Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has issued a stark warning for investors, slashing his price targets for both Apple and Tesla in response to President Trump’s new tariff policy, which he says could heavily disrupt both companies. “The tariff economic Armageddon unleashed by Trump is a complete disaster for Apple given its massive China production exposure,” Ives wrote in a note over the weekend. “In our view, no U.S. tech company is more negatively impacted by these tariffs than Apple, with 90% of iPhones produced and assembled in China.” As a result, Wedbush has lowered its price target for Apple…
Author: Cooper
Drew Baglino, a former Tesla executive, is charting a new path with his startup Heron Power, which aims to revolutionize a long-overlooked component of the electrical grid — the transformer. According to Axios, the company is currently raising between $30 million and $50 million in its Series A funding round, led by Capricorn Investment Group. Baglino, who joined Tesla in 2006 and rose to become the Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy, played a key role in developing the original Model S powertrain and Tesla’s battery energy storage systems. He left the company in April 2024 during a major…
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is on a mission to restore the city’s former glory — and he believes the tech industry is key to that revival. Speaking at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event Thursday night, Lurie made a direct appeal to tech CEOs: “I’m calling entrepreneurs and saying, ‘How can we keep you here?’ or ‘How can we get you back?’” Tackling Homelessness and Drug Use Lurie said his top priority is tackling public safety issues and the homelessness crisis, which have driven many tech leaders and workers out of the city. In one notable step, Lurie recently ended a controversial…
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly organizing a hackathon next week with the ambitious goal of creating a “mega API” to streamline and centralize access to sensitive IRS data, according to a report by Wired. The event is being spearheaded by two DOGE-affiliated staffers embedded within the Internal Revenue Service — Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos, the latter of whom is also the CEO of healthtech company Levels. According to the Wired report, Corcos has described his vision as creating “one API to rule them all.” The envisioned API would allow cloud service providers and third-party platforms…
India has become one of the fastest-growing markets for ChatGPT, according to OpenAI. But despite the surge in adoption, turning that popularity into profit may be proving more difficult. As per data from analytics firm SensorTower, Indian users have spent roughly $8 million on ChatGPT subscriptions via in-app purchases since 2023. This doesn’t include payments made directly through the ChatGPT web app. Still, that figure pales in comparison to the $330 million estimated to have come from U.S. users over the same period. A key reason behind this disparity is the lack of localized pricing in India. OpenAI’s base subscription…
A recent academic study is adding fuel to the ongoing debate about whether OpenAI’s models were trained using copyrighted content — and whether that content was “memorized” without proper authorization. OpenAI is already facing lawsuits from authors, developers, and other copyright holders, who argue that their works — including novels, articles, and codebases — were used without consent to train large language models. While OpenAI maintains that such use falls under the fair use doctrine, plaintiffs argue U.S. law doesn’t support such claims for training data. The new study, conducted by researchers from the University of Washington, Stanford University, and…
To mark its 50th anniversary, Microsoft has given its AI assistant, Copilot, a major upgrade — and it’s now smarter and more hands-on than ever. Copilot can now take real actions on most websites, according to Microsoft. That means you can ask it to book tickets, reserve a table at a restaurant, or even send flowers — and it’ll try to get it done for you. This agent-like ability puts Copilot in the same league as tools like OpenAI’s Operator. The AI has also gained memory features, similar to ChatGPT, allowing it to remember your preferences — like your favorite…
Starting Monday, Meta will no longer employ any fact-checkers in the United States, as confirmed by the company’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan. This move is part of a broader shift in Meta’s content moderation policy, initially announced in January, which significantly rolled back enforcement practices. The decision comes shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, an event Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally attended after donating $1 million to the inauguration fund. Around the same time, Zuckerberg appointed UFC President Dana White, a longtime Trump ally, to Meta’s board of directors. “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping…
Google has officially revealed for its new AI powerhouse, Gemini 2.5 Pro, setting a new benchmark as the company’s most expensive and advanced AI model to date. Touted for its exceptional performance in coding, reasoning, and mathematics, Gemini 2.5 Pro supports prompts up to 200,000 tokens, enabling developers to input content longer than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Gemini 2.5 Pro Pricing Breakdown How It Stacks Up Against Competitors While Gemini 2.5 Pro is Google’s priciest model, it remains cheaper than some top-tier rivals like: It’s notably more expensive than: Demand Surging Despite Pricing Despite its premium cost,…
A protester disrupted Microsoft’s Copilot keynote presentation on Friday, voicing outrage over the company’s alleged involvement in providing AI tools to the Israeli military. “Shame on you,” the protester shouted. “You claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military… All of Microsoft has blood on its hands.” The interruption occurred during a speech by Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s Head of Consumer AI. Suleyman calmly acknowledged the protest, stating multiple times, “I hear your protest, thank you.” The Associated Press previously reported in February that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI were…
Tesla is facing an unprecedented spike in trade-ins across the U.S., driven by a combination of political backlash, public vandalism, and brand fatigue. As discontent with Elon Musk’s actions grows, competing automakers are rushing to capitalize on the shift in consumer sentiment. Lucid Motors, Volvo, and Ford have rolled out “conquest bonuses” — incentives designed to pull customers away from rival brands, especially Tesla. Polestar’s $5,000 incentive has already shown strong results. The company’s head of sales, Jordan Hofmann, shared on LinkedIn that the Polestar 3 saw some of its best sales days following the announcement. Interestingly, most of these…
After a brief pause in February, OpenAI has officially announced the upcoming release of its o3 reasoning model, along with a next-gen variant named o4-mini. According to a recent update by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, both models are expected to launch “in a couple of weeks.” This shift comes as the company works to perfect GPT-5 — the anticipated unified model that integrates reasoning, memory, and advanced tool use. Altman stated that while the new model’s performance is exceeding expectations, the integration process has proven more difficult than anticipated. “We are going to be able to make GPT-5 much…
Cognition, the startup behind the viral AI-powered coding assistant Devin, has launched a new affordable plan aimed at attracting more users. Devin gained traction on social media last year for its ability to handle certain software development tasks autonomously. While the tool initially struggled with complex coding jobs, it still received endorsements from high-profile figures, including Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, giving Cognition a significant visibility boost. Initially, Devin was priced at a steep $500 per month for team access. But on Thursday — shortly after Cognition reportedly raised hundreds of millions in fresh capital — the company unveiled…
Semiconductor titans Intel and TSMC are reportedly partnering in a groundbreaking joint venture, according to a report by The Information. The agreement, still tentative, will see the companies operate Intel’s chip manufacturing facilities under a new entity, with TSMC holding a 20% stake. Rather than contributing capital, TSMC will share its advanced chipmaking expertise and train Intel employees as part of the deal, signaling a strategic knowledge-sharing approach. This collaboration is said to have been influenced by the Trump administration, which aims to support Intel’s efforts to regain its position in the competitive semiconductor market. Internal sources say Intel executives…
Elon Musk has long been credited with transforming Tesla into a beacon of innovation, but his deepening ties to politics — particularly his alignment with President Trump — have cast a shadow over the automaker. As Musk takes an active role in federal matters, his image and actions are now directly impacting the Tesla brand. Tesla’s first-quarter 2025 performance underscored this downturn. The company reported 336,681 deliveries, a steep drop from 495,570 in Q4 2024 and 386,810 in Q1 2024. Musk’s recent decisions, including mass layoffs and backing the elimination of federal programs through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),…