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Mark Zuckerberg's mega spending spree began a year ago, when he lured Alexandr Wang to oversee a new AI strategy. The results so far are underwhelming. View More

watch nowVIDEO2:3702:37One year in, big challenges ahead for Meta AI Chief Alexandr WangTech A year after spending over $14 billion to bring in Alexandr Wang and a group of his top Scale AI engineers to revamp its artificial intelligence efforts, Meta is at least back on the map in AI, though it's still far behind OpenAI, Anthropic and Google in the market. Wang's big accomplishment was the delivery of the Muse Spark AI model in April, marking Meta's first jump into proprietary foundation models and away from a strict adherence to open source, or open weight as it's more commonly called in AI. The group Wang leads — Meta Superintelligence Labs — was established to give the company some sizzle in the hottest corner of the tech industry. Now that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has his new model, it's on him to make it a financial success. That means showing the company can attract paying users for its AI tools, rather than just using the technology to enhance and bolster its core advertising business. "Meta needs to provide more proof points of both adoption and commercialization," said Ralph Schackart, an analyst at William Blair who recommends buying the stock. "Investors are looking for Meta to monetize a new AI-first product, beyond the substantial positive impact AI is having on enhancing the advertising models." Wall Street, at least so far, is unimpressed. Meta's stock is down 18% over the past 12 months, the worst performer in the megacap group, along with Microsoft, which has its own challenges in AI. That's even after Meta reported 33% revenue growth in the first quarter, the fastest rate of expansion for any period since 2021. For Meta, the problem started with what some industry experts called, in hindsight at least, a strategic blunder. The company jumped into AI with its Llama family of models, offering an open-source approach that allowed developers to freely tinker, while the other big model makers charged for access. VIDEO10:4510:45Watch CNBC's full interview with Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang In April of last year, Meta's release of Llama 4 fell flat, failing to captivate developers and leading Zuckerberg to reconsider his company's approach to AI development. Two months later, Zuckerberg shocked the tech world, announcing his company's $14.3 billion investment for roughly half of Scale AI and, more importantly, bringing over Wang and his top lieutenants. Wang's development and rollout of Muse Spark in April of this year got the ball rolling. Instead of focusing on third-party developers, the new model was designed to easily plug into Meta's apps like Facebook and Instagram as well as AI-powered devices like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, said Thomas Randall, an analyst at the Info-Tech Research Group. That's on top of the standalone Meta AI app and site. "There'll be a lot of these frontier model providers that will fundamentally change in lots of different ways, and Meta needs to have a consistent, reliable proprietary model that they themselves own," Randall said. He added that Meta would be "lost" if Zuckerberg didn't open his wallet for Wang and other big-name AI hires over the past year, in what Randall called a "strategic rebuild" for the company.Randall said Meta hasn't taken the "most optimized route," but at least "I can now see a vision for what they're trying to achieve and what Wang has been trying to achieve," he said. Since the release of Muse Spark, Meta has unveiled new AI and business-related subscription plans as part of an effort to expand its business beyond online ads. Historically, it hasn't worked. Meta still counts on ads for 98% of revenue.Schackart said he wants to see "tangible evidence of a growing list of new, AI-first products created by Muse Spark, even if monetization lags." He said that's "what investors are looking for." The developer problem No matter how good Wang's model may be, Zuckerberg has a high hill to climb with developers coming off the Llama debacle."I think the AI community largely ignores Meta at this point," said Rob May, CEO of the startup Neurometric, which works in the realm of token engineering.May said it's hard to gauge how much success Wang has had leading MSL, because the company has thus far only released one AI model, which he characterized as a "yawn" among the AI community since the technology is not widely accessible.Although Meta was heavily courting third-party developers with Llama, May said the company's efforts under Wang seem geared toward internal uses. May said he used to be in regular touch with Meta for Llama-related issues, but now said he "can't get them to return messages." May admits that it makes sense for Meta to focus on AI for its core ad products, because the company has a $200 billion a year business to protect. "That company has built the machine," he said. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks as he presents the new Meta Ray-Ban Display at the 2025 Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 17, 2025.Benjamin Legendre | AFP | Getty Images Andrew Moore, the CEO of enterprise startup Lovelace and former Google Cloud AI chief, said it's not too late for Meta to find a lane. Meta has focused on making its models more efficient through training techniques. Moore said that could be a major differentiator among developers worried about the rising costs of foundation models."If they do proprietary, computationally efficient models, that will be so different from what's happening in this death match between the big guys," Moore said. "They might really benefit."Moore added that Meta has to show an advantage somewhere, whether it be on cost, latency or other technical nuances that matter to developers. Krish Subramanian, the CEO of consulting firm KOI AI and former product head at IBM Consulting, said developers are more excited about Google's AI models than what Meta is offering. The appeal of Llama was that it specifically targeted developers wanting open-weight alternative models, while with Muse Spark, Meta has made little effort in that direction, he said. "The lack of developer trust will come back to hit them if they don't focus on third-party developers," Subramanian said, noting that it took years for Microsoft to regain trust from open-source coders during the early days of Azure."To just focus on a walled-garden kind of an ecosystem and ad revenue as the main source of income, they probably will never become the big player," he said. Buck stops with Zuck A Meta spokesperson pointed to Wang's recent comments about the company's continued support for the open-source ecosystem, and said Meta still plans to offer outside developers access to Muse Spark's underlying technology via an API, as it previously announced."We're already testing with some early partners, and look forward to releasing it this month," the spokesperson said.In addition to the challenges with developers, there's slumping morale. Meta has been slashing jobs throughout the year, and in May fired about 8,000 workers. The cuts spanned departments, including teams working in roles related to trust and safety, which has raised concerns about potential problems that can arise in AI development, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named in order to speak candidly on the subject. Meta declined to comment about the layoffs. Regarding safety-related issues, the spokesperson pointed to comments from Wang on the matter. He told the Core Memory podcast last month that, "One of the things that is very important to me is safety for these models." There's also tension at the top of the AI organization. Although the Muse Spark release received high marks internally, there's pressure on Wang along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, who also joined last summer as part of the AI spending spree, to deliver meaningful revenue growth from the model and future releases, sources with knowledge of the matter said. Meta tech chief Andrew Bosworth, a 20-year company veteran, is a close confidant of Zuckerberg's and someone the CEO could turn to for a bigger role in AI if the newcomers are perceived as failing, the sources said. On the May podcast, Wang dismissed any reported internal conflicts. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., left, and Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer and head of Reality Labs, wear Meta Ray-Ban Display AI glasses during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Wang has called Muse Spark an "appetizer" for what's to come, and said there will be more powerful, "larger models."But the AI community is used to a steady stream of updates and new features. That's what they get from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. "What I care about is the frequency of the launches and the cadence," said Howard Yu, a business professor at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. "When you launch something, can you build upon that momentum?"Randall of the Info-Tech Research Group said it's ultimately up to Zuckerberg to determine that strategy and to show "how much of a superpower they are now with all of their products."Yu agreed. "This is really about leadership, right?" he said, noting that at tech companies in particular, the CEO defines and articulates the vision, especially when it involves spending billions of dollars. That Zuckerberg's metaverse and virtual reality ambitions have generated over $80 billion in total losses since late 2020 makes the AI pitch a tougher sell, Yu said."He's running out of the space for his credibility to last," Yu said. "I think the virtual reality foray may have burned up a lot of his goodwill in front of investors."WATCH: Meta is 'tone deaf' watch nowVIDEO3:3103:31'Meta is tone-deaf', says Hightower's Stephanie Link on selling half of her positionClosing Bell Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Trump Accounts come with free money for some children, but it may not be enough to reduce the wealth gap, some experts say. View More

Marco VDM | Getty Images Trump Accounts have the potential to build long-term financial security for millions of U.S. children; however, some experts say they may not do much to reduce the wealth gap over time. The tax-deferred investing accounts, which will launch on July 4, include a one-time $1,000 deposit from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for kids born between 2025 and 2028. Other funds may also be available for qualifying families.The money in Trump Accounts will be invested in U.S. stock funds, with a goal of kick-starting wealth-building opportunities from a very young age."All the money that goes into these accounts will be invested in the best 500 companies in America. They will be direct shareholders," Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner, who helped spearhead the Trump administration's new savings initiative, said in a May 28 interview on CNBC's "Halftime Report." "We're going to get all the people who have felt left out and left behind," Gerstner said. Read more CNBC personal finance coverageTrump Accounts create a 'legal backdoor' for Roth IRA wealth, tax attorney saysSocial Security retirement trust fund may be depleted in 2032: Trustees reportCollege sticker prices top $100,000 at 16 schools — but many students pay lessHow to get SpaceX stock — without buying the IPOCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked When it comes to wealth-building opportunities, particularly investing in the stock market, many families miss out. The top 10% of Americans hold more than 87% of corporate equities and mutual fund shares, data from the Federal Reserve shows. So far, families have signed up nearly 6 million children for Trump Accounts, the Treasury Department said in late May. For perspective, that is roughly 40% of all eligible children, according to Madeline Brown, senior policy associate at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank."So the question leading into July, when money will actually get deposited, is whether low-income families, low-wealth families and those without means to invest on behalf of their children are in the group who have signed up or the larger group that hasn't," she said. Grant money is a major incentive For some, claiming the initial grant is the draw, but other funds may also be available, depending on certain criteria. Children 10 or under and born before Jan. 1, 2025 — who wouldn't qualify for the $1,000 contribution — could get $250 in their accounts if they live in a ZIP code where the median income is $150,000 or less, courtesy of a $6.25 billion pledge from tech CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan. That money is specifically geared toward lower-income families, they said, although only about 3% of ZIP codes have median incomes above $150,000, according to a CNBC analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.A growing number of companies have also pledged to match the accounts' $1,000 Treasury deposit for children of employees, and philanthropists in multiple states have committed to additional gifts for certain qualifying families. Tax filing tie-in leaves some families out However, because signing up for a Trump Account requires two steps — first filing IRS Form 4547 with a 2025 tax return or via TrumpAccounts.gov, followed by the activation process — overall participation rates, especially among low-income families, may be low, according to a research report by the Urban Institute."The decision to link enrollment primarily to tax filing leaves out children who will need it most: A substantial share of low-income households owe no federal income tax, and many of them do not file at all," the report said. Opt-in 'creates friction' Experts say automatic enrollment, rather than requiring families to opt in, is the only way to guarantee widespread Trump Account participation across all income levels. "In any of these programs, you are looking for a frictionless experience, and anything that creates friction will reduce engagement in the program," said Brown.  "If social program administrators in general, and universal savings account administrators in particular, have learned anything in recent decades, it is the importance of automatic enrollment," Nina Olson, executive director and founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, wrote in a January letter to the Treasury Department. "A program that requires manual opt-in, no matter how frictionless, will struggle to achieve even majority adoption."If the Treasury automatically established the accounts for all eligible participants, it could go a long way toward determining how many children — particularly from lower-income families — enrolled and benefited from the grant money, according to an earlier analysis by the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit forum. Investment gap is likely to persist Even among those who have already opened a Trump Account on behalf of a child, family contributions will also vary sharply by income, which could compound disparities over time and concentrate the benefits among higher-income households, other experts also say."A wealthy family could build a $150,000 nest egg by the time their child turns 30. Meanwhile, a child from a low-income family is likely to be left with about $2,500," Connecticut's state treasurer, Erick Russell, said in a 2025 statement. TrumpAccounts.gov projections indicate that accounts could grow to $15,000 by the beneficiary's late 20s, assuming there are no further contributions beyond the Treasury's seed money. That's compared with $742,000 if parents also contributed the $5,000 maximum each year. These estimates are based on U.S. stock market returns of over 10%.Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 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The Kevin Warsh era is upon us. View More

The SpaceX IPO is behind us. The earnings calendar is mostly quiet. Taking center stage is the state of play between the U.S. and Iran and the first Federal Reserve meeting with Chairman Kevin Warsh in charge. Here's a closer look at what we're watching in the holiday-shortened trading week ahead. 1. Iran war: Are we finally getting a peace deal to end the fighting and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz? It's become hard to follow all the back-and-forth on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. One day, reports suggest Washington and Tehran are making progress on a resolution. The next day, we're hearing about a fresh round of strikes. Sometimes, the tenor changes within a matter of hours — as it did Thursday. Before the opening bell, President Donald Trump said the U.S. was going to hit Iran "very hard tonight," with plans to soon seize Iranian oil infrastructure. That muted some of the stock market's gains in morning trading. By the afternoon, Trump had called off the upcoming attack and claimed a settlement with Iran was just awaiting the "finalization of documents." Oil prices tumbled, and the stock market ripped higher into the close. Friday brought another batch of encouraging headlines, and on Saturday, Trump said an agreement will be signed Sunday. However, Iranian state media cast doubt on the timing, though it said one could be reached in the coming days. Our ultimate conclusion: Day trading the Iran war remains a fool's errand because it's impossible to really predict what the next headline will be. The latest headline can be used to make a move, such as trimming a stock that soared on optimism about a resolution or adding to a position unfairly dinged by negative news. We just can't know for sure what will happen next. At the same time, we cannot leave the market because a big move higher could be around the corner if an agreement materializes that results in the Strait of Hormuz reopening to maritime traffic. That should bring relief to oil prices and, by extension, ease some of the inflationary pressures hitting the U.S. economy since the war broke out Feb. 28. The point is, the market will be influenced by the apparent status of negotiations. We're hopeful a deal materializes, but recent history tells us we must brace for fits and starts. 2. Fed meeting: The Warsh era is upon us. With inflation way above the Fed's 2% target and the labor market solid , the central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday afternoon. This is one of the four Fed meetings each year when the central bank releases its Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) — home to the so-called dot plot of rate expectations and projections for GDP growth, unemployment, and inflation. In a note to clients Friday, Bank of America economists wrote, "The SEP should show higher inflation, a lower [unemployment] rate, and no cuts this year. A few policymakers will likely project hikes. We don't think Warsh will submit forecasts." These outlooks are only a snapshot in time, and we generally don't read too much into them. That's arguably even more true now, considering the unpredictable war and oil prices will heavily influence the Fed's moves in the coming months. The main event comes at 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, when Warsh, who succeeded Jerome Powell on May 22 , holds his first post-meeting press conference. CNBC's longtime Fed correspondent Steve Liesman summed up all the intrigue perfectly in a story Friday morning : Markets head into the first Fed meeting run by new Chair Kevin Warsh with almost no idea what he thinks about the recent surge in job growth, the acceleration in inflation or the path of interest rates. And that may be by design. Warsh has pledged to lead "a reform-oriented Federal Reserve," which may include changes to the way the Fed communicates with markets. At his Senate confirmation hearing in April, Warsh didn't commit to maintaining the Powell standard of holding a news conference after each of the eight policy meetings each year. That's the context for Warsh taking questions from the press on Wednesday afternoon. This is the market's real first chance to hear from Warsh at the helm, and it's possible they will be less frequent going forward. Does Warsh believe the oil-driven spike in inflation warrants tighter policy from the Fed, or is it worth looking through as essentially a one-off supply shock? As Jim Cramer said last week, the spike in inflation is, in some sense, "artificial" and a resolution to the war should help turn the tide — a view that would support holding off on any hikes. To be sure, the European Central Bank raised rates last week , the first major central bank to do so in response to the war. Warsh may also field questions on whether he's seeing any impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market and the economy overall. In the past, he's said he believes AI will be a disinflationary force. 3. Economic data: There are a few notable economic reports to keep an eye on. On the consumer front, the May retail sales report is out on Wednesday. With private consumption representing about two-thirds of U.S. GDP, consumer health is crucial to the economy. The May nonfarm payrolls report told us that folks are still working and collecting paychecks. The retail sales report will indicate consumers' willingness to spend their paychecks and how they're allocating their dollars. While a strong report would certainly be a welcome sign for our own retail holdings — namely, TJX Companies , Amazon , and Costco — a weak report would not automatically be a bad sign for these particular companies. We own their stocks because they have the scale and business models that enable them to offer compelling value to consumers. So, when consumers feel the burden of rising prices, overall retail spending may soften, but it tends to concentrate on names that offer the best value. As of Friday, economists are looking for a 0.5% month-over-month gain, according ot FactSet. The housing market will also be in the spotlight this week. We're big believers that housing punches well above its weight in the U.S. economy, given all the associated goods and services that come with purchasing a home. For the Club specifically, the housing market is also a key factor in determining the outcome of our investment in Home Depot . We'll get May housing starts on Tuesday and May pending home sales on Wednesday. These are important reports to watch because any signs of increased market supply will provide some relief for list prices; however, until mortgage rates come down, it will be hard to generate sustained momentum in the housing market. The war-related spike in inflation has increased bond yields, which ultimately impact mortgage rates. On homebuilder Lennar 's earnings call on Friday, CEO Stuart Miller effectively summarized what makes the housing market such a tough nut to crack right now. It's worth reading at length: "The macro economy has grown more complex since the first quarter earnings call... First, mortgage interest rates have remained stubbornly elevated in the mid-to-upper 6% range throughout our second quarter. The 30-year fixed rate sits between 6.4% and 6.5% today, modestly better than a year ago, where rates were closer to 7%, but still at a level that keeps affordability challenged. At 6.5%, the buyer at the median family income is spending above 30% of gross income on their housing needs. Buyers are stretching and our incentives are enabling purchase... The inflation picture has also become more complicated. The May CPI report released recently showed headline inflation at 4.2% year-over-year, up from 3.8% in April and the highest reading since early 2023. The primary driver was energy as gasoline prices increased 7% in May and are up over 40% year-over-year, driven by disruptions to oil supply tied to the Iran conflict. While this is possibly just an energy-driven spike as core CPI came in at 2.9% and actually decelerated on a monthly basis, higher energy prices touch every part of the American household budget and tend to depress consumer confidence. When families see gasoline at the pump and electricity bills climb, their willingness to make major financial commitments, including purchasing a home, moderates even when their underlying desire to own has not changed. This inflation backdrop most likely has taken the Federal Reserve off the table as a near-term source of relief... On the employment side, the economy remains solid on the surface, but consumer psychology is being affected by anxieties about the long-term security of jobs at a time of rapid technology change. The advance of artificial intelligence is raising questions about the future of employment across a wide range of the workforce. We see this in buyer behavior. Traffic is inconsistent, intent is high, but urgency to close is still measured and deliberate rather than confident and energized." The takeaway: As much as we're watching this week's housing reports, those selling homes make it clear that the real indicators will be energy prices and the resulting impact on interest rates. Lastly, we'll get an update on the state of the manufacturing economy Monday morning, with the release of the May industrial production and capacity utilization report. As of Friday, economists polled by FactSet are looking for a modest 0.2% monthly increase in industrial production, with capacity utilization at 76.2%, suggesting the industrial sector is operating at a decent pace. Week ahead Monday, June 15 Industrial production and capacity utilization at 9:15 a.m. ET Before the bell: Canopy Growth (CGC) After the bell: Dave & Buster's (PLAY) Tuesday, June 16 Housing starts at 8:30 a.m. ET Before the bell: No reports of note After the bell: La-Z-Boy (LZB) Wednesday, June 17 Retail sales at 8:30 a.m. ET Pending home sales at 10 a.m. ET Investing Club Monthly Meeting at noon ET Fed decision at 2 p.m. ET Chair Kevin Warsh press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET Before the bell: Progressive (PGR), Jabil (JBL), CarMax (KMX) After the bell: No reports of note Thursday, June 18 Initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET Before the bell: Kroger (KR), Accenture (ACN) After the bell: No reports of note Friday, June 19 The U.S. stock market is closed for the Juneteenth holiday (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

SpaceX and Google have a long and complicated relationship, but they were both celebrating this week after Elon Musk's company held its blockbuster IPO. View More

SpaceX founder Elon Musk jumps for joy at a gathering after NASA commercial crew astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blast off aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bound for the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 30, 2020.Jonathan Newton | The Washington Post | Getty Images In Elon Musk's telling of the story, his friendship with Google co-founder Larry Page soured in June 2015, at the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's 44th birthday party. There, Page reportedly called Musk a "speciesist" for saying he favored humans over future digital life forms. That happened while they were discussing the terrifying potential of artificial intelligence. With Musk's 55th birthday just weeks away, and SpaceX having just completed the largest IPO in history, he and Page are the two wealthiest people in the world. Musk's net worth has ballooned past $1 trillion, and Page is far behind at just under $300 billion. Sergey Brin, Google's other co-founder, is third.The rift may never be repaired, but Musk's companies are more closely intertwined with Google than ever. Thanks to Google's $900 million investment in SpaceX in 2015, the year of the infamous birthday party, the search giant owns roughly 4.9% of Musk's reusable rocket maker, which is now trying to become a major player in AI.Just ahead of its IPO, SpaceX announced that it would be leasing AI infrastructure to Google for $920 million a month over the course of 32 months. The deal could bring $30 billion in revenue to SpaceX's challenged AI business, and was touted by SpaceX bulls heading into the IPO.In the 11 years since the relationship between Musk and Page frayed, their worlds have collided on countless occasions, and their businesses have partnered and competed with each other. Here are five developments over the past decade-plus that cemented their bond, for better or worse:Musk starts OpenAI to take on Google DeepMindIn 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, who was running startup incubator Y Combinator. Musk had the explicit goal of creating a "counterweight" to Google DeepMind, a dominant AI research lab.It was the same year that Google invested $900 million in SpaceX.In messages that would come out in court years later, Musk told Altman that if left unchallenged, Google could wield monopolistic control over one of the world's most powerful technologies. Musk also took more direct aim at Google, recruiting AI researcher Ilya Sutskever away from DeepMind to OpenAI.Sustkever was credited with co-founding OpenAI and with research breakthroughs that enabled the development of the company's blockbuster AI models and flagship product, ChatGPT. He later left to start Safe Superintelligence, which became a Google Cloud customer in 2025.Musk follows Google's lead in self-driving cars watch nowVIDEO6:0806:08Waymo, Tesla robotaxi face-offSquawk on the Street Google started up its autonomous vehicle division, now known as Waymo, in 2009. At the time, Tesla was taking orders for the forthcoming Model S, a fully electric sedan that it had not yet begun to manufacture. Fast forward to October 2020, when Musk was ratcheting up his self-driving promises at Tesla. He started bashing Waymo in posts on Twitter, suggesting Tesla had a more powerful system in the works.Since then, Musk has repeatedly slammed Waymo for its reliance on the lidar sensors its robotaxis use to navigate and avoid obstacles. Tesla's self-driving systems, still in development, primarily rely on cheaper cameras.Waymo is now running a fleet of thousands of robotaxis in the U.S., providing more than 500,000 paid trips each week across 11 cities. Tesla has only about 50 Robotaxi-branded vehicles operating mostly in Austin, Texas, according to public records.While Tesla's driver assistance systems have become more sophisticated over time, the company does not yet sell the "FSD (Unsupervised)" systems that it says will someday make its vehicles safe to use without a human supervisor at the wheel, ready to steer or brake as needed.SpaceX becomes key Google Cloud customerIn 2021, as Google was working hard to take cloud infrastructure market share from bigger rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, the company notched a big win, inking a deal with SpaceX to help the company run its Starlink satellite internet service.SpaceX had about 1,500 Starlink satellites in orbit at that time, and around 500,000 subscribers to its offering.The company would use Google's private fiber-optic network to quickly make connections to cloud services as part of a deal that was set to last about 7 years, sources told CNBC at the time."The power of combining cloud with universal secure connectivity, it's a very powerful combination," Bikash Koley, who was then Google's head of global networking and now oversees global infrastructure, said in the announcement. Alleged affairNot all the Google-related drama was about Page. In December 2021, Musk had an affair with Brin's ex-wife, Nicole Shanahan, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2022. It took place during Art Basel in Miami.The report said that Brin filed for divorce shortly after learning of the alleged affair. After the news broke, Musk denied claims about any romantic involvement with Shanahan. He also disputed the rift with Brin by posting a selfie that he took at a San Francisco party, where Brin is seen laughing with attendees near Musk. Walter Isaacson wrote, in his authorized biography of Musk, that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO had "maneuvered himself into a position where he could take a selfie with Brin, which Brin tried to avoid."In a 2023 People Magazine interview, Shanahan denied the affair but said the allegations had resulted in a "debilitating" aftermath for her. She soon linked up with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., becoming his running mate for an unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign. Kennedy now serves as President Donald Trump's health secretary.Role reversal in cloudEarlier this month, SpaceX became the cloud provider to Google. SpaceX announced a deal to rent AI compute capacity to Google at $920 million per month for about 32 months. A Google Cloud spokesperson told CNBC the deal was made "to ensure we have bridge capacity to meet surging customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which has been even higher than we expected."SpaceX said in filings that Google can end the agreement "after a one-month grace period," if SpaceX fails to deliver the requisite amount of AI chips by Sept. 30. After this year, the agreement can be terminated by either party with 90 days notice.For some investors, the deal boosted SpaceX's AI story, showing it could generate returns on earlier capital expenditures required to build out the company's Colossus data centers in and around Memphis, Tennessee. The announcement came just before the SpaceX IPO. Alphabet's 4.9% of SpaceX, as of the close of trading on Friday, was worth more than $100 billion, making it Google's most lucrative private market bet.WATCH: SpaceX surges after historic IPO watch nowVIDEO4:3104:31SpaceX soars after biggest IPO ever. Here's how experts are reactingRapid Recap Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Embassy Developments Managing Director Aditya Virwani said, "We will be stepping up investment on construction activities this fiscal to ?1,800-2,000 crore View More

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After its Nasdaq debut on Friday, SpaceX was the sixth most-valuable U.S. company, despite being a fraction the size by revenue of tech's megacaps. View More

In this articleNDAQSPCXFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT A video displays Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, after the company's initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on June 12, 2026.Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Shortly before the opening of Nasdaq trading on Friday, Elon Musk stepped in front of a cheerful crowd at SpaceX's company town in Texas. His rocket maker was about to hit the public market at a valuation of around $2 trillion, instantly becoming the sixth most-valuable U.S. company. Musk, weeks shy of his 55th birthday, told staffers that, in the early days of the company, he gave it "less than 10% chance of succeeding.""If people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack," said Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 and has grown it to 22,000 full-time employees. "Because I think this company is going to fail." Musk is now the world's first trillionaire after his company pulled off the largest IPO on record, raising $75 billion, an amount roughly triple size of the next-biggest U.S. offering, which was Alibaba's in 2014. There are 10 U.S. companies worth at least $1 trillion. Musk runs two of them. Whatever uncertainty Musk professed to have felt when SpaceX was getting off the ground, he showed none of that in the days leading up to the IPO. In an abbreviated roadshow, SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 and told investors to take it or leave it. There was no price range used to gauge demand and no haggling with prospective shareholders. That's despite SpaceX having a fraction the revenue of any of tech's megacaps and racking up a $4.9 billion loss last year, with total losses since its founding of over $41 billion. After the stock's close on Friday, SpaceX was worth $2.1 trillion, giving it a multiple of 112 times last year's revenue. "This was not a deal that was priced based on market forces," said Lloyd Greif, an investment banker with Greif & Co. in Los Angeles. "This was a deal based on what one man wanted. And when one man wants it, one man gets it, if that one man is Elon Musk." watch nowVIDEO5:3805:38Over 80% chance SpaceX merges with Tesla in a year: Wedbush's IvesFast Money Meanwhile, all of those mentions of trillions and the trillionaire added fuel to the discourse surrounding wealth disparity as consumers deal with crippling inflation due largely to the war in Iran. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, wrote on social media that Musk's new status is a "call to action to take on the unprecedented income and wealth inequality that now exists." And California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X, which is owned by SpaceX, that, "Americans are struggling to pay for groceries and gas while Elon Musk becomes a TRILLIONAIRE."Beyond the money, there are the AI concerns. Safe AI Now, a group of tech and faith leaders, erected an inflatable effigy of a shirtless Musk in Times Square seeking to draw attention to the company's poor AI safety track record. None of that dampened the mood on Wall Street, which has been desperate to see new offerings after a historically slow period of IPOs dating back to late 2021. In closing the day up 19% and consistently holding well above the offer price, SpaceX's IPO lifted confidence in potential deals later this year from artificial intelligence model giants OpenAI and Anthropic, which are each valued at close to $1 trillion on the private market. Former Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld said he "would definitely bet" that OpenAI and Anthropic will go public in 2026. Both companies announced this month that they confidentially filed IPO paperwork. Making Facebook's IPO look small More than 500 million SpaceX shares changed hands throughout the day on Friday, a number approaching Facebook's market debut in 2012, when roughly 580 million shares were traded. Facebook's IPO set a record at the time, raising $16 billion. At the end of its first day of trading, Facebook was worth about $100 billion, or one-twentieth SpaceX's current market cap. One big similarity between the two companies is that they're founder controlled. But even there, SpaceX is on another level. At the time of Facebook's IPO, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had the ability to control 56% of the voting power. For Musk at SpaceX, that number is above 82%. Musk is certainly not alone in seeing a financial windfall from SpaceX's IPO. The offering pushed Alphabet's stake past the $100 billion mark, after the company invested about $900 million in SpaceX in 2015. Valor Equity Partners, run by longtime Musk pal Antonio Gracias, is sitting on a stake worth over $80 billion, mostly owned by the firm's clients. In addition to the institutional investors, the IPO reportedly minted some 4,400 millionaires among the ranks of current and former SpaceX employees. watch nowVIDEO4:0304:03IPO window is open thanks to SpaceX, says former Nasdaq CEO Robert GreifeldClosing Bell The stock sale was led by Wall Street heavyweights Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, along with help from Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and a long roster of other big banks and boutique firms. Underwriters gained access to additional shares, or their greenshoe overallotment, on one colorful condition. "Only if the bankers all wore green shoes," venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who invested in SpaceX in 2009, wrote in a post on X. Jurvetson included a photo of green and white Nike sneakers decorated with the company's logo.Throughout the morning, some of Musk's top investors and good friends joined CNBC to talk about the historic event. Gracias was one of the guests.The Valor founder and CEO said he met Musk more than 20 years ago through mutual friend David Sacks, a venture capitalist who until recently served as President Donald Trump's AI and crypto czar. Gracias said he invested in PayPal "in the old days," when Musk and Sacks were among the founding crew, and put early money into Tesla and SpaceX. In both cases, he said his firm worked "on hard problems to try and help these companies succeed."Gracias' relationship with Musk extends beyond business. He spent some time last year working with Musk as part of the Trump Administration's DOGE effort to slash the federal workforce, regulations and government spending. Gracias also previously sat on the boards of Tesla and other Musk companies. As for SpaceX, Gracias said he plans to hold onto the stock "as long as I possibly can."Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, whose firm invested in SpaceX in 2019, called Musk a "generational entrepreneur," likening his planned delivery of the Starship launch vehicle to the introduction of railroads. He said he was confident the company could be generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue in 2030.Maguire said Sequoia will distribute some shares to investors "if we feel like the valuation is way ahead of its skis," but said that, "as an individual, I'm going to hold my shares forever." 'Heavily dependent on Starship' Skeptics of SpaceX's lofty valuation questioned the logic of it all. The company counts on its Starlink satellite internet service for the bulk of its revenue and it's the only profitable part of the business. But investors don't pay historically high multiples for broadband service, no matter how good it is. The space launch division is burning cash and is counting on the Starship rocket to scale to much better economics than the Falcon fleet. And the AI unit, which came in through the acquisition of Musk's xAI, is currently a money pit that's pivoted to leasing out massive amounts of capacity to the likes of Anthropic and Google. Financial research firm CFRA gave SpaceX a sell rating and price target of $115, minutes after the company's Nasdaq debut. Analysts said SpaceX has "elevated valuation expectations," and living up to them would require proving the viability of Starship, expanding Starlink, generating returns from AI infrastructure, and eventually producing consistent free cash flows."Our primary concern is that SpaceX's long-term strategy remains heavily dependent on Starship," CFRA analyst Keith Snyder wrote in a note to clients, saying that the Starship rocket could be a "bottleneck" for various SpaceX initiatives.Then there's SpaceX's stated $28.5 trillion total addressable market across space, connectivity and AI. That figure doesn't include other literal moonshots like space tourism, asteroid mining or manufacturing in orbit. Nor does it include transportation to Mars.Aswath Damodaran, a New York University finance professor, told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Friday that seeing the addressable market figure SpaceX provided made him think the prospectus was written by Grok, the xAI chatbot, rather than a banker."This is a hallucination," Damodaran said. "I would be embarrassed to even put that number out." Maguire, a Musk permabull, said he stands by the projection."I would even argue it's an underestimate," he said. SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell celebrates with family and other SpaceX employees at the Nasdaq Marketsite in in New York after the SpaceX initial public offering on June 12, 2026.Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images While Musk is the face of SpaceX, getting to this point has a lot to do with the work of Gwynne Shotwell, the company's operating chief and one of its first employees. In an exclusive interview with CNBC ahead of the IPO, Shotwell responded to a question about whether her boss would ever combine SpaceX with Tesla. It's a potential transaction that's long been rumored about, even more since Musk merged SpaceX with xAI after previously doing the same with xAI and X. Shotwell, whose stake in SpaceX is now worth over $2 billion, didn't dismiss the possibility, but made clear that it's not on her priority list. "There's no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures," Shotwell told CNBC's Morgan Brennan at Starbase. "There's a convergence of what we're all trying to accomplish in the future, but right now I'm focused on keeping the lights on here, keeping rockets in production, flying rockets, flying people, getting to the International Space Station, and critically providing broadband to folks that don't have access."Musk, for his part, spent a fair amount of time on Friday appearing to relish the moment. As his company's IPO was dominating the news cycle, Musk was active on social media, mostly reposting messages, videos and photos from supporters touting his company's success. He didn't write much, but he did have one message he wanted to share on X."I love the incredible people of SpaceX beyond words," he wrote.WATCH: Cramer: Never has an IPO captivated Wall Street as much as SpaceX watch nowVIDEO2:1802:18Cramer: Never has an IPO captivated Wall Street as much as SpaceXMad Money with Jim Cramer Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

In 2018, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk indirectly debated a key question that persists for modern investors. View More

In this articleBRK.BGOOGLGOOGBRK.BFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT (This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.) MOATS VS. MOONSHOTS The critical Buffett-Musk debateNewly minted trillionaire Elon Musk knows a lot about rockets, electric cars, and posting messages on social media.In 2018, however, Warren Buffett questioned whether Musk knew as much as he should about "moats," the term Buffett had been using for years to describe an enduring competitive advantage, often a strong brand with a favorable "share of mind," that allows a company to remain reliably profitable over time. It started in early May during Tesla's quarterly earnings conference call.An investor asked Musk why Tesla was willing to open its extensive network of Superchargers to vehicles made by competitors: "I feel like the charging infrastructure you guys have built would take years and millions of dollars for another brand to replicate, so I'm just curious about the strategic thinking behind opening that up versus keeping it closed."Musk replied, "First of all, I think moats are lame. It's nice, sort of quaint in a vestigial way. If your only defense against invading armies is a moat, you will not last long. What matters is the pace of innovation. That is the fundamental determinant of competitiveness."At the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting a few days later, Buffett conceded, "Elon may turn things upside down in some areas," but quipped, "I don't think he'd want to take us on in candy."Musk then seemed to take up the challenge, posting he was "super super serious" about starting a candy company.Becky Quick asked Buffett about it all when he appeared live on CNBC two days after the meeting. watch nowVIDEO0:0000:00Buffett to Musk: Commodity products "need a moat"CNBC Interviews BECKY QUICK: Elon Musk was brought into the conversation this weekend at the shareholders meeting by a question — and I forget who asked it, one of the shareholders maybe — bringing up this idea — or maybe — maybe it was Andrew. But somebody brought up this idea of moats. Competitive advantages and moats.Elon Musk recently said that he thinks moats are stupid. People —WARREN BUFFETT: I wish he could give me his. (Laughter)BECKY QUICK: And that became a subject where Charlie weighed in and said, yes, he's right that actual moats around castles are stupid.But you guys got into a little bit where you were joking around, saying that you'd like to see him try and get into a candy store.He responded this weekend with some tweets, saying, "I'm starting a candy company & it's going to be amazing. I am super super serious. It just occurred to me that the plot of Willy Wonka is really messed up. Ok ok, just for the sake of argument, what do u wish for in candy? Cryptocandy. Then I'm going to build a moat & fill it with candy. Warren B will not be able to resist investing! Berkshire Hathaway kryptonite… I'm killin me lol"WARREN BUFFETT: Well —BECKY QUICK: What do you think about all of this?WARREN BUFFETT: Well, if you look at the leading candy bars, for example, for the last 50 years, I think you'll find Snickers on top. And then you've got M&M's. You've got two types. So they don't combine the peanuts with the other ones. But I think they're number two and four. And, you know — Hershey's in there at number three or something of the sort. Yeah.I can't take them on. (Laughter)I don't — I don't think Elon can take them on. You know? (Laughs)They have moats. When you go into a drug store, a 7-Eleven, or something and you say, I would like a Snickers bar, and the owner says, oh, I've got something — the Musk Bar — at 10 cents off the Snickers bar, you say, give me the Snickers.And if he doesn't give you the Snickers, you go across the street and buy the Snickers.Brands are moats, I mean, obviously.And if you try to — you know — this product is selling, you know, to hundreds of millions of people who want Coca-Cola. And if you say, I'll sell you something for two cents less, or I've got some celebrity's name on it —They actually — Richard Branson tried Virgin Cola in the United States about 15 or 20 years ago. And a million others have been tried.So I don't really have the same urge to produce automobiles that he apparently has to — (laughs) — produce candy. But I don't suggest that he take on Snickers. See's Candies display at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, NE on May 1, 2026.Yun Li | CNBC BECKY QUICK: You're taking me literally and stepping away from the real story here, which is kind of this war of words between you and Charlie and Elon. And I just want — do you even know Elon Musk?WARREN BUFFETT: I've never said anything to anyone about Elon. I mean, you know — you're baiting me a little bit to do it, but —BECKY QUICK: I am.WARREN BUFFETT: But I've never — you know, I — people like his car and everything, but —But somebody mentioned that now he's talking about financing. Something this morning about that. I thought I heard that earlier.BECKY QUICK: Yes. Well, actually, Warren — Andrew just read some headlines where it looked like they may be — Tesla — may be going back to market to pick up some additional financing. I'm not entirely sure.WARREN BUFFETT: Well that's —BECKY QUICK: All I heard was the — all I heard was the headline.WARREN BUFFETT: That's what I call a counter-revelation. I mean — (laughs) — you know, because I think it was just a few days ago they said they wouldn't need financing. It —But, you know, he's trying something to improve a product. And I salute him for that. And the American public will decide whether it's a success. And — it's not easy. You know? So a lot —It's probably easier to develop a new car than it is to compete with Snickers.But some products have terrific moats, you know. Probably Elmer's Glue does. You know, WD-40. I mean, there you go.You can — there's just certain things that you are not in — much inclined to be dissatisfied with and seek — and I would say that, incidentally, that the iPhone, you know, has a terrific moat.I mean, people that have an iPhone — or maybe have some other phone. But they want to continue with the product that they've got. They want the new version. It's just easier for them. They've learned how to do everything, and their life's built around it, and all of that, and —Moats are very useful.Costco has a moat in people's mind. I mean, you know —Amazon can raise the price of Prime, you know, 20 percent. And you can't do that unless you've built something within that image of the Amazon Prime, that's based on reality, that you're going to get a lot for your money and you're going to want to use it. And then you can raise prices $20.But if you're selling, you know, if you're selling some commodity product, you can't do that. You need a moat. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, speaks on a screen remotely from SpaceX headquarters in Starbase, Texas, speaks before the launch of SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on June 12, 2026.Adam Jeffery | CNBC The debate the two men sparked eight years ago was even picked up by the Harvard Business Review and has continued online with posts and videos.'AI-powered' GEICO Gecko answers questions on podcastBuffett believes effective advertising can generate the strong brand identity that makes a moat effective.Berkshire's GEIKO insurance subsidiary is a good example with its ubiquitous Gecko.This week the company is promoting the character's first "live, unscripted conversation" as it appeared as a "real-time, AI-powered participant" on a video podcast hosted by the WNBA's Azzi Fudd, who plays guard for the Dallas Wings. GEICO GEICO has a multiyear partnership with Fudd, calling it a "cornerstone of its growing investment in women's sports."The company's release says it "developed the experience deliberately and with human oversight" and the Gecko's "character, voice and creative direction remain guided by the teams behind the brand." BUFFETT & BERKSHIRE AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription:The Motley Fool on Yahoo Finance: Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel Is Venturing Into an Area of the Stock Market That Warren Buffett Largely Shied Away From. Here's Why Investors Might Play Along.Investopedia: Buffett's Recommended Portfolio Looks Very Different From 60/40—Here's How the Results CompareInsurance Business: GEICO fills last major leadership gap with CFO hireZacks: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on ItForbes: The Buffett Rule Investors Can Apply To The Next Wave Of Mega‑IPOs BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH Four weeks Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards Twelve months Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards BRK.A stock price: $732,100.00BRK.B stock price: $489.25BRK.B P/E (TTM): 14.57Berkshire market capitalization: $1,051,476,084,256Berkshire Cash as of March 31: $397.4 billion (Up 6.5% from Dec. 31)Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $380.2 billion (Up 3.0% from Dec. 31)Berkshire repurchased $234 million of its shares in Q1 2026.(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise indicated) BERKSHIRE'S TOP EQUITY HOLDINGS - Jun. 12, 2026 Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices. Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards Holdings are as of March 31, 2026, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on May 15, 2026, except for:Alphabet, which includes the $10 billion in shares that Berkshire agreed to buy directly from the company, as announced on June 1, 2026. Berkshire has not yet formally disclosed whether the transaction has been completed. The entry is a combination of Class A and Class C Alphabet shares. The market price is a weighted average of the prices of the two classes.Mitsubishi, which is as of April 30, 2026The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe started a robotics company late last year called Mind Robotics that he says has has raised more than $1 billion. View More

In this articleRIVNFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Humanoid industrial robot are on display at the humanoid robot data training center in Shougang Park on March 27, 2025 in Beijing, China. VCG | China News Service | Getty Images PARK CITY, Utah — Rivian Automotive CEO RJ Scaringe envisions a day in the not-so-distant future when the electric vehicle maker's manufacturing employees will have a new type of colleague: humanoid robots."There's going to be thousands of people that are collaborating alongside these robots. They're going to be taking pictures, 'Hey, check this out! My co-worker's name is Phil, and he's a robot,'" Scaringe said during a media event for the launch of the Rivian R2 EV.The 43-year-old automotive enthusiast and tech entrepreneur started a robotics company last year called Mind Robotics. The company has raised more than $1 billion, according to Scaringe. Humanoid robots are designed to be shaped and move like people. Artificial intelligence algorithms power their abilities along with complex hardware like semiconductors. Proponents say they could be used in various settings, from factories to hospitality and even in the home, while others have raised concerns about the devices replacing human jobs.Scaringe said the company expects to reveal its first product in less than a year, with Rivian as a large minority shareholder and launch customer. Mind currently has roughly 20 open positions ranging from software and hardware engineers to data architects, according to its website. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who founded Mind Robotics late last year, speaks with media on June 3, 2026 during a launch event for the R2 electric SUV in Utah.Michael Wayland / CNBC Scaringe, who is executive chair and acting CEO of Mind, told CNBC that the plan is to keep the robotics company separate from Rivian, as opposed to the automaker partially shifting to make humanoid robots, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing with his company."We have a deep relationship, and that was actually how we structured it," Scaringe said during an interview. "A big part of structuring the business was to allow me to be able to spend time on both."The robotics strategy adds to a narrative of Scaringe doing things differently than Musk, despite obvious similarities in their companies. There have been enough comparisons that Rivian has even been called the "anti-Tesla" and Scaringe has been referred to as the "anti-Elon.""I'd say there's a lot of alignment there, and I think that's because, obviously, I'm biased, but I think they're right ... that autonomy is a super important technology," Scaringe said about Tesla and Rivian. "But in terms of the products, they, in many ways, couldn't be more different."So far Rivian and Mind are assisting each other, though, much like Musk's companies have also done during developmental phases. That includes Musk's xAI company merging with SpaceX before the company's record-setting initial public offering on Friday as well as SpaceX purchasing vehicles from Tesla.Scaringe said Rivian will be a "huge beneficiary" of Mind, which is using data from Rivian for training its AI models. Along with Rivian's equity stake, the automaker will be Mind's first customer for the robots. "We realized it was such a big opportunity that deserved to be its own company," said Scaringe. He said he believes there is a multitrillion-dollar total addressable market for industrial labor. A Tesla Optimus robot hands out candy in front of the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Scaringe was visibly excited when speaking with media about the potential for AI and humanoid robotics, calling it "one of the most exciting times, perhaps in human history.""One hundred years from now, they're going to be inheriting the work that we do over our lifetimes, and so I just think we're so lucky that we get to be alive at the birth of AI," Scaringe said.Despite the optimism for humanoid robots, Scaringe said he expects the devices to work alongside humans rather than replace them completely for the foreseeable future, saying it takes a "long time" for vehicle assembly plants to become so-called "dark factories" which can be almost entirely run by robots."What I see happening is the simplest tasks will be taken on by robots. The more complex tasks that require higher levels of reasoning or more complex, more tactile levels of dexterity [will be done by humans]," he said.Scaringe said manufacturers are dealing with an "extreme lack of labor," from other automakers. Rivian currently has more than 30 open manufacturing and engineering jobs, according to the company's website.The need for such workers, as well as the rapid development of AI, Scaringe believes, will mean human employees will be working alongside a robot named "Phil" far sooner than they may expect."The rate at which this is moving is far faster than I'd say — like an order of magnitude faster — than the average person in society understands," he said. "That's going to be a particularly big challenge in the short-term to just have the average person … realize how fast the models are learning and how capable they are at doing almost everything."— CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Switzerland votes on a population cap that could tighten immigration and put its EU free-movement agreement under pressure. View More

In this articleROP-CHNES.N-CHFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT A photo shows a poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and reading "Breaking with Europe now of all times? NO on the SVP-Chaos-Initiative" in Thayngen, northern Switzerland, on June 1, 2026. Sebastien Bozon | Afp | Getty Images Switzerland, a wealthy country that has historically embraced free movement and foreign investment, is about to vote on whether to cap its population — and restrict immigration measures to do so.Sunday's referendum comes after the country's population increased 10% in the 10 years up to the end of 2025, when it stood at just over 9.1 million. For the first time, the country had more people over 65 than under 20. Net migration and the birth rate fell last year. Relatively low taxation has helped make Switzerland home to global conglomerates like consumer goods giant Nestle, pharmaceutical heavyweight Novartis and other multinational firms in finance, luxury goods and tech. It has one of the world's highest concentrations of billionaires and a much stronger GDP per capita rate than many other developed economies. At the end of 2024, 41% of the population had a "migration background," a term applied to immigrants and their Swiss-born children, per official data, which also shows 32.5% of the country's permanent residents are first-generation immigrants. An estimated 1.4 million EU citizens live in Switzerland, comprising around 16% of the country's population. Another 340,000 EU citizens cross the border daily to work there.A recent poll found that 52% of respondents would reject the population cap, while 45% were in favor. How would the population cap work? But if voters back the population curb proposal, the country's Federal Council and parliament will have to roll out measures to curb population growth until 2050.Immigration systems would be tightened if the population exceeded 9.5 million at any point over the next 24 years, with asylum and family reunification programs first in line to face cuts. Switzerland's freedom of movement initiative with the European Union would also potentially end, should the population rise above the 10-million threshold. Switzerland is part of the border-free Schengen travel zone, along with many large EU economies. The bloc and the country also have an agreement to allow free movement of each other's citizens, allowing them to live and work in each other's territories, provided they have a job or another source of income. Switzerland's right-wing SVP party is urging voters to "send a clear signal" to policymakers to curb what it calls "overwhelming" population growth. In a statement last week, the SVP said that voting for the population cap would still allow 40,000 people to move to Switzerland each year, but lawmaker Piero Marchesi said population growth had caused problems for public services, wages, the price of rent, education and the labor market. Companies headquartered in Switzerland have argued that putting significant caps on immigration would dent the country's competitive edge and weigh on its struggling economy, which has faced sluggish growth, a surging currency, disinflation and U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff regime. Read moreThe Swiss franc just hit an 11-year high — and it’s stirring up trouble in SwitzerlandSwiss franc's safe haven status is proving to be a headache for the nationU.S. and Switzerland reach trade deal to lower tariffs to 15% Economiesuisse — a trade body that counts Amazon Web Services, Roche, Google and Johnson & Johnson among its 100,000 members — has opposed the population cap initiative. Chief Economist Rudolf Minsch said in an emailed statement to CNBC that Switzerland's prosperity depends on "openness, innovation and strong economic relations with Europe.""We understand that concerns about housing, infrastructure and population growth must be taken seriously, and these challenges require pragmatic political solutions," he said."Rigid immigration caps are not the right answer, particularly if they risk undermining the bilateral agreements with the European Union, which are of central importance to the Swiss economy."Minsch added that Switzerland's reliance on highly qualified foreign workers, especially in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, technology and healthcare. "Major restrictions on immigration would weaken innovation, growth and competitiveness, while making it harder for companies to attract international talent," he said. Speaking to CNBC's Carolin Roth at the Swiss Economic Forum last week, Nestle CEO Philipp Navratil described how attractive the country was to outside investors, adding: "It is important that these conditions in Switzerland are maintained.""We must not take this for granted; it was created through a lot of hard work and through a willingness to drive reforms," he added.He said his company had nine factories, three research centers in the country, and "our main share of research and development still takes place in Switzerland — this has been the case for 160 years.""Reliability is found in Switzerland, because quality exists in Switzerland, because talent exists in Switzerland, because Switzerland has created and established framework conditions that are simply attractive for a global company," he added. Representatives of the Swiss People's Party next to a banner reading in German: 'No 10 million Switzerland! sustainability initiative' in Bern on April 3, 2024.Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images At the same conference, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said he worried about "extreme initiatives.""Switzerland has 30% of foreign-born people, almost like in Australia, twice as Germany," he said. "And that leads to certain frustration within society. But it's not a way to solve the problem."UBS is one of Switzerland's biggest employers, with around 33,500 of its employees based in the country. Joao B. Duarte, a professor of economics at Portugal's Nova School of Business and Economics, told CNBC in an email that a population cap could damage Switzerland's credibility in various ways. "If firms believe access to European labor may become more uncertain, investment decisions can shift well before the legal trigger is reached," he told CNBC. Duarte said the U.K.'s exit from the EU "offers a useful warning. Ending free movement did not create a smooth transition to domestic labor self-sufficiency. It created shortages, recruitment frictions and higher costs in sectors that had relied on flexible EU workers."He added that the EU is Switzerland's main trading partner, and free movement is tied to the broader bilateral framework that gives Swiss firms privileged access to European markets."If a 'yes' vote eventually forces Switzerland to terminate the free movement agreement, the strain would not be limited to migration policy. It could spill over into the entire Swiss-EU economic relationship," Duarte said.— CNBC's Carolin Roth contributed to this report. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.