tech

Tesla sold more cars in Norway this year than any automaker ever as buyers get ahead of tax hike

Norway is proving to be a rare bright spot in Europe, Tesla’s “weakest market,” with the EV company setting an annual car sales record in the country, Reuters reports. Tesla sales jumped 175% in Norway in November compared to the same month a year earlier, selling more than 6,000 new cars there as customers race to get ahead of what’s effectively a tax hike on EVs when the country rolls back subsidies.

That brings its year-to-date total sales to a record of 28,606 cars — higher than the previous record set by Volkswagen in 2016 — with a month to spare. Last month, fully electric vehicles made up 97.6% of all new cars sold in Norway.

Meanwhile, Tesla sales continue to languish across much of the rest of Europe. Early figures show double-digit declines in France, Sweden, and Denmark in November. Sales in Spain fell nearly 9% last month. Data from October saw sales halve in both the UK and Germany. Europe is Tesla’s third-biggest market after the US and China.

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More AI startups are reportedly turning to free Chinese AI models

The biggest tech companies in the world, like OpenAI, Google, and Meta, are racing to build dozens of gigawatts of AI computing infrastructure to meet what they say is incredibly high demand.

But free, open-weight Chinese AI models like DeepSeek and Qwen have been rapidly catching up to the leading frontier models.

According to a report from NBC News, more AI startups are deciding that these Chinese models might be cheap enough and good enough to pass on the state-of-the-art offerings from OpenAI, Meta, and Google. This, of course, would be very bad news for the AI capex orgy that is currently consuming the tech sector.

As the huge, all-purpose models try to do it all, startups are taking advantage of these open-weight models, which can be distilled and customized for specific applications, and usually for a much lower cost.

More of Silicon Valley is building on free Chinese AI

More of Silicon Valley is building on free Chinese AI

According to a report from NBC News, more AI startups are deciding that these Chinese models might be cheap enough and good enough to pass on the state-of-the-art offerings from OpenAI, Meta, and Google. This, of course, would be very bad news for the AI capex orgy that is currently consuming the tech sector.

As the huge, all-purpose models try to do it all, startups are taking advantage of these open-weight models, which can be distilled and customized for specific applications, and usually for a much lower cost.

tech

“The Big Short” investor calls Tesla “ridiculously overvalued”

“The Big Short” investor Michael Burry says Tesla’s market cap has been “ridiculously overvalued” for “a good long time.” In his latest Substack post, he criticized what he calls the “tragic algebra” of stock-based compensation, arguing that companies like Tesla understate their true economic cost because, though stock-based comp is a noncash expense under GAAP, it still dilutes shareholders.

Burry wrote that CEO Elon Musk’s compensation package — which could reach $1 trillion — ensures that “dilution is certain to continue.” He estimated Tesla’s share count will expand by roughly 3.6% per year without buybacks — far higher than Amazon’s 1.3% and more comparable to Palantir’s 4.6%. In his view, failing to account for this compounding leaves investors with an overly generous picture of long-term profitability.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Foundations: The Tragic Algebra of Stock-Based Compensation

Foundations: The Tragic Algebra of Stock-Based Compensation

Burry wrote that CEO Elon Musk’s compensation package — which could reach $1 trillion — ensures that “dilution is certain to continue.” He estimated Tesla’s share count will expand by roughly 3.6% per year without buybacks — far higher than Amazon’s 1.3% and more comparable to Palantir’s 4.6%. In his view, failing to account for this compounding leaves investors with an overly generous picture of long-term profitability.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

tech

Amazon AWS due to roll out its own updated AI models this week

This week in Las Vegas, Amazon AWS is sure to make some news at its re:Invent developer conference.

AWS is the current undisputed cloud computing leader, serving up AI computing services for many of the top players, but most importantly enterprise darling Anthropic.

Last quarter, Amazon reported that AWS revenue grew 20% year on year and it had a $200 billion backlog of contracted business it was racing to fulfill.

But AWS has greater ambitions than being just a cloud provider. Looking toward efficiency and lower costs, AWS has been developing its own AI models, named Nova. The Information reports that this week will see a significant update to Nova, which was described in the report as the company’s first real “all-in-one” multimodal model.

As AWS Preps New AI Models, Relations With Anthropic Get Complicated

As AWS Preps New AI Models, Relations With Anthropic Get Complicated

Last quarter, Amazon reported that AWS revenue grew 20% year on year and it had a $200 billion backlog of contracted business it was racing to fulfill.

But AWS has greater ambitions than being just a cloud provider. Looking toward efficiency and lower costs, AWS has been developing its own AI models, named Nova. The Information reports that this week will see a significant update to Nova, which was described in the report as the company’s first real “all-in-one” multimodal model.

tech

Jon Keegan11/28/25

WSJ: Anduril’s weapons systems have failed during several tests

Autonomous drones by sea, land, and air. Futuristic AI-powered support fighter jets, and swarms of networked drones controlled by sophisticated software. These are some of the visions for the future of warfare pitched by defense tech startup Anduril. Cofounded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, the Peter Thiel-backed startup has landed some major national security contracts based on this futuristic outlook for battlefield AI.

But according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the company’s tech is failing key tests in the real world, raising concerns about the viability and safety of Anduril’s systems within the military command.

Anduril’s Altius drones proved vulnerable to Russian jamming while deployed in Ukraine and have been pulled from the battlefield, per the report.

More than a dozen sea-based drone ships powered by Anduril’s Lattice command and control software recently shut down during a Navy test, creating a hazard for other vessels in the exercise.

And this summer, during a drone intercept test, Anduril’s counter-drone system crashed and caused a 22-acre fire at a California airport, the report found.

Anduril told the WSJ that the failures are just part of its rapid iterative development process:

“We recognize that our highly iterative model of technology development — moving fast, testing constantly, failing often, refining our work, and doing it all over again — can make the job of our critics easier. That is a risk we accept. We do fail… a lot.”

Exclusive | ‘We Do Fail … a Lot’: Defense Startup Anduril Hits Setbacks With Weapons Tech

Exclusive | ‘We Do Fail … a Lot’: Defense Startup Anduril Hits Setbacks With Weapons Tech

But according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the company’s tech is failing key tests in the real world, raising concerns about the viability and safety of Anduril’s systems within the military command.

Anduril’s Altius drones proved vulnerable to Russian jamming while deployed in Ukraine and have been pulled from the battlefield, per the report.

More than a dozen sea-based drone ships powered by Anduril’s Lattice command and control software recently shut down during a Navy test, creating a hazard for other vessels in the exercise.

And this summer, during a drone intercept test, Anduril’s counter-drone system crashed and caused a 22-acre fire at a California airport, the report found.

Anduril told the WSJ that the failures are just part of its rapid iterative development process:

“We recognize that our highly iterative model of technology development — moving fast, testing constantly, failing often, refining our work, and doing it all over again — can make the job of our critics easier. That is a risk we accept. We do fail… a lot.”

tech

Jon Keegan11/28/25

OpenAI’s partners shouldering $100 billion of debt, taking on all the risk

OpenAI’s ambitious plans for global AI infrastructure projects — like its series of massive Stargate AI data centers — will require tens of billions of dollars funded by debt, but you won’t find much of that on OpenAI’s balance sheet.

According to a new analysis by the Financial Times, OpenAI has somehow convinced its many partners to shoulder at least $100 billion in debt on its behalf, as well as the risks that come with it.

Partners Oracle, SoftBank, CoreWeave, Crusoe, and Blue Owl Capital are all taking on debt in the form of bonds, loans, and credit deals to meet their obligations with OpenAI for infrastructure and computing resources.

Having close ties with OpenAI has been an anchor for many publicly traded companies in recent weeks. The company’s cash burn and the rise of Gemini 3 have seemingly darkened its outlook and fostered guilt by association for many of its close partners and investors. Most notably, Oracle’s aggressive capital expenditure plans to support demand from OpenAI have sparked a sell-off in its stock while widening its credit default swap spreads.

A senior OpenAI executive told the FT: “That’s been kind of the strategy. How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”

OpenAI partners amass $100bn debt pile to fund its ambitions

Open AI, softbank, Oracle, Coreweave

Partners Oracle, SoftBank, CoreWeave, Crusoe, and Blue Owl Capital are all taking on debt in the form of bonds, loans, and credit deals to meet their obligations with OpenAI for infrastructure and computing resources.

Having close ties with OpenAI has been an anchor for many publicly traded companies in recent weeks. The company’s cash burn and the rise of Gemini 3 have seemingly darkened its outlook and fostered guilt by association for many of its close partners and investors. Most notably, Oracle’s aggressive capital expenditure plans to support demand from OpenAI have sparked a sell-off in its stock while widening its credit default swap spreads.

A senior OpenAI executive told the FT: “That’s been kind of the strategy. How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”

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