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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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Rani Molla
1/23/26
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Rani Molla

Amazon to lay off thousands more office workers on path to 30,000 cuts

Amazon plans to axe thousands of corporate workers next week, after laying off 14,000 back in October, according to Reuters. The new cuts could be “roughly the same” number as last time and may hit Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video, and human resources, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company plans to cut a total of 30,000 corporate positions as part of an effort to “streamline operations and reset its culture,” Business Insider reported separately, noting comments from CEO Andy Jassy, who said the earlier layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting.

Exclusive: Amazon plans thousands more corporate job cuts next week, sources say

Exclusive: Amazon plans thousands more corporate job cuts next week, sources say

The company plans to cut a total of 30,000 corporate positions as part of an effort to “streamline operations and reset its culture,” Business Insider reported separately, noting comments from CEO Andy Jassy, who said the earlier layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting.

Little Bay Beach

There are now more than 1 million “.ai” websites, contributing an estimated $70 million to Anguilla’s government revenue last year

Data from Domain Name Stat reveals that the top-level domain originally assigned to the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla passed the milestone in early January.

David Crowther, Claire Yubin Oh1/23/26
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Claire Yubin Oh

TikTok closes deal to operate in the US

TikTok has finally sealed its deal to establish a majority American-owned joint venture to manage its US operations.

On Friday, the social media company announced that its US arm will now be led by three “managing investors” — Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX, each with a 15% holding — while ByteDance retains 19.9% of the business, and a swath of other investors, including Michael Dell’s family office, round out the cap table.

The joint venture will be operated by a seven-person majority American board of directors, which includes TikTok CEO Shou Chew, with Adam Presser, previously TikTok’s head of operations, trust, and safety, as its CEO.

Though the valuation of the new venture has not been shared, Vice President JD Vance has previously cited the market value of TikTok’s US operations at about $14 billion, just topping Snap and lower than Pinterest.

The deal closes the platform’s battle, which kicked off in earnest in August 2020 when President Donald Trump first tried to ban TikTok over national security concerns. The announcement notes that the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will “secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm.” Trump celebrated the deal, which has been signed off by both the US and Chinese governments, per Reuters, in a Truth Social post, saying TikTok “will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World.”

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Rani Molla

Elon Musk says Tesla Robotaxis are operating without drivers, sending stock higher

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla’s Robotaxis are now operating in Austin without a safety monitor. Tesla has been testing driverless cars in the area for about a month, and Musk had previously said the company would remove safety drivers by the end of 2025.

It’s unclear how many exactly of the roughly 50 Robotaxis the company operates in the area don’t have drivers. Tesla is “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time,” Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI, posted shortly after Musk. Ethan McKenna, the person behind Robotaxi Tracker, estimates it’s two or three vehicles.

What is clear is that the move is good for Tesla’s stock, which is currently up 3.5%, extending its gains after Musk’s tweet. Morgan Stanley said yesterday that it considers the removal of safety drivers a “precursor to personal unsupervised FSD rollout.” Unsupervised Full Self-Driving is widely considered to be integral to the would-be autonomous company’s value proposition.

At the World Economic Forum earlier on Thursday, Musk said, “Self-driving cars is essentially a solved problem at this point.”

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