(Christoph Schmidt/Getty Images)

Ford’s EV “Model T” moment starts with a $30,000 midsize truck

8/11/25 10:25AM

Ford on Monday touted a new vision for producing low-cost electric vehicles in the US, drawing parallels between the announcement and its iconic Model T.

According to CEO Jim Farley, Ford will build multiple low-cost EVs at its Louisville assembly plant through a new production process. The first vehicle produced through the new platform is planned for 2027 and will be a midsize EV truck starting at $30,000.

Created as a result of a three-year “skunkworks” project helmed by ex-Tesla engineer Alan Clarke, the new production system leaves the single assembly line behind, instead shifting to three concurrent assembly lines that will join together at the end of the production process.

Automation will be central to the new system, which will require 2,200 workers (600 fewer than currently work at the Louisville plant). Ford has said it doesn’t expect layoffs as a result of the new model.

The plans will see Ford invest more than $2 billion into Kentucky.

The announcement comes as Ford has struggled to maintain momentum in its EV business. A new low-cost rival, the Amazon-backed Slate Auto, has garnered significant attention from price-weary customers. Ford’s electric division has already lost more than $2 billion this year through June.

“I don’t think that the new EV startups will be able to keep up with the kind of innovation that you’re seeing in manufacturing, and how they can actually turn this into a reality,” Ford EV chief Doug Field said, seemingly casting some shade at Slate and other EV rivals. “New ideas are easy. Innovation is actually delivering ideas, and delivering those ideas in a way that millions can access them.”

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OpenAI’s ARR reached over $20 billion in 2025, CFO says

Sam Altman’s $500 billion artificial intelligence behemoth hit a major financial milestone last year, according to a new blog post over the weekend from OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, as the company confirmed it had hit a more than $20 billion annual revenue run rate at the end of 2025.

Elsewhere in the blog post, Friar spent time addressing the company’s shifting goals, referencing plans to “close the distance between where intelligence is advancing and how individuals, companies, and countries actually adopt and use it.” As has become customary in the AI company press release genre, the CFO was also keen to tout the unending growth of the business, writing:

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

That latest figure has certainly set tongues in the tech world wagging, just as the company announced it would begin rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users. It also puts the chatbot giant a fair way ahead of competitors like Anthropic, the company behind Claude.

OpenAI Anthropic ARR race — Sherwood News

A business that scales with the value of intelligence

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

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