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Nate Becker

WSJ report: With CEO Musk’s attention diverted, Tesla’s board opened a search for his potential successor

With Elon Musk playing a big role in the government and Tesla’s stock dropping, the company’s board started thinking about who might be Tesla’s next CEO, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday night.

The report, citing anonymous sources, said Tesla board members reached out to “several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive” about a month ago.

Any change at the top of Tesla would be monumental, given that Musk is often cited as the reason the stock trades at a serious premium to its fundamentals. And frankly, the move reads like this might have been a scare tactic. The Journal’s report says: 

“Around that time, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update. Board members told him he needed to spend more time on Tesla, according to people familiar with the meeting. And he needed to say so publicly.

Musk didn’t push back.”

More from the Journal, which has gotten other notable scoops on the Tesla board, here:

“The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.”  

It seems pretty clear that if Musk were to be out at Tesla, the stock would drop. After all, investors and the board itself have been clamoring for more Musk, not less. 

It’s unclear whether it’s related, but just before the report published, Musk somewhat cryptically posted on X:

Hours after the report came out, Tesla posted on X:

Weird for a company that has a notorious record of not even replying to requests for comment to say “this was communicated to the media” beforehand! (As a reminder, another Musk-run company once staffed its press line with an auto-reply of a poop emoji.)

Typically, company statements like these are worded in very specific and nuanced ways. (Note that it took Tesla nearly 4.5 hours to publish a 68-word statement after the report came out.) That alone is worth attention, on top of the fact that the WSJ hasn’t changed its story since the statement was released.

Exclusive | Tesla Board Opened Search for a CEO to Succeed Elon Musk

Exclusive | Tesla Board Opened Search for a CEO to Succeed Elon Musk

Any change at the top of Tesla would be monumental, given that Musk is often cited as the reason the stock trades at a serious premium to its fundamentals. And frankly, the move reads like this might have been a scare tactic. The Journal’s report says: 

“Around that time, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update. Board members told him he needed to spend more time on Tesla, according to people familiar with the meeting. And he needed to say so publicly.

Musk didn’t push back.”

More from the Journal, which has gotten other notable scoops on the Tesla board, here:

“The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.”  

It seems pretty clear that if Musk were to be out at Tesla, the stock would drop. After all, investors and the board itself have been clamoring for more Musk, not less. 

It’s unclear whether it’s related, but just before the report published, Musk somewhat cryptically posted on X:

Hours after the report came out, Tesla posted on X:

Weird for a company that has a notorious record of not even replying to requests for comment to say “this was communicated to the media” beforehand! (As a reminder, another Musk-run company once staffed its press line with an auto-reply of a poop emoji.)

Typically, company statements like these are worded in very specific and nuanced ways. (Note that it took Tesla nearly 4.5 hours to publish a 68-word statement after the report came out.) That alone is worth attention, on top of the fact that the WSJ hasn’t changed its story since the statement was released.

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Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

tech
Rani Molla

Tesla used skewed data in push for European FSD approval, Reuters finds

Tesla has used highly questionable safety stats in an effort to win over European regulators and rekindle sales in the region, according to a Reuters investigation.

Tesla reportedly pitched regulators in Sweden and the Netherlands with claims that its Full Self-Driving (FSD) tech is over 7x safer than human drivers. However, independent researchers told Reuters that the stats are misleading because Tesla compares airbag-deployment crashes involving FSD-equipped vehicles with much broader US crash statistics, while also benchmarking newer Teslas against the entire US vehicle fleet, which is significantly older on average.

Despite the flawed metrics, the Dutch regulator approved FSD in April, saying its decision was based on its own “tests, analyses and verifications,” and Tesla is now pushing for EU-wide clearance. A version of FSD is currently available in five European markets.

Exclusive: Tesla presented misleading ‘Full Self-Driving’ safety data to European regulators

Exclusive: Tesla presented misleading ‘Full Self-Driving’ safety data to European regulators

Despite the flawed metrics, the Dutch regulator approved FSD in April, saying its decision was based on its own “tests, analyses and verifications,” and Tesla is now pushing for EU-wide clearance. A version of FSD is currently available in five European markets.

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Rani Molla

Report: Microsoft weighs Xbox spin-off amid major overhaul

Microsoft is reportedly considering spinning out or restructuring its struggling Xbox unit, per The Information. While new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who took over in February, is preparing for layoffs, she’s simultaneously planning to boost investment in its biggest franchises like “Halo,” “Fallout,” and “Minecraft.”

The latest potential shake-up comes as the gaming division battles major headwinds, following a massive 33% plunge in Q3 console sales and a recent move to slash Game Pass prices while removing new “Call of Duty” titles.

Microsoft Has Considered Spinning Out Xbox, Plans New ‘Halo,’ ‘Fallout’ Games

Microsoft Has Considered Spinning Out Xbox, Plans New ‘Halo,’ ‘Fallout’ Games

The latest potential shake-up comes as the gaming division battles major headwinds, following a massive 33% plunge in Q3 console sales and a recent move to slash Game Pass prices while removing new “Call of Duty” titles.

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