Tech
tech
Rani Molla

Tesla stock jumps on report that Musk may soon be leaving the White House

Just after an unexpectedly low sales report this morning, Tesla investors got some unexpectedly good news: Elon Musk may soon be leaving the White House, giving him more time to focus on his companies.

Politico published a story saying that Musk, Tesla’s CEO, would “soon” be stepping back from his role as “governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man” at the White House.

Shares of Tesla quickly reversed their losses for the day and were recently up 3.7%.

“The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role,” according to the report.

Tesla released underwhelming delivery numbers this morning, pushing the stock down more than 5% as investors lamented the toll Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency was having on the electric vehicle company.

“The more political he gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote this morning. “This quarter was an example of the damage Musk is causing Tesla.” The idea that Musk spends too much time with his non-Tesla endeavors is one long held by company critics and even Tesla itself. Among the risk factors in its annual report, it says, “He does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla.”

Musk certainly won’t have his attention on Tesla full time after this: he also runs SpaceX, The Boring Co., and a combination of X and xAI. But investors view it as favorable nonetheless.

Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Leave Soon

Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Leave Soon

Shares of Tesla quickly reversed their losses for the day and were recently up 3.7%.

“The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role,” according to the report.

Tesla released underwhelming delivery numbers this morning, pushing the stock down more than 5% as investors lamented the toll Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency was having on the electric vehicle company.

“The more political he gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote this morning. “This quarter was an example of the damage Musk is causing Tesla.” The idea that Musk spends too much time with his non-Tesla endeavors is one long held by company critics and even Tesla itself. Among the risk factors in its annual report, it says, “He does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla.”

Musk certainly won’t have his attention on Tesla full time after this: he also runs SpaceX, The Boring Co., and a combination of X and xAI. But investors view it as favorable nonetheless.

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$26B
Jon Keegan

Nvidia is planning on spending $26 billion to train its own AI open-weight models, according to a 2025 financial filing. Wired was first to report the information. Nvidia has released several of its own AI models, including the Nemotron reasoning model, as well as specialized ones for specific tasks.

Nvidia making its own large frontier models could allow the company to go head-to-head against some of its biggest AI customers.

tech
Rani Molla

Musk blurs the boundaries of his companies even more with joint xAI-Tesla AI agent project

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that Tesla and xAI, which is part of SpaceX, would work on a joint AI agent project called “Macrohard,” also referred to as “Digital Optimus,” as part of Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI. The collaboration would pair Grok with what Musk described as a real-time computer-controlling AI agent running on Tesla hardware.

In his post, Musk said Grok would serve as the higher-level “System 2” reasoning layer directing “Digital Optimus,” a faster “System 1” layer that processes the last five seconds of screen video and keyboard/mouse inputs to take action. He said the system would run inexpensively on Tesla’s low-cost AI4 chip alongside more expensive Nvidia chips at xAI, and suggested it could, “in principle,” emulate the function of entire companies. “No other company can yet do this,” he said.

Business Insider reported earlier Wednesday that Tesla was taking up the AI agent mantle as xAI’s similar project stalled, but Musk’s post suggests the initiatives are more intertwined than previously understood.

The collaboration marks the latest example of Musk’s companies working closely together, further blurring the lines between Tesla and the recently merged SpaceX-xAI entity.

tech
Rani Molla

Meta doubles down on custom inference chips after reportedly scrapping training chip

Meta said today that it’s expanding its custom silicon development to include four new generations of Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) chips. The announcement comes just weeks after The Information reported that the social media company had scrapped its most advanced AI training chip, dubbed Olympus, after facing design challenges. In the meantime, it signed outside chip deals with Nvidiaand Advanced Micro Devices.

Early in its recent conference call, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan sought to reassure investors that the custom chip specialist’s relationship with the social media giant was only getting stronger.

“Now contrary to recent analyst reports, Meta’s custom accelerator MTIA road map is alive and well,” he said. “We’re shipping now.”

The new road map suggests Meta’s in-house chips will focus more on inference, which has more predictable workloads, over training — a technically more demanding area dominated by Nvidia:

“MTIA 300 will be used for ranking and recommendations training, and is already in production. MTIA 400, 450 and 500 will be capable of handling all workloads, but we will primarily use these chips to support GenAI inference production in the near future and into 2027.”

Meta CFO Susan Li told attendees at Morgan Stanley’s tech conference earlier this month that the company “eventually” plans to expand its custom chip design to include training models.

Expanding Meta’s Custom Silicon to Power Our AI Workloads

Expanding Meta’s Custom Silicon to Power Our AI Workloads

Early in its recent conference call, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan sought to reassure investors that the custom chip specialist’s relationship with the social media giant was only getting stronger.

“Now contrary to recent analyst reports, Meta’s custom accelerator MTIA road map is alive and well,” he said. “We’re shipping now.”

The new road map suggests Meta’s in-house chips will focus more on inference, which has more predictable workloads, over training — a technically more demanding area dominated by Nvidia:

“MTIA 300 will be used for ranking and recommendations training, and is already in production. MTIA 400, 450 and 500 will be capable of handling all workloads, but we will primarily use these chips to support GenAI inference production in the near future and into 2027.”

Meta CFO Susan Li told attendees at Morgan Stanley’s tech conference earlier this month that the company “eventually” plans to expand its custom chip design to include training models.

tech
Rani Molla

Google completes acquisition of Wiz — its biggest ever

Today Google said it has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz, the largest deal in the company’s history.

“This acquisition is an investment by Google Cloud to improve cloud security and enable organizations to build fast and securely across any cloud or AI platform,” the company wrote in the press release.

The companies agreed to the all-cash purchase last year, after quite a bit of back-and-forth.

Alphabet updated acquisitions chart
Sherwood News

Google Completes Acquisition of Wiz

Google Completes Acquisition of Wiz
Alphabet updated acquisitions chart
Sherwood News
David Crowther, Claire Yubin Oh
Perp walk
17h
Perplexity has been left behind in the AI wars

Once touted as a potential Google killer, the AI search engine’s traffic has been flat over the last year, while peers like Claude have surged ahead.

Amazon Wins Suit Against Perplexity, Blocking AI Shopping Agent

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