What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Business, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Business

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
6 Sep, 2023

Musk borrowed $1 billion from SpaceX in same month of Twitter deal

Fundraising1 Comments

The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk borrowed $1 billion from SpaceX in October 2022, the same month he bought Twitter. The loan was backed by some of Musk’s SpaceX stock and Musk drew all of the funds down the same month. According to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, as of March 2023, Musk is SpaceX’s largest shareholder with a 42% stake and almost 79% of its voting power. SpaceX had $4.7 billion in cash and securities on hand at the end of 2022.

17 Aug, 2023

SpaceX profitable: first quarter 2023

Financial Report1 Comments

Documents reveal that SpaceX turned a small profit during the first quarter of 2023. After two annual losses, the company generated $55 million in profit on $1.5 billion in revenue. (First-quarter results are preliminary, though, while annual results are final.) SpaceX is also valued at roughly $150 billion at an employee stock sale, putting its valuation near those of Intel and Disney.

11 Aug, 2023

Twitter signs and equipment to be auctioned

FundraisingMakes Statement0 Comments

In part due to its rebrand, X announces it is auctioning off a large number of Twitter-branded items, including the bird logo that was previously on the outside of the building. Other items for sale include sculptures, booths, chairs, computers, couches, musical equipment and artworks.

The auction, hosted by Heritage Global Partners, will start on September 12 at 7 a.m. PST and end on September 14 at 9 a.m. PST. All items have a starting bid of $25. They are all being sold out of X headquarters in San Francisco. According to HGP’s terms and conditions, buyers must use the items in their businesses and cannot purchase them for personal use.

7 Aug, 2023

Neuralink raises $280 million from Founders Fund

Fundraising0 Comments

Nuralink announces it has raised $280m from Founder’s Fund, a venture capital company established by Peter Thiel.

We’re happy to announce our $280M Series D round led by @foundersfund. We’re extremely excited about this next chapter at Neuralink.

1 Aug, 2023

X sign removed from headquarter’s roof

Rebrand0 Comments

The X sign on the former Twitter headquarters building’s roof is removed, after complaints were made to San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection. One complaint described the sign as displaying “extremely intense white stroboscopic light” that was “causing distress and nausea,” while others said it could topple in an earthquake. After earlier attempts to inspect the sign had been rebuffed by X staff, inspectors once again returned to the site, only to see the sign being dismanted. Inspector:

By the time I left the entire structure had been removed.

The city says that X would be assessed fees for the unpermitted installation of the illuminated structure, without mentioning an estimate.

24 Jul, 2023

Musk rebrands Twitter as X

Rebrand0 Comments

Musk confirms Twitter’s rebrand by changing the apps’s logo from the bird to X, which he describes as ‘minimalist art deco,’ He also changes his Twitter bio to ‘X.com’, which redirects to what used to be twitter.com, and his profile picture to X, In a late night email, Musk writes to Twitter employees confirming the changes.

We are indeed changing to X…This is my last message from a Twitter email.

In a Twitter Space – an audio livestream on the platform –Musk said the changes ‘should have been done a long time ago’ and that he was ‘sorry it took so long.’ Musk also said that posts made under the site’s new identity would be called ‘X’s.’

23 Jul, 2023

Musk: Twitter logo will change to X

Makes StatementRebrand0 Comments

Musk says Twitter is planning to change its logo, Larry the Bird, which has been in place since creation of the company in 2006, to an X. Along with the logo change, the domain for the social media site will become X.com, and Twitter will become a subsidiary of Musk-owned X-Corp.

And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds

Musk then asked for logo suggestions:

If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow

Thousands of users replied before Musk posted a short video of an X with a flickering background.

20 Jul, 2023

Daypart.AI founder details Burnt Hair domain trade with Boring

InterviewNegotiation0 Comments

Jeremy Sonne, founder of Daypart.AI, details his trade of the burnthair.com website domain to the Boring Company. Just after Musk announced Boring’s plan to sell “Burnt Hair” cologne, Sonne bought the domain and tweeted at Musk, offering him the domain if the billionaire would “have lunch with me at the gigafactory or coffee or something like that.” (The tweet has since been deleted.) Minutes later, Boring messaged him directly, telling him to email them about the idea.

“They said lunch wouldn’t happen,” Sonne says, so he made more “outlandish” requests like a phone call with Musk or a “ride on his private plane,” until Boring finally agreed to give him a tour of its Texas facility and some Boring products (including one of the first 10 bottles of Burnt Hair cologne) in exchange for the domain. Sonne’s wife and four-year-old son also went on the tour, during which, for security reasons, they were not allowed to take out their phones. They also had to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevented them from talking about what they saw inside. Ownership of the domain, which now redirects to Boring’s main website, was transferred in December 2022. Sonne says the tour left a big impression on his son:

My four year old is on the spectrum and is like really obsessed with construction and that’s a special interest for him, construction, diggers, that sort of thing. Since we’ve gotten home, he has been building tunnels with Magna-Tiles and running his cars through them and stuff. Honestly, that was worth the entire adventure, just seeing him get really hyped up about it.

14 Jul, 2023

Musk: Twitter’s ad revenue down ~50%

Financial ReportMakes Statement0 Comments

Musk says Twitter has a “negative cash flow” and its advertising revenue has declined by about 50% amid a “heavy debt load” as competition between Twitter and Threads intensifies. This comes just as Twitter began paying content creators for posting advertisements. Some users are reporting payouts of over $100,000, and Musk himself says Twitter will pay creators $5 million through its first block of payments. It is unclear, though, which kinds of posts or which users are eligible for advertising payments, and some users have criticized the platform’s payout program.

We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.

12 Jul, 2023

Musk announces formation of xAI

FoundingMakes Statement0 Comments

Musk announces the formation of a company called xAI. The startup is geared toward artificial intelligence and employs several engineers who have worked for companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Along with the amount of funding it has, xAI’s specific objectives are unclear, as is exactly what it will focus on regarding AI. The company’s website says its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe,” but adds that more information will be forthcoming “over the next couple of weeks and months.” Musk:

Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality

3 Jul, 2023

Tesla delivers record number of cars after price cuts

Price changeSales Report0 Comments

Tesla says it delivered a record number of vehicles for the three months from April to June, delivering 466,140 vehicles, 80% higher than last year. The company says it lowered prices in markets including the US, UK and China to compete with rival manufacturers. The company is due to report its financial results for the second quarter on 19 July. Musk,

We’re not ‘starting a price war’, we’re just lowering prices to enable affordability at scale.

21 Jun, 2023

Musk considers Cuban’s low-cost pharmacy for Tesla, SpaceX employees

Negotiation0 Comments

After a Twitter user asks Cuban who costplusdrugs.com does not offer Invermectin, which the user says “costs $0.02 per pill in Africa, 100x mark-up in America”, Musk responds:

Good question

A few hours later, Cuban responds to Musk:

I’m sorry I didn’t see you enter the discussion  @elonmusk. The price we were able to get was much higher than other available sources. We are trying to get a better price. We do sell HCQ. Our mission is to be the low cost provider of every med we are allowed to sell. You should have your employees use us. It will save them and @twitter a fuck ton of money. Costplusdrugs.com

Musk replies that he will ask Tesla & SpaceX to inquire into Cuban’s offer. In 2022, Tesla employed more than 127,000 people, while SpaceX has about 10,000 employees

15 Jun, 2023

Musk hires 14-year-old to work for SpaceX

Hire1 Comments

Musk hires a 14-year-old to work as a software engineer at SpaceX. Having been described as a genius and a “wonder kid” for his academic achievements, Kairan Quazi’s IQ tests suggest he is in the 99.9th percentile of the general population. He already completed an internship at Intel, and after he graduates from Santa Clara University (where he is set to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and Engineering), he will work on SpaceX’s Starlink team, which is building the world’s largest satellite internet network. On LinkedIn, Quazi wrote:

I will be joining the coolest company on the planet as a software engineer on the Starlink engineering team. One of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability.

His LinkedIn profile has since been removed, because the platform requires users to be at least 16 years old. On Instagram, Quazi posted that his removal from LinkedIn was “illogical, primitive nonsense” that amounted to discrimination.

I can be qualified enough to land one of the most coveted engineering jobs in the world but not qualified enough to have access to a professional social media platform? LinkedIn showing everyone how regressive some tech company policies are.

LinkedIn spokesperson:

We appreciate his enthusiasm to join LinkedIn and applaud his incredible success, however we have an age limit in place of 16 years of age and that extends to all members.

14 Jun, 2023

Musk to talk Tesla Gigafactory with Macron again

Negotiation0 Comments

For the second time in just over a month, Musk will meet with Macron to discuss building a Tesla Gigafactory in France. France has been courting Tesla to build factories in the country, but is competing with other EU countries like Spain, which is also in talks with Tesla. Macron:

I’m going (into that meeting) with an agenda. We’re going to talk about artificial intelligence, in which he is involved, social media, regulation framework… And then I’ll also talk to him about cars, batteries, to promote French and European attractiveness.

Asked specifically whether he was hoping to secure a Tesla Gigafactory, Macron says: “It’s up to the company to look at these different issues in Europe. So we’ll be selling France” as an investment destination. In addition to saying that France has invested in an “entire sector of electric batteries” and will try to convince Musk “that France is the best possible place in Europe to establish the next Tesla factory,” French minister for digital affairs Jean-Noel Barrot says:

It will be great to have a Tesla factory in France. There has been a lot of effort and energy to make sure this is possible and this can happen.

Musk and Macron will also discuss tech regulation.

8 Jun, 2023

Tesla in talks to build factory in Spain

Negotiation0 Comments

In a bid to build a factory there, Tesla is negotiating with the regional government of Valencia in Spain. A spokesperson for Valencia’s government says it had held meetings and conversations with a company about a “large automobile investment,” but did not specify which company it was, citing the confidentiality of the negotiations. Tesla’s total investment in this enterprise could surpass 4.5 billion euros ($4.83 billion).

5 Jun, 2023

Twitter’s U.S. ad sales drop 59%

Sales Report0 Comments

According to an internal presentation obtained by The New York Times, Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, down 59% from a year earlier. The document says the company has regularly fallen short of its U.S. weekly sales projections, sometimes by as much as 30 percent. The company has forecast that its U.S. ad revenue this month will be down at least 56 percent each week compared with a year ago, according to one internal document. Neither CEO Yaccarino nor Musk commented on the report.

According to staff interviews, Twitter’s ad sales staff is concerned that advertisers may be spooked by a rise in hate speech and pornography on the social network, as well as more ads featuring online gambling and marijuana products.  In one week last month, four of Twitter’s top 10 U.S. advertisers were online gambling and fantasy sports betting companies, according to one presentation. Twitter has also started allowing ads for cannabis accessories, including “bongs, vapes, rolling paper,” as well as erectile dysfunction products and services, according to internal emails.

Former employees say some of Twitter’s biggest advertisers — including Apple, Amazon and Disney — have been spending less on the platform than last year, and that large specialized “banner” ads on Twitter’s trends page that can cost $500,000 for 24 hours and are almost always bought by large brands to promote events, shows or movies, are often going unfilled.

30 May, 2023

Fidelity: Twitter worth 33% of Musk’s purchase price

Financial Report0 Comments

According to Fidelity, which helped finance Musk’s purchase of Twitter, its valuation of its equity stake in the company puts the total value of Twitter at $15 billion, around 33% of what Musk originally paid for it. Fidelity downgraded its holdings in the company by 56% a month after the acquisition, by 63% in February 2023, and now by 66%. Musk’s investment in Twitter is now worth $8.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which uses Fidelity’s valuation to calculate the value of his holding. Musk spent more than $25 billion to acquire an estimated 79% stake in the company in 2022.

19 May, 2023

Tesla releases promo video on Twitter

Advertising campaign0 Comments

Tesla releases a two-minute Twitter video on its Tesla Asia account (which has only 172,000 followers, compared to its main account’s 21 million) called “Drive to believe.” The ad highlights Tesla’s Autopilot feature, infotainment system, the Tesla app, as well as featuring a Model 3 owner and mother of two children saying she was initially drawn to the vehicle because of its technology, but has grown to appreciate its safety measures as well.

I would say it’s one of the greatest gifts, that my kids can have, in terms of their future.

17 May, 2023

Tesla reopens talks with Indian government

Negotiation0 Comments

Senior Tesla executives visit India, meeting officials from Modi’s office and other ministries to discuss local sourcing of parts and more. The executives propose setting up a factory in India to build electric cars for domestic sale and export, but no location or investment has been specified. Though India previously declined Tesla’s request to lower the import tax on cars (causing earlier talks to end in gridlock), the matter is not being discussed during this visit.

16 May, 2023

X Corp acquires tech recruiting platform Laskie

Acquisition0 Comments

In its first deal under Musk’s leadership, Twitter’s parent company X Corp acquires Laskie, a talent recruitment tool. Though the exact price of the acquisition is unclear, it was apparently “tens of millions” of dollars, with the deal including cash and equity elements.

Laskie is a San-Francisco based startup founded in 2021 by current CEO Chris Bakke, and apparently has somewhere between 11 and 50 employees. Its aim has been to connect tech talent with employers using tools that are “designed to make your job search faster, more efficient, and less stressful,” but now the platform’s website displays a message saying its platform is “no longer available.”  Twitter has not publicly confirmed the deal.