X and xAI deal broke Wall Street’s normal rules

“It’s funny money”

“It’s funny money,” University of California, Los Angeles, Law School professor Andrew Verstein told The Wall Street Journal regarding Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s deal to merge his two private companies, X and xAI. “It’s like using Monopoly money to buy ‘Pokemon’ cards.”

The acquisition, which valued the combined company at a whopping $113 billion, broke Wall Street’s typical rules, with only one set of advisers working for both sides.

“In short, the unusual process resulted in a megadeal few public companies could get away with,” WSJ wrote.

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Rani Molla

Two’s a crowd

Lucid announces Cybercab competitor and self-driving tech subscription in a bid to take on Tesla

Lucid’s vehicle has two seats and no steering wheel... a lot like another vehicle we’ve been hearing a lot about lately.

Matt Phillips9h

Palantir announces slew of defense- and security-themed partnerships

Defense, intelligence, and AI software company Palantir Technologies announced a series of security-themed partnerships Thursday, ahead of its annual conference promoting its artificial intelligence software platform (AIP).

Shares were recently up 1.7%, stretching the stock’s gains over the past month to 19%.

The deals include partnerships with uranium enrichment company Centrus Energy, jet engine maker GE Aerospace, unmanned aerial vehicle maker Ondas, and privately held World View, which sells intelligence and surveillance balloons that operate in the upper atmosphere.

Separately, it also announced a new “sovereign AI OS reference architecture,” a collaboration Palantir says “delivers customers a turnkey AI data center from hardware procurement to application deployment.”

Reference architectures are effectively blueprints that tell organizations how to set up and use AI hardware and software systems.

Known as the Palantir OS Reference Architecture, it’s based on similar AI blueprints Nvidia already sells, and it will enable customers to use Palantir’s entire product set, including the AIP and Foundry, its data organization and management product.

Palantir Unveils Nvidia Software Pact, Defense Partnerships At AI Conference

Reference architectures are effectively blueprints that tell organizations how to set up and use AI hardware and software systems.

Rani Molla9h

Tesla’s China sales jump as EV market slumps

Tesla’s China sales grew 43% to 38,206 vehicles in February, compared a low baseline a year earlier.

Still, thanks to strong sales of its Model Y, Tesla defied countrywide trends — overall China EV sales fell 35% last month.

As a result, Tesla’s market share in China, its second-biggest market, grew to nearly 14% — its highest level in nearly two years.

Tesla's China sales rebound in Feb as market share hits nearly 2-year high

Rani Molla

10h

Uber, which exited self-driving in 2020, is now at the center of the robotaxi era

Uber, which plans to launch a robotaxi service with Wayve and Nissan in Tokyo this year, has deals with every major AV player.

US Lifts Restrictions on Chinese Chip EDA

NOBLE GAS

IMPASSE

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