tech

Rani Molla12/1/25

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.

More Tech

WIKI BIRTHDAY TO YOU

As Wikipedia turns 25, its future will depend on AI — for better or worse

The online encyclopedia is celebrating 25 years since launch, but its next quarter century will likely be defined by the AI giants it’s now signing content deals with.

Wikipedia Home Page, Closeup on LCD Screen

tech

ICE agents arrest workers from Meta’s Hyperion data center site

Yesterday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers stopped and arrested two workers from Meta’s massive Hyperion data center construction site in Richland Parish, Louisiana.

According to the Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office, two dump truck drivers were stopped and arrested as part of a traffic stop as they headed to the construction site where thousands of people are working.

Bloomberg reports that unmarked vehicles at the perimeter of the construction site were stopping and checking the identification of workers. The Sheriff’s Office said ICE agents did not enter the Meta site at any time.

Immigration Officers Descend on Meta Data Center, Arrest Drivers

Immigration Officers Descend on Meta Data Center, Arrest Drivers

Bloomberg reports that unmarked vehicles at the perimeter of the construction site were stopping and checking the identification of workers. The Sheriff’s Office said ICE agents did not enter the Meta site at any time.

tech

Two cofounders leave Thinking Machines Lab to return to OpenAI

A group of researchers have left Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab to go back to OpenAI. Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s head of apps, posted on X that Thinking Machines cofounders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, along with Sam Schoenholz, will be returning to the company.

In October, Thinking Machines cofounder Andrew Tulloch left to work for Meta.

Thinking Machine Labs was cofounded by Murati, a former OpenAI executive, and the startup has been raising large amounts of money, reportedly with a $50 billion valuation.

Two Thinking Machines Lab Cofounders Are Leaving to Rejoin OpenAI

Two Thinking Machines Lab Cofounders Are Leaving to Rejoin OpenAI

Thinking Machine Labs was cofounded by Murati, a former OpenAI executive, and the startup has been raising large amounts of money, reportedly with a $50 billion valuation.

Sora Space Dog 10FPS

Ryan Broderick, Adam Bumas4h

tech

X says it’s stopping Grok from putting real people in bikinis on X

After public and government uproar over sexualized deepfakes of women and children, X’s Safety account posted Wednesday evening that it is no longer allowing the Grok account on X to generate “images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” The xAI-owned company also said it restricted image generation and editing via Grok on X more broadly to paid subscribers.

For what it’s worth, a subscriber reply to X Safety’s post asking Grok to put the tweet “in a bikini” prompted the chatbot to post an image of a woman in a bikini — though she does not appear to be a real person. I’m not a paid X subscriber but, in the process of reporting this piece, I was able to edit the image to be “younger” and “17 years old.”

The post also did not address what the changes mean for Grok’s stand-alone app, which currently ranks No. 5 among free apps in Apple’s App Store. Previous reporting from NBC News found that users could also still generate offensive images using the app.

Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk, for his part, said Wednesday that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.”

Safety on X: "@Grok Account Image Generation Updates " / X

Safety on X: "@Grok Account Image Generation Updates " / X

For what it’s worth, a subscriber reply to X Safety’s post asking Grok to put the tweet “in a bikini” prompted the chatbot to post an image of a woman in a bikini — though she does not appear to be a real person. I’m not a paid X subscriber but, in the process of reporting this piece, I was able to edit the image to be “younger” and “17 years old.”

The post also did not address what the changes mean for Grok’s stand-alone app, which currently ranks No. 5 among free apps in Apple’s App Store. Previous reporting from NBC News found that users could also still generate offensive images using the app.

Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk, for his part, said Wednesday that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.”

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.

©2026 Sherwood Media, LLC