SpaceX’s Nasdaq debut on June 12 made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire and turned thousands of employees into millionaires. In fact, according to an analysis by pre-IPO trading platform Hill.com cited by The New York Times, more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to hold stock worth at least $1 million, with roughly 400 holding stakes above $100 million. READ MORE
Kevin O'Leary warns China is winning the AI race because U.S. states are slowing data center production
As data center projects continue to get shut down across the country, "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary and other investors are warning that the facilities are needed to compete with China in the artificial intelligence race.
Data centers are at the forefront of the continued development of AI, serving as the hardware for the large amount of electricity and infrastructure needed to improve response time and data storage. But opponents cite utility costs to local residents and environmental concerns in their efforts to block development of new centers. READ MORE
Finally, a use for corporate bullshit
The other day, China’s Huawei tech giant told the world it was “building an AI data lake to break down data silos” and create “seamless co-ordination between stable online models and agile offline iterations”. Whatever that means.
Before that, the HTX crypto exchange reported the equally baffling news that it had “fortified its security moat while leveraging sharp market insights and rapid execution to consistently capture alpha returns”. READ MORE
AI isn’t killing jobs—copycat layoffs are
Blaming AI for mass layoffs has become common, as companies like Oracle, Meta and Amazon point to increased efficiencies and the need for new investments as reasons for slashing headcount. Yet, that narrative is facing increasing pushback. Industry analyst Josh Bersin, for instance, says companies are miscalculating by focusing on cost reduction over performance improvement, while Wharton’s Peter Cappelli recently wrote for HR Executive that most companies are choosing layoffs to fund data centers or manage financial troubles.
Nobel Prize-winning economic Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s DeepMind, an Alphabet subsidiary, has also chimed in. Cutting humans out of the workforce to make way for AI—instead of finding new opportunities for their talent—shows a “lack of imagination,” he recently said. READ MORE
Will Tesla Be Acquired by SpaceX?
Now that SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) has successfully gone public, there is speculation that the company could acquire fellow Elon Musk-back company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Prediction market Kalshi already places the odds of it happening before May 1, 2027, at 54%, while SpaceX President Gwynn Shotwell has also floated the idea, saying it "might make Elon's life a little easier."
The two companies already share resources and personnel and buy products from each other. This includes SpaceX buying nearly $700 million in Tesla Megapack energy storage systems in 2024 and 2025 and $131 million in Cybertrucks. They also have closely aligned boards, and Musk holds 85% of SpaceX's voting power. Musk is also set to develop a giant chip manufacturing facility in conjunction with Intel to produce AI chips for both Tesla and SpaceX. READ MORE
What has SpaceX become?
SpaceX had its initial public offering last week. Now Elon Musk is a trillionaire on paper. But what is SpaceX? On one level, of course, SpaceX is a company that builds rockets and spacecraft and launches them into space. (Occasionally the rockets explode.) It is also the company that birthed Starlink, a satellite-internet business that generated more than $11 billion in revenue last year. READ MORE
X tells 'neglected' Meta employees that it is hiring and will 'exceed any snack budget offer'
Two tech titans are now competing on another battlefield: Employee snacks.
Earlier this month, Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth said the company would be taking steps to improve employee morale after successive waves of layoffs and AI strategy pivots. One of those steps, he said in a memo, would be improving the snacks and drinks in its office kitchens. READ MORE
Why Uber is cutting nearly 1/4 of its HR team
Uber is eliminating 23% of the jobs in its People and Places division, which covers human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities and culture. The restructuring is designed to create a “more connected, modern, operationally excellent organization,” according to Jill Hazelbaker, who was promoted to president and chief corporate affairs officer of the ride-sharing service last month.
“As we’ve grown, parts of the organization have become too complex and fragmented, with overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership and teams operating too far from the businesses and partners they support,” she wrote in a memo to the affected employees. READ MORE
Workers turn to social media for AI training as employers lag
Most U.S. workers using AI on the job are not getting their training from their employer, according to new research. Instead, they are learning from social media, news articles and conversations with friends.
Nexthink data, drawn from 4.9 million sessions per day across 3.4 million employees, found GenAI users average 10 interactions a day and nearly four hours a week using these tools, and that they save roughly the same amount of time in return. READ MORE
'You can't handle the truth!' Microsoft staff push back on survey results.
After Microsoft released findings from its latest employee surveys, some workers took to an internal message board to question the results, according to comments viewed by Business Insider.
These employees wondered whether the surveyed had been watered-down, especially when it comes to issues around compensation at the software giant. READ MORE
Company-Wide Meeting Really Just For Phil (Satire)
Sources revealed that the company-wide meeting scheduled today for all SynerTech employees was, in actuality, just for Phil.
All sixty-five employees at regional software company SynerTech Solutions were summoned into a mandatory company-wide meeting, but every oddly specific issue raised was only something that Phil does. READ MORE
The Next Civilization Will Not Be Built on Ownership.
𝗜𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽. The most dangerous illusion of our economy is that ownership equals responsibility. It does not. We have built a civilization where the highest reward often goes to those who control the most, not to those who preserve the most. We call land an asset. We call knowledge intellectual property. We call infrastructure a revenue stream. We call nature a resource. We call attention inventory.
Then we act surprised when the world becomes exhausted, fragmented, polluted, over-monetized, and psychologically unstable. This is not just a failure of economics. It is a failure of civilizational design. A society based on ownership trains people to ask one primitive question: “What can I claim?” A more advanced civilization must ask a different question: “What am I qualified to care for?” READ MORE
Nvidia's new RTX Spark 'superchip' is designed to put AI power into laptops and desktops
Nvidia unveiled its long-rumored RTX Spark “superchip” during its Computex event in Taipei on Monday. Packing up to 128GB of memory, the chip is designed to allow power users to incorporate AI into their workflows. It aims to replace the traditional way users interact with their computers using a mouse and keyboard by instead allowing them to speak directly with an AI agent right on their local machine, instead of in the cloud.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the chip changes the personal computer from “tool to teammate.” “The PC is being reinvented,” said Huang. He said the Spark brings everything NVIDIA has built “into a single superchip. Local agents. Frontier models. Creative workflows. RTX games. All on a laptop. This is the new PC. The personal AI computer.” READ MORE
After the AI binge, companies balk at soaring bills
Artificial intelligence is getting expensive -- and companies are starting to rethink their embrace of the disruptive technology.
Playing by a well-worn Silicon Valley playbook, AI companies charged rock-bottom prices to hook customers after ChatGPT burst onto the scene. READ MORE
Big Banks Are Raking In Profits
Big banks’ profit engines are humming along even as geopolitics keep threatening to gum up the works.
Several of the nation’s largest lenders this week gave investors updates on how their businesses have fared in the second quarter, and the consensus was overwhelmingly positive. READ MORE
Not Sure Why Springsteen Thinks We Care About What He Thinks About Politics
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band returned to Nationals Park on Wednesday night on the penultimate date of the Land of Hope and Dreams American tour — an apt venue for a tour that has largely doubled as a political call to action against President Donald Trump and his administration. READ MORE
CEOs are losing confidence
The CEOs of the world's biggest companies lost confidence in the economy this month as the Iran war dragged on, a new survey finds.
Why it matters: Business leaders who lack confidence tend to pull back on hiring and investment, weighing further on the economy.
Zoom in: CEO confidence fell 12 points in the second quarter of the year to 47, per the survey from The Conference Board, a nonpartisan think tank, and The Business Council, an association of CEOs. READ MORE
Lockheed Martin CEO unveils AI-powered warfare tech built to stop drone swarms
A top U.S. defense contractor pulled back the curtain on next-generation AI-powered systems designed to hunt down and destroy swarms of enemy drones as the U.S. rapidly expands its next-generation warfighting capabilities.
"We are inserting technology of all types into our systems," Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet told FOX Business on Thursday, detailing the company's AI-powered counter-drone system, Sanctum.
Taiclet said the system uses artificial intelligence to detect incoming drones, determine whether they pose a threat and predict where they are headed before they can be intercepted or disabled. READ MORE
Elizabeth Warren calls for taxing AI industry to 'invest in people’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is advocating for targeting the artificial intelligence industry with taxes.
"It's time to tax AI and invest in people," the left-wing lawmaker asserted.
She has floated the prospect of taxing the energy consumed by AI data centers. READ MORE
AI sets up white-collar versus blue-collar jobs duel
In the new world of generative artificial intelligence, jobs have become a critical topic. A debate is being held on whether a large number of white-collar employees will find themselves out of work or if the seemingly unquenchable need for new data centers could keep phalanxes of people in skilled trades busy.
The truth is partly there, but the details are messy, according to various experts who spoke with GlobeSt.com. READ MORE