretically be recreated by anyone. Her more attainable vibe has helped her reach some less attainable early career milestones like inking a podcasting deal with Spotify, starting her own coffee company and traveling the world with brands like Louis Vuitton.
Some creators have also gotten their start purely thanks to the .5 lens.
Internet users have become enamored with Sabrina Bahsoon, a creator on TikTok who is more affectionately known as “Tube Girl.” Bahsoon blew up on the video-sharing platform this year because of the .5 videos she films while taking public transit in London. Her videos ooze confidence and style, and they landed her a spot at a number of designer fashion shows this fall.
“Just to see someone out there recording and so confident and looking so good at the same time is crazy,” Aquino said. “I think that’s why Gen Z goes insane over the Tube Girl.”
How to take a .5 selfie
A member of Gen Z takes a .5 selfie.
Courtesy of Duncan Grant
To take a .5 selfie, start by opening the camera app on your iPhone. Flip the camera so you are looking at the scene in front of you, and not at your face like you would to take a traditional selfie. Tap the 0.5 button that appears over the word “photo” to access the camera’s Ultra Wide lens, and then turn your phone around so you can’t see the screen.
The next step is all about the angle. Hold your arm out straight, raise your phone above your head and press the volume button to capture the shot. Be careful not to hit the power button by mistake.
Since the angle of the camera is so wide, you usually don’t have to worry about squeezing multiple people into frame. As a result, .5 selfies can serve as a great way to capture large group settings or pretty backgrounds.
“Make sure you’re not shaking your arm when you’re taking them, because then you’ll get a distorted photo,” Lesser added.
With some .5 photos, wacky distortion is actually the goal. Members of Gen Z were quick to discover that if you take a .5 photo really close to someone’s face — by pressing the phone to their forehead, for instance — you can make their eyes bulge, their nose stick out or their legs disappear.
“If someone makes a funny face, it looks even funnier with .5,” Galfi said. “It’s kind of like making a caricature where you can make one feature stand out. I think that’s really fun.”
Capture big and small moments
Gabriel Lesser takes a .5 selfie.
Courtesy of Gabriel Lesser
Lily McIntyre, 23, said she uses the .5 selfie to capture both the exciting and the normal events in her life. She has .5 photos depicting the scenery of her trip to Ireland, and others where she’s just hanging out in her living room.
“I have all of these pictures that celebrate the mundane parts of my life for sure,” she told CNBC in an interview. “I feel like the beauty of the .5 is that you can apply it to anything.”
Similarly, Lesser takes at least one .5 photo a day to capture moments like a nice walk or breakfast with his grandparents. He said the .5 images serve as an easy way to document something without worrying too much about what he looks like.
“People are tired of trying and performing for all the right angles,” Lesser said. “I think .5s are fun to take, especially as selfies, because you don’t see yourself while you’re taking it. So you don’t get to judge yourself, you don’t get to critique yourself.”
His grandparents also get a kick out of the photos, he added.
McIntyre said her generation often gets criticized for taking lots of photos and spending too much time on their phones, but she is grateful to have the “silly pictures” to look back on.
“I just think it’s a fun form of self-expression,” she said. “And it’s not limited to Gen Z. If you want to get on the .5 selfie train and you’re in a different generation, you can.”
Apple’s latest iPhone models are shown on display at its Regent Street, London store on the launch day of the iPhone 17.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Apple will hit a record level of iPhone shipments this year driven by its latest models and a resurgence in its key market of China, research firm IDC has forecast.
The company will ship 247.4 million iPhones in 2025, up just over 6% year-on-year, IDC forecast in a report on Tuesday. That’s more than the 236 million it sold in 2021, when the iPhone 13 was released.
Apple’s predicted surge is “thanks to the phenomenal success of its latest iPhone 17 series,” Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, said in a statement, adding that in China, “massive demand for iPhone 17 has significantly accelerated Apple’s performance.”
Shipments are a term used by analysts to refer to the number of devices sent by a vendor to its sales channels like e-commerce partners or stores. They do not directly equate to sales but indicate the demand expected by a company for their products.
When it launched in September, investors saw the iPhone 17 series as a key set of devices for Apple, which was facing increased competition in China and questions about its artificial intelligence strategy, as Android rivals were powering on.
Apple’s shipments are expected to jump 17% year-on-year in China in the fourth quarter, IDC said, leading the research firm to forecast 3% growth in the market this year versus a previous projection of a 1% decline.
IDC’s report follows on from Counterpoint Research last week which forecast Apple to ship more smartphones than Samsung in 2025 for the first time in 14 years.
Bloomberg reported last month that Apple could delay the release of the base model of its next device, the iPhone 18, until 2027, which would break its regular cycle of releasing all of its phones in fall each year. IDC said this could mean Apple’s shipments may drop by 4.2% next year.
Anthropic, the AI startup behind the popular Claude chatbot, is in early talks to launch one of the largest initial public offerings as early as next year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
For the potential IPO, Anthropic has engaged law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has previously worked on high-profile tech IPOs such as Google, LinkedIn and Lyft, the FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The start-up, led by chief executive Dario Amodei, was also pursuing a private funding round that could value it above $300 billion, including a $15 billion combined commitment from Microsoft and Nvidia, per the report.
It added that Anthropic has also discussed a potential IPO with major investment banks, but that sources characterized the discussions as preliminary and informal.
If true, the news could position Anthropic in a race to market with rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which is also reportedly laying the groundwork for a public offering. The potential listings would also test investors’ appetite for loss-making AI startups amid growing fears of a so-called AI bubble.
However, an Anthropic spokesperson told the FT: “It’s fairly standard practice for companies operating at our scale and revenue level to effectively operate as if they are publicly traded companies,” adding that no decisions have been made on timing or whether to go public.
CNBC was unable to reach Anthropic and Wilson Sonsini, which has advised Anthropic for a few years, for comment.
According to one of the FT’s sources, Anthropic has been working through internal preparations for a potential listing, though details were not provided.
CNBC also reported last month that Anthropic was recently valued to the range of $350 billion after receiving investments of up to $5 billion from Microsoft and $10 billion from Nvidia.
According to the FT report, investors in the company are enthusiastic about Anthropic’s potential IPO, which could see it “seize the initiative” from OpenAI.
While OpenAI has been rumoured to be considering an IPO, its chief financial officer recently said the company is not pursuing a near-term listing, even as it closed a $6.6 billion share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.
CrowdStrike on Tuesday evening reported better-than-expected fiscal 2026 third-quarter results and forward guidance. The numbers, however, were not enough to power shares higher, given their roughly 24% advance since the cybersecurity company’s fiscal second-quarter print back in late August. That said, the latest beat and raise should help solidify recent stock gains and set the stage for further upside next year. Revenue in fiscal Q3 increased 22% year over year to $1.23 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion, compiled by market data provider LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) increased to 96 cents in the three months ending Oct. 31, beating the 94-cent estimate, according to LSEG. Why we own it Cybersecurity is a must-have for companies in the digital age. Led by co-founder and CEO George Kurtz, CrowdStrike is one of the best there is, along with fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks . The company specializes in endpoint protection through its AI-native platform called Falcon. Competitors: Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet , SentinelOne , Microsoft Portfolio weighting: 3.33% Most recent buy: March 10, 2025 Initiation date: Oct. 16, 2024 Bottom Line The October quarter was an encore performance from CrowdStrike — delivering better-than-expected results across the board, with record-high operating cash flow, adjusted operating income, EPS, free cash flow, and net new annual recurring revenue. The Falcon Flex subscription model is clearly helping to drive more business, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) tied to these accounts surging more than 200% versus the year-ago period. Falcon Flex allows customers to quickly deploy additional protection as needed, without all the red tape of going through the often-lengthy procurement process. Artificial intelligence benefits CrowdStrike in two ways: by increasing attack vectors in its customers’ digital infrastructure, resulting in more demand, and by strengthening CrowdStrike’s ability to protect customers against these attacks, resulting in more pricing power and cross-selling. As CEO George Kurtz said on the post-earnings conference call, “Businesses every day are having jarring lightbulb moments, witnessing AI-powered adversarial tradecraft firsthand. … Now, just as anyone can use AI to vibe code and become a software engineer, anyone can also now vibe hack, becoming a sophisticated adversary with AI.” He added that CrowdStrike is mission-critical. “No matter how the market swings, geopolitical tensions evolve, or what technologies are in vogue, our digital society mandates cybersecurity as a necessity, and now, more than ever, synonymous with that, CrowdStrike is a necessity.” CRWD YTD mountain CrowdStrike YTD This speaks to the nature of demand for CrowdStrike and other cybersecurity companies, such as fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks , and what these companies can provide in an all-encompassing, platform approach to digital protection. With attacks becoming more sophisticated and more frequent, companies can no longer afford to have a fragmented solution to cybersecurity. Kurtz said, “Cybersecurity in the agentic era demands a single platform. The criticality in being able to operate with agility, efficacy, and speed to stop breaches is having the data that controls and the actions in a single platform, not multiple platforms. Because when you have multiple platforms, by definition, you don’t have a platform. Tap switching and contact switching cost time. Data stitching doesn’t scale. These are the seams and cracks where adversaries thrive.” Kurtz’s comment about the “agentic era” refers to digital AI agents that can perform complex tasks and problem-solve with little to no human oversight. The proliferation of AI agents exponentially increases the ways hackers can breach systems. In mid-September, at CrowdStrike’s Fal.Con industry conference , the CEO described the rise of agentic AI as a “greater than 100x opportunity for CrowdStrike.” Given the fiscal third-quarter results, strong outlook, and our longer-term view that cybersecurity is a secular growth industry, now benefiting from the need to defend against AI-equipped hackers, using AI protection tools, we’re reiterating our 1 rating and increasing our CrowdStrike price target to $550 per share from $520. While falling 3% in after-hours trading, CrowdStrike shares were up 51% as of Tuesday’s market close. The stock is the Club’s fourth-best performer of 2025. Quarterly commentary Perhaps the most exciting metric, as it indicates the sustainability of the strength we saw in Tuesday night’s results, is net new annual recurring revenue, which came in at $265 million. That resulted in ARR at the end of the period of $4.92 billion, up 23% year over year and up 5.7% sequentially. Helping to drive that growth was Falcon Flex, with management noting that nearly 30% of ending ARR, or $1.35 billion, came from accounts that have adopted the new pricing model. On the call, Kurtz said the number of customers “reflexing,” or re-signing once their credits are used up, more than doubled sequentially, to more than 200 — with 10 customers “reflexing more than 2x their initial flex subscription.” Given the strong response, management expects the Falcon Flex model to become the company’s licensing standard. Guidance For full-year fiscal 2026, CrowdStrike management raised its outlook at the midpoint. The team now expects to realize revenue of between $4.7966 billion and $4.0866 billion, up from the prior range of between $4.7495 billion and $4.8055 billion. That compares to the LSEG consensus estimate of $4.784 billion. The adjusted earnings outlook was also raised, with the team now targeting an EPS range of $3.70 and $3.72, up from the prior $3.60 to $3.72, and comfortably ahead of the $3.67 estimate from LSEG. For its 2026 fiscal fourth quarter, the current quarter going on right now, management guided for revenue to be between $1.29 billion and $1.3 billion, which is better than the $1.293 billion the Street was looking for at the midpoint, according to LSEG. Adjusted EPS are expected to be between $1.09 and $1.11, better than the $1.08 the Street was looking for. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CRWD, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
