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Cracks in the relationship between President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, his self-proclaimed “first buddy,” are scaring Tesla shareholders as the two fired salvos at each other in increasingly heated rhetoric on Thursday. Shares fell more than 8% on Thursday on a day otherwise devoid of news for the electric automaker, as traders dumped the stock in heavy trading after Musk stepped up his criticism of the president’s tax bill. Trump fired back, alleging Musk was upset because the bill takes away tax benefits for electric vehicle purchases, while investors feared their souring relationship could hurt Musk’s sprawling business empire. “Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said. “He said the most beautiful things about me. And he hasn’t said bad about me personally. That’ll be next. But I’m very disappointed.” Musk, the world’s richest man and a key figure in the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cost-cutting plan for several months, has blasted the bill, after he decided to spend less time in the White House and instead focus on his companies. On his social media platform X, Musk has called on Congress members to kill the legislation, calling it a “disgusting abomination.” “It more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the DOGE team at great personal cost and risk,” Musk, the largest Republican donor in the 2024 election campaign, said on X on Tuesday. Musk’s leadership of DOGE and his alignment with the Trump administration had put off some Tesla buyers. Sales of his EVs slumped in Europe, China, and key U.S. markets like California, even as overall electric vehicle purchases continue to grow. Musk has slowly started to separate himself from the White House in recent weeks, stung in part by the wave of protests against Tesla. “Elon’s politics continue to harm the stock. First he aligned himself with Trump, which upset many potential Democratic buyers. Now he has turned on the Trump administration,” said Tesla shareholder Dennis Dick, chief strategist at Stock Trader Network. Musk’s other businesses, SpaceX and Starlink, dominate their respective markets, but have also come under scrutiny due to Musk’s relationship with Trump. Those two businesses often serve as the default choice for commercial launches and satellite internet deployment, and foreign governments have increasingly looked to Starlink, with regulatory approvals smoothed by Musk’s ties. Tesla shares are down 12% since May 27, roughly coinciding with his decision to pull back from Washington activities. Losses accelerated on Thursday as 100 million shares changed hands, roughly the daily volume over the last 100 days. The stock has been on a roller coaster ever since Musk endorsed Trump in mid-July 2024 in his reelection bid, gaining 169% from that point through mid-December. That was followed by a 54% slide through early April as a “Tesla Takedown” protest intensified. The House of Representatives version of the budget bill proposes largely ending the popular $7,500 EV subsidy by the end of 2025. Tesla and other automakers have relied on incentives for years to drum up demand, but Trump promised during the transition to end the subsidy. Tesla could face a $1.2 billion hit to its annual profit, along with an additional $2 billion setback to regulatory credit sales due to separate Senate legislation targeting California’s EV sales mandates, according to J.P. Morgan analysts. “The budget bill contains bad stuff for Tesla with the end of the EV credits, and just generally his falling out with Trump has risks for Tesla and Elon’s other companies,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. Musk’s public attacks have upset potential Republican Tesla buyers as well, Dick said. One White House official on Wednesday called the Tesla CEO’s moves “infuriating.” The billionaire joined Senate Republican deficit hawks this week to argue that the House bill does not go far enough in reducing spending. Overall, Tesla shares are down 22% this year, including Thursday’s losses. But the company is still the most valuable automaker worldwide by a long shotcarrying a market value of $1 trillion, way above Toyota Motor’s nearly $290 billion. Tesla trades at 140.21 times profit estimates, a steep premium to other Big Tech stocks such as Nvidia. By Akash Sriram and Kanchana Chakravarty, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Indirect carbon emissions from the operations of four of the leading AI-focused tech companiesAmazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Metarose on average by 150% from 2020 to 2023, as they had to use more power for energy-demanding data centers, a United Nations report said on Thursday. The use of artificial intelligence is driving up global indirect emissions because of the vast amounts of energy required to power data centers, the report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the U.N. agency for digital technologies, said. Indirect emissions include those generated by purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by a company. Amazon’s operational carbon emissions grew the most, at 182% in 2023, compared with three years before, followed by Microsoft at 155%, Meta at 145%, and Alphabet at 138%, according to the report. The ITU tracked the greenhouse gas emissions of 200 leading digital companies between 2020 and 2023. Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, pointed Reuters to its sustainability report that said it is working to reduce the amount of emissions, energy, and water used to power its data centers. The other companies did not respond immediately to requests for comment. As investment in AI increases, carbon emissions from the top-emitting AI systems are predicted to reach up to 102.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, the report stated. The data centers that are needed for AI development could also put pressure on existing energy infrastructure. “The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving a sharp rise in global electricity demand, with electricity use by data centers increasing four times faster than the overall rise in electricity consumption,” the report found. It also highlighted that although a growing number of digital companies had set emissions targets, those ambitions had not yet fully translated into actual reductions of emissions. By Olivia Le Poidevin, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
A growing genre of social media posts now tracks the rising costs of goods in real terms as President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit some of the biggest retail stores in the U.S. On Reddit pages for stores like Walmart, Target, and Michaels, users have posted images of price tags like receipts, showing what Trump’s tariffs have already cost consumers over the past several months. Price tags for a Jurassic Park-themed T. rex dinosaur toy at Walmart show the retail price jumping from a sale price of $20 up to $55. Elsewhere, a charging cable went from $9.99 to $17.99 and a sheet cake pan went from $24.99 to $39.99. The photos are in line with price increases Business Insider tracked using data from the third-party service AisleGopher. The price of one toy from 4/19 to 5/21. byu/Nvalee inwalmart As a meme format, side-by-side images of price tags are simple and effective, communicating the idea of tariffs stoking inflation in an easy-to-grasp, visual way. They have the opposite effect of Walmart’s old 1990s-era “Rollback” campaign in which the big box store’s smiley face mascot made products magically cheaper by bouncing from price tag to price tag. And unlike the fuzzy math of Trump’s Reciprocal Tariffs board, the prop he used at his press conference to first announce his tariff regime, these tariff price tag posts communicate a message simply without needing any complicated math: prices are going up. Its happening byu/Kurzz_slivr inTarget Walmart reported it grew sales 4% in the most recent quarter, but its net income fell to $4.49 billion, same-store sales fell, and the company admits it won’t be able to eat the cost of tariffs itself. CEO Doug McMillon argued Walmart was “positioned to manage the cost pressure from tariffs as well or better than anyone.” While more than two-thirds of the products the retailer sells are made, assembled, or grown in the U.S., he said tariffs will pass on some inflated costs to consumers. Oh ok byu/TheOtherHannah inTarget “We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible, but given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,” McMillon said on Walmart’s earnings call last month. Other companies including Best Buy, Costco, Mattel, Macy’s, and Nike have said they already have or soon will raise some prices due to tariffs. Tariffs byu/Majestickenny12 inwalmart Like “I Did That” stickers of then-President Joe Biden at gas station pumps during Biden’s term or egg price trackers under Trump, tariff price tag photos draw attention to cold, hard numbers. But sometimes the specific numbers matter less than the overall feeling. Tariffs anyone? This is gonna be ridiculous. byu/Esperacchiusdamascus inwalmart One post on the Target subreddit shows an end-cap display selling Crayola 10-pack markers mistakenly listed for $99 instead of 99 cents. The photo is jokingly labeled with the caption, “Tariffs be like,” but the months-old meme needs to be updated. According to the third-party service PriceTracker, Target hasn’t sold those markers as cheap as 99 cents since 2024. They now cost $2.59.
Category:
E-Commerce
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