Business
D.R. Horton is tapping a startup’s AI zoning tool to build more homes
D.R. Horton signage stands in front of homes under construction at the Eastridge Woods development in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest homebuilder, is tapping an artificial intelligence tool from Portland, Oregon-based startup Prophetic to build more homes and address the country’s housing shortage.
Chronic underbuilding since the Great Recession has caused a deficit of roughly 4 million homes, according to analyses from several sources, including Zillow. The supply-demand imbalance has caused prices to rise over 50% from pre-pandemic levels.
Homebuilders are trying to respond but say that the cost of construction, along with the difficult and costly process for acquiring and developing buildable lots, is making that difficult.
“One of the largest challenges to providing affordable housing is the identification, acquisition and entitlement of land suitable for development. We are confident the insights provided by Prophetic are going to help us expand homeownership opportunities for hard-working American individuals and families,” said Jason Jones, vice president of data analytics at D.R. Horton, in a release.
Prophetic has developed an AI-native platform for land acquisition and development analysis. For any potential parcel of land, Prophetic’s software will pull every single zoning manual from every city and county in a state. The company said it is currently operational in 25 states and expects to be in all 50 by June.
“It’s an incredibly large, tedious, detail-oriented process to take tens of thousands of these zoning documents and extract the rules, not only efficiently, but correctly,” said Oliver Alexander, founder and CEO of Prophetic.
Among other things, the system looks at minimum lot size and minimum or maximum density setbacks, which differ by municipality and zone. It updates those quarterly.
“Then it tells you where that information came from, which is the key differentiator,” Alexander explained. “When you have that section title and the page that it came from, that builds trust, and then it becomes ultra-efficient, where you can analyze development potential in 30 seconds instead of two to three hours.”
Alexander said there are a little over 440,000 different ways to describe what you’re allowed to do on a piece of dirt in the states Prophetic has analyzed. Developers need to go through all of that information to figure out if they can build a single- or multifamily housing development on it.
The AI’s large language model-based analysis of these documents at scale can answer the questions and then feed that into search AI, which Alexander calls “the major unlock” – search plus the zone AI information together. At the ground level, with this AI, builders can figure out what they can build, where and how much at a much faster pace, making them more competitive with landowners.
“If you have that much of an edge in your speed to decision, you effectively control your entire market, because before anyone else can decide, you’ve tied it up,” said Alexander.
New Delhi: Equity mutual fund (MF) inflows stood at Rs 28,054 crore in the month of December as systematic investment plans (SIPs) scaled a fresh record high last month, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) data released on Friday.
The monthly mutual fund SIP inflows reached a new record high in December at Rs 31,002 crore, compared to Rs 29,445 crore in November. The SIP investments rose by 5 per cent and 17 per cent on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively.
Gold ETFs also registered strong inflows of Rs 11,647 crore in December, higher than Rs 3,742 crore in November, showed the AMFI data.
Flexi-cap funds witnessed a sharp pickup in inflows, reflecting investor preference for strategies that offer allocation flexibility across market capitalisations amid evolving market conditions.
The mutual fund industry reported an overall net outflows of Rs 66,571 crore in December. Hybrid schemes attracted inflows of Rs 10,756 crore, while ‘other schemes’, including ETFs, saw net inflows of Rs 26,723 crore.
Overall, the flow trend suggests that equity participation remains structurally intact, but investors are becoming more discerning, with greater emphasis on portfolio balance, diversification, and risk management rather than broad-based risk-taking, said Himanshu Srivastava, Principal Manager Research, Morningstar Investment Research India.
Flows remained resilient despite intermittent market volatility, supported by steady SIP contributions and continued confidence in India’s long-term growth outlook, he added.
Amid rising participation from Gen Z, women and households from smaller cities and towns, India’s mutual fund industry, especially the SIPs, are set to witness robust growth in 2026.
Investors have poured over Rs 3 lakh crore into mutual fund schemes through systematic investment plans until November, for the first time in a calendar year. The data from AMFI showed earlier that SIP inflows in the calendar year touched Rs 3.04 trillion (lakh crore) for the first time, up from Rs 2.69 trillion in 2024.
SIPs have emerged as one of the strongest and most reliable engines of growth for the Indian mutual fund industry. Sustained net inflows, strong market performance, and deepening retail participation, aided by digitisation and financialisation of savings, have contributed to the steady surge in AUM, according to ICRA Analytics. India’s mutual fund industry’s assets under management (AUM) may surpass Rs 300 trillion by 2035, it added.
Business
Bought 3BHK Flat Without Any Fancy Job Or Inheritance; CA Explains Real-Life Story Of Surat Man
New Delhi: Chartered accountant Nitin Kaushik recently posted on X the real-life story of a person who purchased a 3BHK apartment in Surat for Rs 55 lakhs without an inheritance or fancy career but with consistent discipline.
Kaushik said that he had recently met a person who despite not belonging to any privileged background, recently bought a 3BHK apartment in Surat for Rs 55 lakhs. Kaushik said this man’s simple story will “change your view on wealth”.
How a Simple Story Change your View on “Wealth”
A few weeks ago, I met someone-not from a privileged background-who recently bought a 3BHK apartment in Surat worth _55 lakhs.
No inheritance, no fancy job, no startup exit-just steady discipline.___#stockmarket_ pic.twitter.com/WBBgtGGyx3
— CA Nitin Kaushik (FCA) | LLB (@Finance_Bareek) January 7, 2026
When Kaushik asked the person how he managed the purchase of the home the person said that he had saved Rs 45 lakhs over 12 years and took a home loan of Rs 10 lakh. “No panic about EMIs or inflation. Just quiet confidence and planning,” Kaushik said.
Kaushik said, “This was not overnight success.” The man saved consistently through recurring deposits, gold savings schemes and local real estate investments in his village near Surat. Kaushik said that consistency added with patience over 12 years is the key to the man’s success.
The person already owned a two-storey home and a small commercial shop in the village, which were both rented out. The rental inflows were roughly Rs 22,000 per month. “Every rupee saved or reinvested, building more wealth quietly,” wrote Kaushik.
According to Kaushik, the person accumulated over Rs 40 lakh through consistent saving and reinvestment, without using stocks or mutual funds. The man’s accumulation of wealth showed that “wealth is not about quick compounding but long term discipline. Many chase complex, risky strategies, but steady, patient investing builds real wealth brick by brick,” he said.
According to Kaushik, wealth develops based on how long you stick to your discipline and not how much you make. “Wealth grows by how long you hold your discipline, not just by how much you earn. Even small streams, flowing steadily, become rivers. Formula for success is Consistency × Patience × Simplicity. Anyone can start this today no matter your income level,” Kaushik said.
Last Updated:
Telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Friday laid out a detailed repayment roadmap for its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liabilities; Know details
Vodafone Idea Share Price
Telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Friday laid out a detailed repayment roadmap for its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liabilities, under which it will service a portion of the dues at a maximum of Rs 124 crore per year over a six-year period.
The company’s shares rose about 6% in early trade after the announcement.
In December, Reuters had reported that the Indian government approved a partial moratorium on Vodafone Idea’s dues, freezing payments of about $9.76 billion and pushing a large part of the repayment burden into the 2030s.
In its stock exchange filing, Vodafone Idea said its AGR liabilities — including principal, interest, penalty and interest on penalty for FY2006-07 to FY2018-19 — outstanding as of December 31, 2025, will be frozen and repaid in a phased manner.
As per the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) communication, the company will pay up to Rs 124 crore annually for six years from March 2026 to March 2031. This will be followed by payments of Rs 100 crore per year for four years from March 2032 to March 2035.
The balance AGR dues will then be cleared in equal annual instalments over six years from March 2036 to March 2041.
Vodafone Idea also said the DoT will constitute a committee to reassess the AGR dues, and the committee’s decision will be final. After the reassessment, the revised AGR amount will be repaid in equal annual instalments between March 2036 and March 2041.
The development is expected to remain in focus for investors, given Vodafone Idea’s stretched balance sheet and the critical role AGR relief plays in its long-term financial stability.
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January 09, 2026, 09:50 IST
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