By now, you've probably heard about Elon Musk's grand plan to turn X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, into an "everything app." One of the major pillars of Musk's reimagining of X includes a payment platform much like PayPal or Venmo.

New documents obtained by Bloomberg shed new light, not only into Musk's financial service vision for X, but also into just how much the company has struggled financially since he acquired it in October 2022.

These new documents are prepared by X and have been submitted to state regulators as Musk's company looks to receive money transmitter licenses a requirement for anyone looking to provide financial services of this kind. These documents also give the public its first official peek into the company since Musk took X private.

Now that X is no longer publicly traded, there's a lot we no longer know about the company. Most reports regarding X's revenue troubles, for example, have come from internal leaks.

However, these new documents make it official: According to X, the company's revenue has plummeted since Musk took over.

In the first six months of 2023 the first full year in which Musk controlled the company X's revenue fell by nearly 40 percent from the same period the prior year. The company brought in $1.48 billion during that time period. Furthermore, X lost $456 million in the first quarter of 2023.

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The majority of this drop in revenue can be attributed to X's advertiser woes. Prior to Musk's takeover, when the platform was known as Twitter, advertising generally accounted for a whopping 90 percent of the company's revenue. Under Musk, advertisers fled due to platform changes and various controversies involving its owner, so ad revenue declined.

X is looking to launch a payment services system on its social media platform. The company submitted documents to 11 states as it seeks to obtain money transmitter licenses.

The company is looking to provide users with a PayPal/Venmo-like feature called X Payments. The plan is to allow users to pay other users, buy products and services, and store money via their X account.

Musk has floated a number of ideas to make up for the loss of advertising revenue. For example, X rolled out the X Premium subscription plan as well as a subscription service for creators. Neither service has been able to close the revenue gap left by the advertiser exodus.

However, according to these documents, X plans to utilize the X Payments service mainly in order to achieve increased participation and engagement on the social media platform. X Payments does not plan to charge fees for most of its services.

The X Payments idea has been brought up by Musk before. In previous comments, Musk shared that he'd like users to be able to open a savings account with X with extremely high yield.

According to Bloomberg, then-Twitter had actually incorporated a payments business in February 2022, before Musk bought the platform. Now called X Payments, the X subsidiary has its own board of directors and management team. While X currently has business relations with payment processors, like Stripe and Adyen, and banks with Citibank, it's unclear if X would be partnering with these companies for X Payments' services.

And, bad news for cryptocurrency advocates. According to the report, X Payments has no current plans to incorporate virtual currencies like crypto into the business.

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Elon Musk's X revenue has officially plummeted, new documents show - Mashable

X owner Elon Musk said his infamous Go fk yourself comment last year was not aimed at all advertisers as his social media company tries to woo back companies that have left the site.

First of all, it wasnt to advertisers as a whole. It was with respect to freedom of speech, Musk told a gathering of advertising professionals at the Cannes Lions conference in France on Wednesday.

The mogul added it was important to have a global free speech platform where people with a wide range of opinions can voice their views, according to Axios, which first reported comments.

Musk said he lashed out at a conference in New York last fall because there were some cases [where] there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship.

Were going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money, he said.

While Musk acknowledged that of course, advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands, he admonished companies for insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform.

In November, Musk made headlines when he appeared at the DealBook Summit in New York during which he was asked about advertisers who fled X in response to his revamped content moderation policies that were implemented after he acquired the company then known as Twitter two years ago.

Go fk yourself, Musk railed as Disney CEO Bob Iger sat in the audience.

Disney was one of several blue-chip companies that halted advertising on X in response to reports that the site was failing to adequately crack down on a proliferation of hate speech, including antisemitic content.

The exodus of advertisers has had an adverse impact on the companys balance sheet.

Internal leaks revealed that Xs revenue has nosedived since Musk took control of the company.

In the first six months of 2023, Xs revenue stood at $1.48 billion which is around 40% less compared to the same period last year.

X also lost $456 million in the first quarter of last year, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.

The news site reported in December that X was on pace to generate $3.4 billion in revenue for 2023.

By comparison, the company generated $4.4 billion in revenue in 2022.

Musk acquired the firm then known as Twitter in October of that year.

Musk, who owns around 75% of Xs parent company, X Holdings Corp, wants to turn X into an everything app that will incorporate peer-to-peer payments similar to Venmo.

According to Bloomberg, X has filed paperwork in all 50 states seeking licenses to become a money transmitter.

So far, 28 states have approved the permits, according to Bloomberg.

The Post has sought comment from X.

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Elon Musk looks to bury hatchet with X advertisers after infamous 'go f--k yourself' comment - New York Post

Elon Musk has an idiosyncratic way of engaging with X, the once-known-as-Twitter social media platform that he now owns. He does his share of corporate posting, offering up videos of Tesla cars and SpaceX rockets. But he also spends a lot of time amplifying right-wing propaganda, both directly in his feed and by replying to posts made by other people.

When you or I reply to a post on X, a few people might see it. When the owner of the site a guy with more than 187 million followers does it, it vastly boosts the visibility of that post. That holds true even when the poster is offering misinformation about crime and race in the United States.

On Monday evening, Musk offered a characteristically terse reply to one such post: !

The claim that prompted that expression of amazement? That there had been a marked increase in the number of White Americans killed by Black Americans over time.

Its true that things have changed since the 1950s, user eyeslasho wrote. 1950s: Blacks killed about 600 more whites each year than whites killed blacks. Now: Blacks kill nearly 1,500 more whites each year than whites kill blacks.

This isnt true, which well get to in a second.

This line of argument is not a novel one. For some time, racists have pointed to disparities in homicide rates as a way of suggesting that Black Americans are inherently dangerous or threatening to public safety. These assertions are often flatly wrong and almost always ignore extenuating factors, like poverty.

In 2015, Donald Trump shared an image suggesting that 4 in 5 White murder victims were killed by Black offenders, which is also false. At the time, the most recent available data showed that the vast majority of White murder victims were killed by White people, just as most Black murder victims are killed by Black people. Victims tend to be killed by people they know, and most people know mostly people who share their racial identity.

Setting aside the specific numbers offered by eyeslasho for a moment, theres a very good reason the number of people killed might have more than doubled since 1950 the U.S. population also more than doubled over that period.

The assertion being made isnt about rates of homicide, its about raw totals. So the number of people in the country matters. If you go from 1,000 murders in a population of 100 million to 1,800 murders in a population of 200 million (for example), theres a raw increase of 800 murders but a lower murder rate.

We should note that the rates of increase in the size of the White and other populations since 1950 have not been the same. The size of the White population increased by 50 percent between 1950 and 2020 while the size of the Black population increased by 170 percent. But, again, the baseline matters: The country added 70 million White people and only 26 million Black people.

In a later post, eyeslasho presented a chart that purported to be the source of their claim. It attributed the estimates of the number of homicide victims to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions WONDER database. That tool uses data from the National Vital Statistics System, which doesnt include information about the race of the perpetrator of a homicide, only of the victim.

The FBI, though, does collect both pieces of information. An analysis of homicide trends from 1976 to 2005 posted at the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) website doesnt tell us what the numbers looked like in the 1950s, but it does show that over time most homicides have been committed by offenders of the same racial group as victims.

In the late 1970s, the difference in the number of White homicide victims killed by Black offenders and the number of Black victims killed by White offenders averaged about 580. The peak came during the crime wave in the early 1990s, when the gap was about 960.

By 2019, the last year before crime surged during the coronavirus pandemic, the gap was 320 lower than at any point between 1976 and 2005. Washington Post analysis of raw data for 2022, obtained through the FBIs Data Discovery Tool, shows a gap of 444 killings. That is also lower than any point during the three decades in the BJS data.

Again, these are raw numbers, not ones adjusted for population. So even with the increase in population from 1976 to 2022, the number of homicides is lower, including across racial lines. Again, too, the homicides for which we have 2022 data show that 87 percent of White or Black homicide victims who were killed by a White or Black offender were killed by an offender of their own race.

One question that emerges here is how Musk saw this post in the first place. He largely follows right-wing users, so its possible that one of them retweeted it and brought it to Musks attention. Another question that emerges is why he felt that this claim suspect just from the standpoint of population increases deserved that exclamation point of amazement. What was it about a false claim that Black killings of White people had increased relative to White killings of Blacks that piqued his interest?

In May 2023, eyeslasho had another post on X that bears mentioning here. In it, he asserted that Musks acknowledging data on race and crime has done more to raise awareness of the disproportionalities observed in these data than anything I can remember.

Observed is doing all of the work in that sentence.

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Analysis | The data on race and murder that Elon Musk gave a '!' deserved a '?' - The Washington Post

One could easily be forgiven for wondering why Elon Musk was in attendance at the Cannes Lions advertising festival this week. After all, its been less than a year since he responded to companies pulling their ad spends from his social platform, X, by saying, go fuck yourself. Wherefore the sudden about-face?

And yet, there Musk was on Wednesday, speaking on stage with WPP CEO Mark Readwho wasted no time before addressing the elephant in the room.

Welcome to the heart of the advertising industry, Read said directly after the introductions (and after a very large crowd had lined up to see the talk) as seen in a video posted from the event. Now, back in November, you had a message to us. You told us to sort of go fuck ourselves. So, maybe we start there.

A light wave of laughter broke through the room, along with a smattering of applause, before Webb finished his question. Why did you say that, he asked Musk, and what did you mean by that?

Cue the backpedaling. According to Musk, he didnt mean to say that all advertisers should go fuck themselves. Just some of them.

It wasnt to advertisers as a whole, Musk said. With respect to freedom of speech, it is important to have a goal of a free speech platform where people from a wide range of opinions can voice their views. And in some cases, there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship.

At the end of the day, Musk said, If we have to make a choice between censorship and money ... or free speech and losing money, were gonna pick the second. Were gonna support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money, which is, I think, the right moral decision.

Last fall, a gaggle of major companiesincluding Disney, Apple, IBM, Oracle, and Lionsgatereportedly began pulling their ads from X after Musk backed an antisemitic, conspiratorial post on the platform. Soon after, during a live appearance at The New York Times annual DealBook Summit, Musk accused the companies of trying to blackmail me with advertising and dropped the go fuck yourself line twice for good measure.

At Cannes, Musk appeared to have chosen a new line to repeat for emphasis: Of course, he said multiple times, advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands.

Whats not cool, according to Musk, is insisting that there can be no content that they disagree with on the platform. One might argue that this seems like a very vague characterization of what originally alarmed these companies, but I digress.

For those who need a refresher, the tweet Musk re-shared that started this whole mess stated that Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. The post also cited an antisemitic conspiracy of hordes of minorities infiltrating Western countries. Musks two cents? As he put it at the time, You have said the actual truth.

During his DealBook Summit appearance, Musk said of the post, it might be literally the worst and dumbest post Ive ever done. And Ive tried my best to clarify six ways from Sunday, but you know at least I think itll be obvious that in fact Im far from being antisemitic.

And yet, when asked at Cannes if he regrets any of his tweets, Musk shrugged it all off with a smirk.

Not every post i make is a banger, he said as the crowd laughed.

I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time, Musk continued. But at least you know its genuine. ... I think its better to be real than to go through a filter.

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Elon Musk Tries to Make Nice With Advertisers at Cannes - The Daily Beast

Two homicidal maniacs have threatened to kill Elon Musk in the past seven months, the Tesla CEO claimed at a recent shareholder meeting, while comparing himself to the slain Beatles legend John Lennon.

During the question and answer portion of the electric vehicle companys annual shareholders meeting last week, Musk said his high profile has put a target on his back just like Lennon.

An anonymous shareholder asked Musk what hes doing to make sure he stays healthy and safe, to which Musk acknowledged he should maybe start working out to avoid being assassinated.

I mean, it is getting a little crazy these days, Musk said. The probability that a homicidal maniac will try to kill you is proportionate to how many homicidal maniacs hear your name.

They hear my name a lot, so Im like, OK, Im on the list, you know, he chuckled.

Musk then revealed that Tesla actually did have two homicidal maniacs in the last roughly seven months come to aspirationally try to kill me, and a bunch of other people so its not just me.

And then there wasnt like an actual issue that they articulated, they were just in the homicidal maniac career, so I do need to be kind of careful, Musk said.

Musk said hes been forced to be a bit more standoffish as a result and has stopped signing things for fans who come up to him in public.

Musk then compared himself to Lennon who was notoriously shot and killed outside the Dakota Apartments in Manhattan in 1980 by Beatles superfan Mark David Chapman moments after Lennon signed an album for him.

I will endeavor to stay alive, Musk said.

The Post has reached out to Tesla for comments on Musks concerning remarks.

Also at the meeting, Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly voted to approve Muskscontroversial $56 billion pay package paving the way for the mogul to keep his focus on his biggest source of wealth.

The company is fighting to reverse Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormicks decision in January to void the compensation plan, whichshe called an unfathomable sum.

Tesla shareholders also approved a resolution at the annual meeting to change the companys state of incorporation to Texas from Delaware. Nearly 90% voted in favor of the move.

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Elon Musk claims 'two homicidal maniacs' have tried to kill him, compares himself to John Lennon - New York Post

Elon Musk got his way.

Shareholders in Tesla voted in favor of his two big asks, reaffirming a multibillion-dollar compensation package that a Delaware judge had nullified and approving the companys reincorporation in Texas. I think were not just opening a new chapter for Tesla, were starting a new book, a jubilant Musk told shareholders at the companys annual meeting.

The vote doesnt end Tesla and Musks legal fights in Delaware, including over the compensation plan. But investors clearly believe that the electric-carmakers fortunes, and theirs, are inextricably linked to its C.E.O.

We have the most awesome shareholder base, Musk said Thursday. Tesla announced on Friday that 72 percent of votes cast at its annual meeting that arent held by Musk or his brother, Kimbal, were in favor of the pay plan. About 84 percent of votes cast, excluding the Musks shares, backed the reincorporation proposal.

DealBook hears that Tesla succeeded in getting retail investors, who were overwhelmingly supportive of Musk, to vote in far greater numbers than they usually do. But the company couldnt have gotten the vote totals it did without support from Wall Street shareholders like Vanguard and BlackRock.

Wall Street thinks Teslas value is tied to keeping Musk happy. The companys chair, Robyn Denholm, had urged shareholders to approve the proposals to retain Elons attention and motivate him to continue to devote his time, energy, ambition and vision to the business.

Musk critics pointed to moves that suggested he could undermine Teslas future if he didnt get his way. Before the latest pay dispute, he had threatened to focus his artificial intelligence work at his other companies if he didnt get greater voting control, and he admitted to diverting Nvidia A.I. chips meant for Tesla to X and xAI. (At least one new investor lawsuit filed in Delaware alleges that Musk essentially strong-armed shareholders to voting his way.)

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What Elon Musk's Convincing Win Means for Tesla - The New York Times

Elon Musks brain-implant startup Neuralink Corp. forced an employee to work with monkeys that carried the Herpes B virus in conditions in which the animals scratched her bare skin, according to a complaint filed Friday in state court in California.

The employee, Lindsay Short, said that once she transferred to the companys Fremont, California, site in August 2022, she encountered a work environment fraught with blame, shame, and impossible deadlines. She said she was later fired after telling her supervisors that she was pregnant.

Short sued the company for retaliation, wrongful termination and discrimination based on her gender among other issues.

Neuralink didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

The startup is in the early stages of clinical trials for its device, which is aimed at restoring function for paralyzed patients. An Arizona man, Noland Arbaugh, recently underwent surgery and becamethe first human patientto have the device implanted. A quadriplegic, Arbaugh can now successfully play video games by using only his thoughts.

The company has alsocome under firefor the mistreatment of monkeys and other animals in the past, including botched surgeries when it conducted research on monkeys housed at the University of California at Davis. It has since moved monkey research to its own facilities.

Short said she was working with monkeys that carried the Herpes B virus when she was scratched through a glove. She accused the company of failing to provide proper protective gear to work with the monkeys. In another incident, after she was forced to perform a procedure she wasnt familiar with, a monkey scratched her face. When she insisted on medical treatment, her boss threatened severe repercussions if it happened again, according to the complaint.

In the lawsuit, Short also said Neuralink didnt honor a promise for flexible work hours to accommodate her family, then demoted her in May 2023, two months after a promotion.

The following month, she told Neuralinks human resources department she was pregnant. Short was fired the following day with the company saying the dismissal was for performance issues, according to the lawsuit.

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Elon Musk's Neuralink forced a pregnant employee to work with herpes-infected monkeys that scratched her, lawsuit says - Fortune

CANNES Elon Musk said he would prefer X to lose advertising dollars and maintain freedom of speech than have the platform be censored.

There were some advertisers who were insisting on censorship, and at the end of the day if I have to make the choice censorship and money or free speech and losing money were going to pick the second, Musk told WPP CEO Mark Read during his Cannes Lions conversation Wednesday morning.

Were going to support free speech broadly then agree to be censored for money, which is, I think, the right moral decision.

The SpaceX founder made the admission after Read asked Musk, 52, why he told advertisers to go fk ourselves. Although Musk somewhat backtracked on his comment, insisting he wasnt directing it at advertisers as whole, he doubled down on disagreeing with brands who believe there can be no content that they disagree with on the platform.

Theres an important distinction here that we dont want to take money to censor broadly on the platform, the Tesla founder explained. I think that would be wrong.

Musk clarified that he didnt believe free speech meant people could say illegal things and reiterated the importance of free speech within the bounds of the law.

Start your day with Page Six Daily.

The brains behind Neuralink also expressed concern about artificial intelligence causing a crisis of meaning for people as they realize the technology will outperform them.

If the AI can do everything that you can do but better then what is the point of doing things? I think there will be an existential crisis of why do anything? the father of 11 pondered.

I think were at the most interesting time in history.

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Elon Musk says he'd prefer to lose money to maintain free speech than be censored: 'The right moral decision' - Page Six

The moment that most made Linda Yaccarino doubt that she belonged in her role as X CEOand ultimately helped her shed the nagging worryoccurred at January Senate hearings into child exploitation on social media platforms.

It was one of the most pivotal moments not just of last year but of my entire life, Yaccarino said Monday in a conversation with Shelley Zalis, founder and CEO of the Female Quotient, at this weeks Cannes Lions, the advertising worlds version of the Oscars.

Going into the hearings, Yaccarino said, she had only been at the company six months and therefore lacked what she called the depth of knowledge and tenure enjoyed by the four male counterparts from the likes of Meta and TikTok sitting beside her on the panel.

Im not an engineer, Im not a founder, and my natural kind of career-long upbringing was not in tech and social media, she said, describing a feeling of not belonging commonly known as Imposter Syndrome. And by the way, [I was] the only woman.

Yaccarino said she had been keen to share the work undertaken by X on her watch to better protect children on the platform, but worried she would be able to do so with confidence.

Ultimately, she says, what helped her do so was the preparation process, the data she had to back up her assertions, and the encouragement and support she received from the company.

That fueled me and fueled my confidence to be successful that day, said Yaccarino, who has regularly faced criticism shes apuppet CEOor really a glorified COO put in place to implement Musks ordersor has been set up by Musk totake the fallshould the company fail.

When asked by Zalis to highlight an example or two of the relationship she enjoys with Musk, Yaccarino cited the day the entrepreneur announced in May that he had hired a female CEO to run Twitter.

I think that was the best message I ever got of all time, she added.

At the time, Yaccarino and Musk had been discussing his vision of moving away from Twitter as a 140-character messaging service. Instead, it would pivot toward avideo-first platformofferingaudio callsandsoononline payments, allunder the banner of championingfree speech.

The scope of our ambition and the pace of the innovation at the company is like nothing I can describe to any of you. Its exhilarating, slightly exhausting, but it is an opportunity of a lifetime to watch it happening, said Yaccarino.

Counter to what many critics expected and indeed Musks own worst fears, X hasnot gone bankruptsince Musk wasforcedunder penalty of court tohonor in fullhis contract to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

Its survived a period when itreportedly refused to paycountlessbills, witnessed the proliferation ofimposter accounts,and eliminated the majority of its headcount (including even themost dedicated).

Yaccarino even managed to steer the company ahead after Musk told former advertisers like Disney to go f*** yourself, adding on Monday that in retrospect shed have taken the job again in a heartbeat.

But the transition into a more lucrative video-first platform has been slow despite every attempt by Musk to stream his Diablo IV video gaming live to followers.

When Musk urged popular Twitch streamers to switch to X by attacking his Amazon-owned rival for its failure to police its content, he waspromptly ridiculedover his own platformsinfestation of bots.

Days later, X announced its own change of courseand reworded its terms of service to specifically permit sharing content not safe for work. It subsequentlyeliminated any ability to see what posts users like.

In other words, Yaccarino and her team still have a lot of work to do if X is indeed to become theeverything app. Right now users only spend some 35 minutes a day on the platform, according to Yaccarino. While she believes that will only go up going forward once payments are rolled out starting in the U.S. market, that number is still far from the declared goal of users spending, in her words, most of their lives on the platform.

But her experience testifying alongside four peers on the issue of policing child grooming and sexual exploitation on social media helped boost her confidence to succeed in this task as well.Interviewer Zalis of the Female Quotient was quick to agree: If you actually watch the hearing, it was Linda and five [sic] dudesand she smoked em.

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Linda Yaccarino shares her biggest moment of imposter syndrome from her last year running Elon Musk's X - Fortune

Elon Musk claims he is working on Tesla Master Plan Part 4 a second part of the on going master plan in as many years.

Part One and Two of Musks master plan for Tesla have been important pieces of literature at the company that, in many ways, laid the path to its success.

Tesla has achieved most of the goals listed in its first two master plans.

Last year, Musk released his Master Plan Part 3 through a presentation and a white paper. The third part was quite different from the first two. It didnt really push any specific product roadmap, like the first two, and instead focused on doing the math on how we can move the entire world to a sustainable economy through electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Now, the CEO says that he is already working on a Tesla Master Plan 4:

And apparently, it is going to be epic.

On August 2, 2006, Musk published a blog post titledThe Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me).

The post is worth a read, but it ends in a summary with the core principle being laid out in four steps:

It didnt happen smoothly, but Tesla managed that for the most part with the Roadster, Model S, and then Model 3.

In 2016, Musk followed up with theTesla Master Plan Part 2.

Part 2 came as Tesla was delivering the Model 3 and acquiring Solar City, which are basically the last two steps of the original plans.

In Part 2, Musk emphasized the integration of energy storage with renewable energy generation under the new Tesla Energy division. The creation of the solar roof was also announced in the plan.

The updated plan was also focused on self-driving capabilities, which became a priority at Tesla.

Musk summarized the Master Plan Part 2 at the end:

Among the other segments mentioned in the plan, Musk mentioned a new kind of pickup, which ended up being the Cybertruck; a compact SUV, the Model Y; a heavy-duty truck, which became the Tesla Semi; and finally high passenger-density urban transport.

Every vehicle announced in the plan was unveiled, and most of them are in production, except for the high passenger-density urban transport.

I feel like the Tesla master plans dont hold as much value now that Elon has clearly shifted Tesla to an AI company.

The Part 3 was all about scaling the auto and energy businesses at a scale that would accelerate the entire economys transition to sustainability.

However, in the last few months, Elon killed, or at least indefinitely postponed, the $25,000 Tesla on the unboxed platform, which was a major part of the master plan part 3.

With part 3 and some of part 2 not completed, it feels premature to jump to part 4, but Im pretty confident it is going to be all about self-driving and robots.

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Elon Musk says he is working on 'Tesla Master Plan Part 4' - Electrek.co

Investing

Published: June 19, 2024 5:00 pm

Markets were closed on Wednesday, but that didnt stop Elon Musk from breaking some news that could be very material for Super Micro Computer (Nasdaq: SMCI) shareholders. On X, the platform he acquired in 2022, Musk seemed to confirm that Super Micro will be splitting a win for servers with Dell that are going to his AI company, xAI. Lets look at the details.

On Wednesday morning Michael Dell posted a tweet that showed dozens of servers readying for shipment.

Recently, there has been some controversy as e-mails were obtained by CNBC that showed Elon Musk asking NVIDIA to prioritize shipments of AI processors to both X and xAI ahead of Tesla.

xAI also raised $6 billion in Series B funding in May at a $24 billion valuation. Those funds were raised to build the companys infrastructure and accelerate research and development. So, its unsurprising that the company is looking to use the fresh capital to invest in its data centers.

However, shortly after Dells tweet Elon Musk clarified that Dell would only be building half the racks going into the supercomputer xAI is building. In a follow-up Tweet, he seemed to confirm the other half would go to Super Micro Computer.

Source: gorodenkoff / iStock via Getty Images

Super Micros stock has been on a winning streak across the past week, up 17% in the past five days. A large win with a customer like xAI trickling out could explain some recent enthusiasm.

While Super Micro continues to see sales skyrocket, the company has been under recent pressure. Dells (NYSE: DELL) last quarterly report led to widespread commentary that AI server sales werent seeing higher margins than traditional servers. A key thesis surrounding server companies is that they can raise margins thanks to added complexity in AI servers.

Another pressure point has come from NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA). The company is reportedly pushing large companies like Microsoft to buy their GB200 server racks exactly as designed by NVIDIA. If NVIDIA continues pushing further into server designs, this would move into the territory occupied by Super Micro and Dell.

Musk is known for claims that can be excessive but has claimed the newest model (Grok 3) from xAI could require 100,000 H100 chips from NVIDIA. That could lead to even more fundraising. Wall Street is expecting Supr Micro to book $14.9 billion in sales in 2024 and $23.6 billion next year, so a company with $6 billion in funding (and the possibility to raise more) largely earmarked for procuring computing power could be a very material win.

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If youre tired of feeling one step behind in this market, this free report is a must-read for you.

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Elon Musk Confirms a Massive Super Micro Computer Server Win - 24/7 Wall St.

Elon Musk says Tesla will give some new stock options to top performers after shareholders approved his own record-breaking compensation package.

Part of the irony behind the fact that a judge rescinded Musks CEO compensation package at Tesla for misleading shareholders is the fact that the weeks prior to the decision, Tesla had also canceled stock compensations for employees.

However, employees didnt have shareholders rallying to make sure they get their stock options like Musk had.

Last week, shareholders voted again for Musk to get his compensation plan worth $55 billion in shares.

Following his victory at the shareholders meeting, Musk now says that Tesla will again start giving out stock options to employees, but not to everyone.

The CEO now says that grants will go to exceptional performance:

Over the next few weeks, Tesla will be doing a comprehensive review to provide stock option grants for exceptional performance. There will also be an ongoing program to award spot option grants for anyone who does something outstanding for the company. Thanks for everything youre doing to make Tesla successful.

On top of canceling stock options for employees at the end of last year, Tesla also canceled pay adjustments for many workers.

Musk has often used Teslas stock options, which were available to all employees, to argue that Tesla pays its workers better than most other automakers.

That was true when Teslas stock performed well, but the stock is down 26% year-to-date.

I really wish shareholders would have fought for employees to keep their stock options half as much as they did for Elon.

Now, it looks like Elon felt bad that he is getting his stock options, as long as a judge agrees with Teslas use of ratification, but Tesla employees werent.

Not bad enough to give them back to all workers, but only to do those with exceptional performance. I guess thats a start.

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Elon Musk says Tesla will give some new stock options to top performers - Electrek.co

Tesla delivered over 386,000 electric vehicles in Q1 (January-March) 2024, according to Business Wire. Now, the company is turning its focus to the next innovation: the Robotaxi.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk (@elonmusk) announced the new unveil date for the Robotaxi: August 8, 2024.

Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024

Musk originally predicted Robotaxis could be available in 2020, when he announced it at an "autonomous day" event for Tesla in 2019. After missing that deadline, the CEO pushed for a new timeline.

"We aspire to reach volume production in 2024," Musk said, according to ZDNet. "Especially with the Robotaxi and autonomy, I think we'll end up providing consumers with by far the lowest cost-per-mile transport that they've ever experienced."

According to Electrek, Musk believes that "the vehicle is going to result in a cost per mile cheaper than a subsidized bus ticket." While the cost of a bus differs depending on the metro area, the cost per mile can range from $7.40 in Charlotte to $30.40 in New York City, as reported by Curbed.

Teslarati reports that the Robotaxi could have two designs: a $25,000 car that would be cheaper than current models on the market, which consumers can drive, and a second model that comes without a steering wheel and is built to be fully autonomous.

These models could come with two new features, Teslarati reports: a rider quality score much like driver/rider ratings for Uber/Lyft and a guest mode. The guest mode could be similar to valet mode, a feature that is available in current Tesla models that reduces max speed and acceleration for added security and safety.

Autonomous cars could have several benefits.

Story continues

They could lead to fewer injuries and deaths. Car crashes are the leading cause of death in the U.S. for those aged between 1 and 54, according to USA Today.

They can also reduce congestion, which would shorten commute times. Less congestion would also reduce environmental problems, as idle cars increase global temperatures, which causes more extreme weather events. And it doesn't have to stop at cars this company found success with self-driving tractors.

However, there are reports of self-driving cars being unsafe, and Tesla had to recall models last year. Tesla looks to continually progress with safety measures, as it has for the Cybertruck. The company even received a safety award for the Tesla Model Y.

The unveiling of the Robotaxi in August could provide us with more details on a timeline for this new technology and added safety measures.

"I am totally convinced that complete self driving will be a reality much sooner than most people believe," one user commented.

Other commenters were excited about the prospect of safety.

"Robotaxi is definitely the future calling, in so many ways," commented one user. "New platform. Can even be used as public transport shuttle by cities. No more crashes from over speeding, drunk driving, sleepy drivers, jumping signal."

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces Robotaxi unveil date: 'The vehicle is going to result in a cost per mile cheaper than a ... - Yahoo Autos

Illustration : Dan Kitwood ( Getty Images )

Elon Musk wants to turn X into an everything app including a place to store, send, and spend money, according to documents made public by Bloomberg.

Nvidia's hot streak is real, but the AI bubble will come, strategist says

The documents, which were submitted to state regulators by the company and obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek through public-records requests, show X plans to have a Venmo-like feature where users can store money, pay other users or businesses, and shop at physical stores with their account. The documents also show X doesnt plan to charge users significant fees for the service. X has told regulators the payment service could lead to increased participation and engagement on the app, which would in turn improve business.

X will reportedly give users access to a dashboard showing payments activities. The dashboard will also be where users can send, receive, and store money on their X account. A plan submitted to Massachusetts regulators shows X plans to charge users small fees for some transactions, but that Twitter Payments does not anticipate charging fees for all of its Services, as the overall goal of the Services is to help increase participation and engagement on the X Platform, according to Bloomberg.

According to X, a wholly owned subsidiary of X called X Payments is licensed to transmit money in 28 states. X wants licenses in all 50 states, and aims to launch X Payments later this year, Bloomberg reported, adding that emails show it is expecting a multi-year process to get the licenses. The company reportedly wanted to launch X Payments internationally this year, but received regulatory pushback and paused its efforts.

In April, Musk said new users to the platform would have to pay a small fee to post, because it is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. It is also likely an effort by the company to make money as it loses value under Musks leadership.

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Elon Musk wants X to compete with Venmo on payments - Quartz

As Elon Musk steps away, yet again, from the idea of a $25,000 Tesla, lets take this opportunity to zoom out and appreciate what a truly affordable EV can be. For this we need to ignore the Nissan Leafcurrently the cheapest EV in the US at $29,280and skip over Europe, home to the adorable but flawed $10,000 Citroen Ami, and head to China.

Here youll find the equally cheap BYD Seagull, a small electric hatchback styled by ex-Lamborghini designer Wolfgang Egger and with a 200-mile rangefour times that of the Ami.

But what if even that is too expensive? Then allow us to present the Zhidou Rainbow. This is a compact city EV priced from 31,900 yuan before subsidiesthat's just $4,400. For a new electric car. WIRED literally recommends ebikes that cost more that this.

The Rainbow has three doors and four seats, and an interior with a 5-inch digital driver display and a 9-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system. Theres even a connected smartphone app, charge scheduling, and the promise of over-the-air (OTA) software updates.

Splash out on the flagship Color Cloud Edition (which costs $5,800, or about half the price of Porsches fanciest bicycle) and you can have each panel of your Rainbow painted a different color. A bit like Volkswagen did with the somewhat mad Polo Harlequin in the mid '90s.

There are two models on offer. The first has that headline $4,400 price tag and is powered by a 20-kW (27-horsepower) motor with 85 Nm (63 ft-lbs) of torque and fed by a tiny 9.98-kWh battery. Spend 39,900 yuan ($5,500) and your Rainbow is fitted with a 30-kW (40-horsepower) motor with 125 Nm of torque and a 17-kWh battery pack. Range is between 78 and 127 miles using Chinas generous CLTC testing standard.

Be under no illusion here, these are tiny numbers. Even the larger battery is the same capacity of that of a plug-in hybrid Honda CR-V, which also employs a 2.0-liter engine to help it get around. But the range isnt terrible. Even if the testing standard is generous, and the larger battery has a more realistic range of 100 miles, thats about the same as the Honda e, which cost a whopping 37,000 ($46,000) before it went off sale at the end of 2023.

There are two Rainbow models: One powered by a 20-kW (27-horsepower) motor fed by a tiny 9.98-kWh battery; and a pimped 30-kW (40-horsepower) motor version with 17-kWh battery.

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As Elon Musk Abandons the $25K Tesla, This EV Costs Just $4400 - WIRED

Elon'sfather is an engineer and like Elon, was born in South Africa. In the 2015 biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, author Ashlee Vance wrotethat Elon and his dad had a difficult relationship.In an emotional 2017 Rolling Stone interview, Elon criticized his father and talked about his upbringing, saying that after his parents split, he moved in withhis dad, which, he said,"was not a good idea."

However, Errol toldRolling Stone,"I love my children and would readily do whatever for them."

In a 2015 Forbesinterview, Elon's dad said he used to take his kids on trips overseas. "Their mother and I split up when they were quite young and the kids stayed with me," he said. "I took them all over the world."

After divorcing Elon's mother Maye, Errol married Heide, whose daughterJana Bezuidenhoutwas 4 years old at the time. Errol and Heide went on to havetwo daughters together beforethey, too, broke up.

Years later, Jana reached out to Errol following a breakup. "We were lonely, lost people," Errol explainedin a 2018 interview with The Sunday Times. "One thing led to anotheryou can call it God's plan or nature's plan." Either way, the duo welcomed son Elliott in 2017 and then a baby girl in 2019. As Errol put it to The Sun, "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce. If I could have another child I would. I can't see any reason not to."

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Elon Musk Shares Rare Photo of His and Grimes' Son X in Honor of His 4th Birthday - E! Online - E! NEWS

Posted in: Max, Movies, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: elon musk, harry potter, jk rowling, max, opinion

As Warner Bros. Discovery continues work on its Harry Potter series, Elon Musk wonders if J.K. Rowling could post more "positive content."

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Ever since Warner Bros. Discovery announced back in April 2023 that they would be teaming up with bestselling author J.K. Rowling on a multi-season adaptation of Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels, we've been looking at the project on different levels. From a series standpoint, there are the usual question marks surrounding the cast, writers, directors, etc. But Rowling being directly in the mix creates a whole other level of concern and the vast majority of that has to do with her viewson trans women and the seemingly endless (and quite often nasty) engagement that she engages in on social media. And that's raised questions about how WBD will handle the questions that it's going to get as well as the show's cast & creative team as production officially gets underway. We've already seen Rowling's recent comments regarding original stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint's position on trans women, bringing a response from Radcliffe that doesn't sound like he plans on working with her anytime soon not a good sign for WBD. In fact, you know WBD is about to have a major issue on its hands when even Twitter/X owner Elon Musk is telling Rowling to lighten up.

Before anyone starts crowing Musk for being bold about anything, he makes it clear in his response to Rowling that "I heartily agree with your points regarding sex/gender." Musk's concern? He wishes she would be "posting interesting and positive content on other matters." Well, it turns out that Rowling did just that though noting that she didn't do it because she was told to. And it didn't last long, based on what's come out of her account after the recent one that we screencapped below:

In February of this year, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav offered an update on the series during a corporate call. "We've not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter. The last film was made more than a dozen years ago," Zaslav shared, revealing that the series is expected to hit screens in 2026. From there,Zaslav revealed that he and some other big names from WBD had recently met with Rowling in London to discuss the project. "I was in London a few weeks ago with Casey [HBO & Max head Casey Bloys] and Channing [WBD TV head Channing Dungey], and we spent some real time with J.K. and her team. Both sides are thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great, and we couldn't be more excited about what's ahead," Zaslav shared. "We can't wait to share a decade of new stories with fans around the world on Max."

The stories from each of Rowling's Harry Potter books will become (from the statement) "a decade-long series produced with the same epic craft, love, and care this global franchise is known for. The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of fantastic detail, much-loved characters, and dramatic locations that Harry Potter fans have loved for over twenty-five years. Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic, and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally."

Speaking with Variety earlier this year, Warner Bros. TV Group head Channing Dungey offered an update on where things stood as initial creative planning began. "We're in conversations with a number of different writers to figure out who's going to be the person to lead that franchise for us," Dungey shared while also pushing back on reports that casting is already underway. "The first step for us is figuring out who this showrunner is going to be, and once we get that locked down, then we can start having those [casting] conversations." Dungey added, "The tricky part is the first two books, where the kids are on the younger end, around 11 or 12."

That same month, reports hit that writers Tom Moran, Kathleen Jordan, Martha Hillier, Michael Lesslie, and others were commissioned by the streaming service to pitch their takes on a series adaptation. Rumblings were that the first round of pitches took place in Los Angeles, with the top picks moving on to pitch in the UK. In addition, it's said that the streamer is "open to the possibility of developing more than one idea based on Harry Potter" and that more than one writer from the pitching process could end up coming aboard the project. That brought us to February, with sources reporting that Francesca Gardiner, Moran & Jordan are the three contenders, with each reportedly having the opportunity to work on their final pitches before a decision is made (reportedly in June).

The stories from each of Rowling's Harry Potter books will become (from the statement) "a decade-long series produced with the same epic craft, love, and care this global franchise is known for. The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of fantastic detail, much-loved characters, and dramatic locations that Harry Potter fans have loved for over twenty-five years. Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic, and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally."

The series stems from Max in association with Bront Film and TV & Warner Bros. Television. Rowling, Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts are set to executive produce, with David Heyman currently in talks to executive produce.

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Harry Potter: Even Elon Musk Is Telling J.K. Rowling to Lighten Up - Bleeding Cool News

Elon Musk is no longer over-delivering like he used to, but he is still over-promising, according to a top economist, who pointed to the Tesla CEOs recent insistence that his EV company should be valued like an AI company.

In a Project Syndicate op-ed published on Wednesday, UC Berkeley economics professor and former Treasury official J. Bradford DeLong gave Musk credit for creating a historically important tech company thats the tip of the spear in the transition away from internal-combustion-engine vehicles.

Musks rocket company SpaceX also shows great promise, and he has proven to be an effective coach for engineers working on battery technologies, electric vehicles, and rocket science, DeLong added. Without him, those technologies would not have been pushed forward as much as they have.

In fact, while Musk has frequently over-promised, he over-delivered on those fronts, helping Teslas market cap and Musks personal wealth soar since the 2010s, DeLong said.

But more recently, he has shifted his focus from EVs, charger networks, and batteries to social media, artificial intelligence, and robotaxis.

Even as Musk vowed last month to accelerate plans to launch a new, lower-cost EV model that Wall Streets views as critical to its future, he also reaffirmed his robotaxi ambitions to develop a fleet of autonomous cars.

Meanwhile, Teslas surprise firing of its entire Supercharger team raised worries about the key network as well as the industrys future. This also comes amid slower EV demand, weaker sales, broader workforce cuts, a steep stock decline, and an exodus of senior leadership.

Yet while the over-promising has continued, the over-delivering has not, DeLong wrote. The fundraiser, cheerleader, and coach for teams developing real technologies has become a meme-stock carnival barker.

He pointed to last months Tesla earnings conference call, where Musk exhorted Wall Street analysts to value his company more like a robotics or AI company instead of an auto company. In particular, Tesla should be viewed almost entirely in terms of solving autonomy and being able to apply that to a gigantic fleet of cars, the CEO added.

But DeLong noted that more than 80% of Teslas first-quarter sales were from automotive revenues, adding that car manufacturing has nowhere near the marginal costs of an IT company, which can write code once and run it everywhere.

For all the current Tesla shareholders planning to offload their holdings in the next couple of years, everything hinges on the company succeeding as a meme stock, and Musk is diligently working toward that goal, DeLong warned. Since there are virtually no long-term Tesla shareholders, the market does not particularly care that the company lacks a CEO who is trying to build it into an enduring profit-making organization.

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Elon Musk has turned Tesla into a meme stock as he tells Wall Street to value the EV maker like an AI company, top ... - Fortune

After years of delays and stumbles, Boeing is finally poised to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

Its the first flight of Boeings Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.

NASA turned to U.S. companies for astronaut rides after the space shuttles were retired. Elon Musks SpaceX has made nine taxi trips for NASA since 2020, while Boeing has managed only a pair of unoccupied test flights.

Boeing program manager Mark Nappi wishes Starliner was further along. Theres no doubt about that, but were here now.

The companys long-awaited astronaut demo is slated for liftoff Monday night.

Provided this tryout goes well, NASA will alternate between Boeing and SpaceX to get astronauts to and from the space station.

A look at the newest ride and its shakedown cruise:

THE CAPSULE

White with black and blue trim, Boeings Starliner capsule is about 10 feet (3 meters) tall and 15 feet (4.5 meters) in diameter. It can fit up to seven people, though NASA crews typically will number four. The company settled on the name Starliner nearly a decade ago, a twist on the name of Boeings early Stratoliner and the current Dreamliner.

No one was aboard Boeings two previous Starliner test flights. The first, in 2019, was hit with software trouble so severe that its empty capsule couldnt reach the station until thesecond tryin 2022. Then last summer, weak parachutes and flammable tape cropped up that needed to be fixed or removed.

THE CREW

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are retired Navy captains who spent months aboard the space station years ago. They joined the test flight after the original crew bowed out as the delays piled up. Wilmore, 61, is a former combat pilot from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, and Williams, 58, is a helicopter pilot from Needham, Massachusetts. The duo have been involved in the capsules development and insist Starliner is ready for prime time, otherwise they would not strap in for the launch.

Were not putting our heads in the sand, Williams told The Associated Press. Sure, Boeing has had its problems. But we are the QA (quality assurance). Our eyes are on the spacecraft.

THE TEST FLIGHT

Starliner will blast off on United Launch Alliances Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will be the first time astronauts ride an Atlas since NASAs Project Mercury, starting with John Glenn when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Sixty-two years later, this will be the 100th launch of the Atlas V, which is used to hoist satellites as well as spacecraft.

Were super careful with every mission. Were super, duper, duper careful with human missions, said Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Starliner should reach the space station in roughly 26 hours. The seven station residents will have their eyes peeled on the approaching capsule. The arrival of a new vehicle is a really big deal. You leave nothing to chance, NASA astronaut Michael Barratt told the AP from orbit. Starliner will remain docked for eight days, undergoing checkouts before landing in New Mexico or elsewhere in the American West.

STARLINER VS. DRAGON

Both companies capsules are designed to be autonomous and reusable. This Starliner is the same one that made the first test flight in 2019. Unlike the SpaceX Dragons, Starliner has traditional hand controls and switches alongside touchscreens and, according to the astronauts, is more like NASAs Orion capsules for moon missions. Wilmore and Williams briefly will take manual control to wring out the systems on their way to the space station.

NASA gave Boeing, a longtime space contractor, more than $4 billion to develop the capsule, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion. SpaceX already was in the station delivery business and merely refashioned its cargo capsule for crew. While SpaceX uses the boss Teslas to get astronauts to the launch pad, Boeing will use a more traditional astrovan equipped with a video screen that Wilmore said will be playing Top Gun: Maverick.

One big difference at flights end: Starliner lands on the ground with cushioning airbags, while Dragon splashes into the sea.

THE FUTURE

Boeing is committed to six Starliner trips for NASA after this one, which will take the company to the stations planned end in 2030. Boeings Nappi is reluctant to discuss other potential customers until this inaugural crew flight is over. But the company has said a fifth seat will be available to private clients. SpaceX periodically sells seats to tycoons and even countries eager to get their citizens to the station for a couple weeks.

Coming soon: Sierra Spaces mini shuttle, Dream Chaser, which will deliver cargo to the station later this year or next, before accepting passengers.

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Boeing is about to face a big test after falling behind Elon Musk's SpaceX - Fortune

We are getting more information on the ongoing layoffs at Tesla. Several employees describe the situation as Elon Musk throwing his weight around to solidify his status after being mostly absent over the last year.

But he is coming in like a dangerous wrecking ball.

Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Musk was not as frequently present at Tesla as he used to be over the last year and since his acquisition of Twitter.

That has changed over the last few weeks.

Musk is now all over Tesla or at least, his presence is being felt everywhere at Tesla.

It started with the first wave of layoffs two weeks ago. Musk announced that Tesla would be laying off about 10% of its workforce and used his usual excuse of growing the headcount too fast, resulting in hiring inefficiencies with duplicate jobs.

However, when we first heard about those plans a day prior, we heard that the layoffs could be closer to 20% of the workforce.

Sure enough, the layoffs are still ongoing.

Tesla started another wave of layoffs this week including the entire charging organization.

Now, Electrek has learned that Musk also gutted Teslas cathode material manufacturing team in Texas.

It started with Anthony Thurston, Senior Manager, Cathode Materials & Manufacturing at Tesla, earlier this month, but Electrek has learned that Musk has now let go of most of the team.

Sources familiar with the matter describe a difficult situation at Tesla right now. Uncertainty, confusion, and frustration are the main feelings going around the offices.

Several sources confirmed that there are rumors around Tesla that the vehicle engineering and design departments are next.

During Teslas earnings call last week, Musk commented a bit more on the layoffs. This time, he said it was about reorganizing the company:

Weve made some corrections along the way. But it is time to reorganize the company for the next phase of growth and you really need to reorganize it.

Analysts and Tesla fans are trying to understand the logic behind some of these moves and the firing of almost the entire charging organization, around 500 people, has been hard to understand for most people.

Musk said that Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network but with a focus on existing stations:

We reported that Tesla has already backed out of leases for new Supercharger stations.

Sources say that Tesla will have issues continuing to grow the network without the organization of Rebecca Tinucci, Teslas former head of charging.

In the past, Tesla rehired people it fired after realizing that it couldnt get the work done without them.

This is raising questions about the logic behind some of the layoffs and their efficacy.

Sources familiar with the matter believe that some of the layoffs have nothing to do with hiring inefficiencies or restructuring, but rather with Musk throwing his weight around Tesla.

Two sources told Electrek that Tinucci was fighting back pressure from Musk to fire a bigger percentage of her team, and the CEO decided to let go of the entire team as an example.

Musk wrote in an email to executives on Sunday:

Hopefully, these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard-core about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.

The message is clear: fire people as many people as Im asking, or you and your entire team will be gone.

This is clearly about more than hiring inefficiency and restructuring. Musk is cleaning house. It could be that he has serious concerns about the economy and lack of reversal for Teslas sales in the short term, but he didnt go into that in the earnings call last week.

It could be about more than that. I dont know if I completely agree with the theory that Musk is securing his leadership position at Tesla, but it is a viable theory.

As I previously presented, the vote on his compensation package is turning into a vote of confidence in the CEO.

These layoffs are useful for him on that front. A lot of the leadership is gone. With every leader leaving, Musk becomes more needed at Tesla. Also, it doesnt hurt that all these leaders are unloading their stocks, which wont be voted against him.

However, it raises the question: is it actually good for Tesla?

The Supercharger team did something incredible: build the only successful and liked fast-charging network in North America, which is critical to EV adoption.

Firing the entire team because the head was pushing back on the number of layoffs is ridiculous, especially if the plan is still to grow the network. Tesla needs to grow the network since it is currently onboarding other automakers on it. Even if Tesla sees its own sales slowing down, the Supercharger network will need a capacity increase.

Everyone I talked to at Tesla says that it is a complete mess. Contractors for most ongoing Supercharger projects lost their point of contact at Tesla. Again, many suspect Tesla will try to rehire some of the workers fired.

Tesla has hiring inefficiencies leading to layoffs and layoffs inefficiencies leading to new hires.

Its not a good look.

The only way I can get behind Musk on this is if Teslas financials are really in the dumpster. It doesnt look that bad right now based on the financial statements, but its not impossible that Tesla has internal numbers, like orders coming in, that look awful.

Some of this reminds me of Tesla in 2019. Things were looking pretty good, but Tesla launched a huge cost-cutting effort. We later learned that Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy because it didnt anticipate how costly it would be to launch Model 3 in high volume in Europe.

The long transit time put a lot of financial pressure on Tesla, and the cost-cutting effort was intended to compensate for that Musk didnt communicate to shareholders until later.

Maybe theres something similar going on that we dont know about, but at the same time, Tesla is in a completely different situation right now, sitting on $27 billion in cash.

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Elon Musk is throwing his weight around Tesla, comes in like a wrecking ball - Electrek