As the United States turns 250 this weekend, and with gas prices pressuring travel, boutique outdoor hospitality brand AutoCamp has a pitch for American travelers.

The high-end camping company offers Airstream suites, polished cabins, fire pits, design-forward amenities and access to iconic outdoor destinations. It has nine U.S. locations, from Joshua Tree in California to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

AutoCamp says its room revenue is up 20% over last year, and heading into the Fourth of July weekend, it’s 90% occupied across the portfolio, with average daily room rates up 15%.

Its chief commercial officer, Bryan Terzi, said part of the company’s appeal is a luxury camping experience just a quick drive from home — no buying or lugging tents, grills and other camping gear.

“It’s really kind of that cross-section of tapping into people’s nostalgia of what they remember from when they were young but also creating an environment to make memories with their families and children,” Terzi told CNBC.

Visitor interest in AutoCamp coincides with rising demand for visits to America’s parks.

Airbnb said it saw searches for stays “near a national park” up 35% in 2026, even before gas prices spiked. The company said nature and outdoor experiences are the top-booked experience category.

According to Hilton’s 2026 trends report, 37% of travelers said that spending time in nature is a top reason they travel.

Hilton has a partnership with AutoCamp as part of a broader strategy to invest in experiential offerings. Hilton said it’s seen a 30% rise in direct bookings with AutoCamp on its platform, with nearly half booked with Hilton Honors loyalty points.

Now, AutoCamp is ready to fuel its growth by selling more than a weekend in the woods. It’s offering guests a piece of the company, turning its most loyal customers into shareholders.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission permits regulated crowdfunding of up to $5 million annually through an SEC-registered platform. Their investment materials include the typical warnings, that positions can be illiquid, speculative and difficult to value.

Wefunder puts it plainly: “Startups either win big or go bankrupt. You could lose all your money. Consider them more like socially-good lottery tickets.”

But these kind of investments in hospitality companies often come with special guest perks — the kind you might normally expect by being a premier member in a rewards program. For instance, this month, a $10,000 investment in AutoCamp comes with 2% bonus for additional shares on top of the 4% shares the investor receives, plus a $400 gift card to be used on the booking platform.

And hospitality brands get more than capital with this kind of fundraising.

“These customers that are staying with us, then they’re investing with us, and then it’s really exciting to see them tell 10 friends about, ‘Hey, I had a great experience, I loved it so much, I invested in the brand and their growth, and I want you to come check it out as well,’” Terzi said.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Nearly 1 million people became millionaires in 2025, largely thanks to a thriving stock market, according to a new report by UBS.

The Swiss bank estimated that the United States is responsible for nearly half of these newly minted millionaires, adding an average of more than 1,200 new millionaires a day last year for an annual increase of about 441,000.

Stock market gains boosted global personal wealth by 10.8%, the biggest jump since 2017 and more than double the rate of 2024 and 2023, UBS found. However, this robust growth was belied by declines in median wealth in most of the 56 markets monitored by UBS, pointing to a growing wealth gap.

In the U.S., for example, median wealth per adult dropped nearly 20% from 2020 to 2025, while average wealth increased by about 10% over the same period of time, net of inflation, according to the bank’s data analysis.

UBS estimated that the world’s millionaire population, which the bank puts at 58 million, owns nearly half of the world’s wealth, or approximately $250.6 trillion.

UBS economist James Mazeau told CNBC that richer individuals reaped bigger gains compared with the broader population last year as they have more exposure to financial markets, noting that the U.S. stock market rose by approximately 18% in 2025.

“The higher you go in the wealth bands, the more wealth creation will tend to be linked to either the performance of your business or your investment portfolio — or both,” Mazeau said at a media conference.

These gains are also uneven among the ranks of millionaires. The bank estimated that the combined assets of so-called everyday millionaires, or individuals worth $1 million to $5 million, has jumped by 170%, net of inflation, since 2000. Over that same period, the collective fortune of richer peers soared by 343%.

As for the world’s billionaires, their collective net worth surged by nearly 25% in the year ended in April, according to UBS. However, the report noted that much of this rise was due to an increase in the number of billionaires, not just three-comma club members getting richer.

The depreciation of the U.S. dollar last year also contributed to discrepancies in global wealth creation as the bank tracks wealth in terms of USD. America’s millionaire population, while still the largest in the world, increased by a modest 1.9% in 2025, while most European and Middle Eastern markets saw higher percentage gains, including Turkey (6.4%) and the United Arab Emirates (3.5%). In terms of combined personal assets, the Americas’ growth rate was estimated at 8.5%, outranking the Asia-Pacific region at 5.9% but less than half of the 17.5% rate seen in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mazeau said it is too early to predict how the Iran war will weigh on high-net-worth individuals in the Middle East. Asset allocation and currency trends are two of many factors that will determine the outcome.

“It will really depend on what share of international assets are held by these investors. If you are, let’s say, based in the Middle East, and most of your wealth is tied into U.S. stocks, and furthermore, you have a currency that’s pegged to the U.S. dollar, well, the currency moves really don’t matter at all,” he said. “Now, if you tend to diversify your holdings into other investments that tend to be in currencies that have appreciated versus the U.S. dollar, and if we measure things in U.S. dollars, then that will, for 2026 get a bit better outlook.”

He added that investors may have changed their portfolios as a result of the conflict.

“Will they diversify their holdings? Will they make more direct investments in the U.S.? How will the situation that unfolded change the investment landscape and the investment philosophy and asset allocation?” he said. “I don’t know yet.”

The Premier Lacrosse League wants to begin selling its teams to individual owners or groups by 2028 “or soon thereafter,” league co-founder Paul Rabil told CNBC.

In the next decade, Rabil said, he wants the league to expand from eight teams to as many as 16, with each franchise owned independently, similar to other U.S. professional leagues. The PLL is in its eighth season, and currently the league, itself, owns the teams.

Rabil, 40, is perhaps the most famous American lacrosse player in history, playing Major League Lacrosse from 2008 to 2018 before co-founding the PLL with his brother, Mike. The PLL merged with MLL in 2020.

The PLL is one of a number of emerging sports leagues, along with League One Volleyball, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Basketball Africa League, that have begun with a single-entity ownership model.

League One Volleyball has recently begun selling off teams to interested owners who pay expansion fees to take control of franchises. The BAL is beginning that process now, NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum told CNBC Sport last month.

The demand to own sports teams has skyrocketed in recent years as valuations for the biggest sports — the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL — have soared. The spike in team valuations for the so-called Big Four U.S. sports leagues has pushed a class of investors toward more affordable teams in Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League and the WNBA.

Emerging sports leagues like the PLL are seeking to prove they can join this mezzanine class of leagues that can garner team valuations in the hundreds of millions or even close to a billion dollars.

Earlier this week, the PLL raised $100 million in a Series E funding round to grow the league. Rabil is banking on the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics to give exposure to the league and the sport. Lacrosse hasn’t been a medal sport in the Summer Games for about 120 years but is returning in 2028.

“The first allotment of tickets sold out in 48 hours for lacrosse, so there’s good hype building,” Rabil said.

The PLL is backed by a combination of investor firms and wealthy individuals.

However, Rabil said, if a large private equity fund or a strategic company such as TKO Group, which owns World Wrestling Entertainment, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Professional Bull Riders, would like to acquire the league, “we would absolutely have those discussions.”

Sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s filed for an initial public offering on Thursday, reporting that its same-store sales cumulatively climbed 50% from 2020 through 2025.

Jersey Mike’s plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “JMKE.”

The company reported net income of $55 million on total revenue of $724 million last year, up from net income of $5 million on revenue of $653 million in 2024, according to the regulatory filing.

Last year, Jersey Mike’s annual system sales, which includes both company-owned and franchised locations, reached $4.3 billion, up 13% from the previous year.

Its same-store sales increased 3% over the same period; the metric tracks sales growth at restaurants open at least a year. Broadly, the restaurant industry has seen same-store sales weaken over the last two years as consumers dine out less often to save money.

Jersey Mike’s filing comes as many companies feel more optimistic about going public, especially following the blockbuster SpaceX IPO.

While the number of IPOs that have been priced so far this year lags behind the year-ago period, the number of companies that have filed to go public is up, according to Renaissance Capital. Artificial intelligence giants OpenAI and Anthropic are among the hopefuls that have submitted confidential filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Despite a sluggish industry backdrop, the company announced in April that it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering. More than a year earlier, Blackstone bought a majority stake in Jersey Mike’s in a deal that reportedly valued the chain at roughly $8 billion.

After the transaction closed, Jersey Mike’s tapped Charlie Morrison as its latest chief executive. Morrison previously led Wingstop for more than a decade, including during the chicken wing chain’s public market debut.

Jersey Mike’s founder Peter Cancro began working at a Jersey Shore sandwich shop at age 14 in 1971. Four years later, he pulled together enough money to buy Mike’s Subs. Cancro later changed the name and began franchising the chain.

Following the deal with Blackstone, he has retained “meaningful equity” in Jersey Mike’s and holds a seat on its board, according to a letter to fellow shareholders included in the regulatory filing.

“[Blackstone’s] experience with leading franchisors aligns with the values and long-term mindset that have shaped Jersey Mike’s and will help continue our expansion in the United States and abroad,” Cancro wrote. “I remained involved in the Company now and in the future.”