|
|
|
Apr 23, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
Supported by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Happy Thursday! Tesla's revenue grew 16% in the first quarter, slightly better than last year. OpenAI are in talks to invest up to $1.5 billion in a private equity joint venture. Tencent, Alibaba are in discussion to invest in DeepSeek at $20 billion-plus valuation.
|
|
|
|
Tesla revenue reached $22.4 billion in the first quarter, a 16% year-over-year increase, showing that the electric vehicle maker has started to dig its way out of a sales slump. The revenue figure is slightly better than the same period in 2024 but well below the $24.3 billion in revenue Tesla reported during the first quarter of 2023. As the electric vehicle business has stagnated over the past couple of years, CEO Elon Musk has refocused the company on the Optimus humanoid robot and its nascent Robotaxi service, neither of which have significantly contributed to revenue. In Tesla’s presentation for investors, the company said it was making progress on the rollout of Robotaxi, highlighting an extremely limited launch of the service in Houston and Dallas earlier this month. While Tesla’s previous earnings presentation said that five additional cities including Miami and Las Vegas as Robotaxi would come online in the first half of the year, Wednesday’s presentation did not repeat that deadline, instead listing the cities as “preparations underway” with no target date.
|
|
|
|
OpenAI is in discussions to invest up to $1.5 billion in a private equity joint venture called DeployCo, according to a person with knowledge of the effort. The ChatGPT maker is in talks to invest $500 million initially in DeployCo, which is expected to be valued at $10 billion. OpenAI has the option to invest an additional $1 billion at a later date at the same valuation. The joint venture is in partnership with a suite of private equity firms, including TPG, Bain Capital, Advent International, Brookfield and Goanna Capital, which are expected to invest an additional $4 billion into DeployCo, the person said. OpenAI seeks to accelerate businesses’ adoption of its AI tools by selling to private equity firms’ portfolio companies through DeployCo. Anthropic, too, is in talks to form a joint venture with private
equity firms including Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman to sell its AI services to their portfolio companies, The Information previously reported. The Financial Times was first to report details of OpenAI’s investment into the joint venture.
|
|
|
|
Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are in talks to invest in DeepSeek, the AI upstart that recently started fundraising for the first time, The Information reported on Wednesday. DeepSeek, owned by Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management, is now seeking to raise funding at a valuation of more than $20 billion, after its initial discussions with prospective investors generated immense interests, one of the people said. The company initially sought a valuation of at least $10 billion, The Information reported last week. Both Tencent and Alibaba have invested in several of China’s leading AI startups, including Zhipu, MiniMax and Moonshot. A stake in DeepSeek would help hedge their bets as they continue to develop their own AI models and products, and give both companies a direct line into further collaboration with DeepSeek.
|
|
|
|
Microsoft on Wednesday named longtime LinkedIn executive Daniel Shapero as CEO of the corporate social network and said former LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky will oversee Microsoft’s core Office 365 apps. Roslansky had been LinkedIn’s CEO since 2020, and last summer was promoted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to a new position as executive vice president of Office apps. He has held both roles since then and earlier this year became one of a handful of executives overseeing Microsoft’s Copilot AI products, reporting directly to Nadella following a reorganization. Roslansky also oversaw the release of an AI recruiting agent on LinkedIn, which has become a bright spot in Microsoft’s effort to convince businesses to spend money on AI. Shapero has been at LinkedIn since 2008, previously serving as chief business officer and chief operating officer. Shapero will still report to Roslansky in his new role. Separately, Roslansky said on Wednesday that LinkedIn Senior Vice President of Engineering Mohak Shroff would move to Microsoft Office as a president of platforms and digital work, reporting to Roslansky.
|
|
|
|
Nvidia has not yet sold any H200 to China, despite the Trump administration’s approvals months ago for the powerful chips to be exported to the country, Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Wednesday at a Senate hearing, according to Reuters. “The Chinese central government has not let them, as of yet, buy the chips, because they’re trying to keep their investment focused on their own domestic industry,” Lutnick said. A generation behind the Blackwell, the H200 is the most powerful chip allowed to export to China. But Beijing has turned hardline against U.S. chips, as it tries to protect the domestic chip industry and wean Chinese AI systems off U.S. chips. The Chinese government told some tech companies it would only approve their
purchases of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips under special circumstances, such as for university research and development labs, The Information reported previously.
|
|
|
|
| |
