A deal with Apple could help Affirm get out of the red

6/12/24 12:01PM

All eyes have been on Apple’s big AI announcement this week (the “A” is for “Apple”, apparently) but the company also announced yesterday that Apple Pay users across the US will soon be able to use Affirm for "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) purchases. That gives Affirm access to millions of new potential users, sending the company’s shares up more than 11% on the news.

BNPL has been a battleground, with some of the early-movers in the space — like Affirm and Klarna — facing competition from PayPal to Walmart, as companies realized that chunking up payments into multiple slices maybe wasn’t actually rocket science? Not to be outdone, Affirm has been busy innovating too, with new features announced last week such as the ability to pay in 2 installments.

Launch now, regulate later

The BNPL sector has also faced scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which recently classified such lenders similarly to credit card providers (which probably should have happened sooner) requiring them to offer similar safeguards and protections.

While this partnership might not be Apple’s most headline-grabbing of the week, for unprofitable Affirm it’s a big deal. Indeed, since 2019, the company has amassed $2.8 billion in cumulative losses, with only a single profitable quarter. Affirm primarily generates revenue in two ways: charging interest on certain loans and collecting merchant fees, where businesses pay a commission for the service — the idea being that the sale might not have occurred without the BNPL option.

However, offering 0% interest and no late fees for over a year is risky, requiring a substantial provision for potential defaults, a large cost for Affirm. With marketing expenses and other overheads, being sustainably profitable has been difficult — joining forces with one of the largest companies on the planet may help.

Max Knoblauch5/29/26

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.