Trump’s trade policies are finally moving all of Apple’s US iPhone production out of China... to India
Apple plans to source the entirety of the 60 million iPhones it sells annually in the US from India as soon as next year, the Financial Times reports. That’s double what it currently produces there.
Apple had already been moving production to the subcontinent but had been doing so at a slower pace, as a way to get around ongoing tariff threats from the Trump administration that have been most brutal toward China, where Apple currently manufactures most of its iPhones.
Of course, the administration’s repeated intent for these tariffs was to bring production, specifically of the iPhone, to the US. That’s not what’s happening.
Apple had already been moving production to the subcontinent but had been doing so at a slower pace, as a way to get around ongoing tariff threats from the Trump administration that have been most brutal toward China, where Apple currently manufactures most of its iPhones.
Of course, the administration’s repeated intent for these tariffs was to bring production, specifically of the iPhone, to the US. That’s not what’s happening.
Musk’s “Colossus” AI data center is spewing methane from portable gas turbines: report
In September, Elon Musk announced that xAI had fired up its massive “Colossus” AI data center in South Memphis, Tennessee. Musk boasted that the whole project took only 122 days to complete.
Powered by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, the supercomputing cluster is considered the largest in the world.
To spin up such a power-hungry data center, xAI relied on a loophole that allows for the use of portable gas turbines for up to 364 days without a permit.
The 150 megawatts of energy it currently gets from a local utility was not enough to cover huge spikes in power demand for the cluster, so the company brought in 35 portable gas turbines. The company told residents that only 15 of the turbines were in use, but now the Southern Environmental Law Center has evidence that more were being used.
Flying around the data center site and using a thermal imaging camera, 33 of the turbines appeared hot, indicating that they were in use or had recently been.
Residents who are worried about the environmental effects of the heavier-than-expected use of the gas turbines will attend a public hearing today to lodge their opposition and call for greater transparency.
Musk has said he wants to scale the data center up to 1 million GPUs.
To spin up such a power-hungry data center, xAI relied on a loophole that allows for the use of portable gas turbines for up to 364 days without a permit.
The 150 megawatts of energy it currently gets from a local utility was not enough to cover huge spikes in power demand for the cluster, so the company brought in 35 portable gas turbines. The company told residents that only 15 of the turbines were in use, but now the Southern Environmental Law Center has evidence that more were being used.
Flying around the data center site and using a thermal imaging camera, 33 of the turbines appeared hot, indicating that they were in use or had recently been.
Residents who are worried about the environmental effects of the heavier-than-expected use of the gas turbines will attend a public hearing today to lodge their opposition and call for greater transparency.
Musk has said he wants to scale the data center up to 1 million GPUs.
Ives on Google: “We Are So Back”
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives invoked the “we’re so back” meme in the subject line of a note about Google’s rosy earnings yesterday to indicate an upturn in circumstances for the internet giant after it missed estimates a quarter earlier. Ives cited a bunch of positive results, including revenue growth in Search, YouTube ads, and cloud.
“Importantly, management did not call out any signs of a softening ad backdrop QTD through April, likely tempering some investor concern in the near-term,” he wrote of the company, which is considered a harbinger of how other megacap tech stocks might perform this quarter amid concerns about how tariffs might affect ad budgets.
Ives also wrote that Wedbush hiked its price target to $200 following analysts’ estimate changes.
The anti-Cybertruck: Bezos-backed Slate unveils a bare-bones EV truck under $20,000
With a much lower potential price tag, the move puts pressure on Tesla to finally make its own low-cost car.
BofA lowers its Apple price target and estimates because of tariffs and AI delays
Apple may or may not be in for some China tariff relief, but the iPhone maker has other problems, including AI delays that will keep people from upgrading their phones, BofA said in a note today, where it lowered its price target and estimates.
“Apple’s launch of an AI-enabled Siri has been delayed and can cause a further pushout of iPhones upgrades, and we cut our F26 estimates to reflect this,” the analysts wrote, but added, “The launch of a slim iPhone ‘Air’ in Sep 2025 and a potential foldable iPhone in Sep 2026 should spur some form factor based replacement demand.”
BofA now expects a price of $240, down from $250, and lowered its FY 2026 revenue estimates to $440 billion from $450 billion and earnings per share to $7.82 from $8.20.
Google’s Chrome browser could be sold for up to $50 billion, browser rival DuckDuck CEO Gabriel Weinberg testified at a Department of Justice hearing on how to remedy Google’s search monopoly. He added that it was “out of DuckDuckGo’s price range.” That’s much higher than the $20 billion Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh estimated last November, and Weinberg said the calculation is based on “back-of-the-envelope” math. But it doesn’t seem that expensive when you realize that Google Search, which is highly integrated with the Chrome browser, brought in more than that much in revenue, $54 billion, last quarter alone.
As we’ve written before, experts have said that forcing Google’s parent company Alphabet to offload Chrome is unlikely to happen, noting that asking it to do so is more of a negotiating tactic than a likely remedy. Even if the court decides Google has to sell Chrome, it’s unclear who could afford it. The judge is expected to decide on remedies in August.
A chronological look at Tesla’s changing value proposition
Elon Musk keeps shifting what he thinks the value of Tesla is. Today, it’s “sustainable abundance” made possible by “affordable AI-powered robots.”
Meta and Apple hit with the EU’s first Digital Markets Act fines
The EU’s Digital Markets Act was designed to bring a battering ram to the Big Tech platforms considered “gatekeepers” — defined as “large digital platforms providing so called core platform services, such as for example online search engines, app stores, messenger services.”
The law went into force in November of 2022 (and became applicable in May of 2023), and since then it has not resulted in any fines... until today.
Apple was hit with a €500 million ($567 million) fine, and Meta received a €200 million fine ($227 million).
“Today, the European Commission found that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and that Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data. Therefore, the Commission has fined Apple and Meta with €500 million and €200 million respectively.”
According to the EU, Apple’s violation of the DMA was that it failed to allow third-party app stores on iOS, and it should allow iPhone apps to be downloaded from the open web rather than exclusively through the App Store, which is the current setup.
Meta’s violation was related to its “pay or consent” policy in the EU, which gave users a choice to either consent to sharing personal data for free access to its platforms, or pay to use the platforms with no tracking. The DMA ruling said that Meta needs to offer a third option: free use with limited data sharing.
The companies have 60 days to comply with the orders or additional fines will be levied. The companies are reportedly planning on appealing the rulings.
The law went into force in November of 2022 (and became applicable in May of 2023), and since then it has not resulted in any fines... until today.
Apple was hit with a €500 million ($567 million) fine, and Meta received a €200 million fine ($227 million).
“Today, the European Commission found that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and that Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data. Therefore, the Commission has fined Apple and Meta with €500 million and €200 million respectively.”
According to the EU, Apple’s violation of the DMA was that it failed to allow third-party app stores on iOS, and it should allow iPhone apps to be downloaded from the open web rather than exclusively through the App Store, which is the current setup.
Meta’s violation was related to its “pay or consent” policy in the EU, which gave users a choice to either consent to sharing personal data for free access to its platforms, or pay to use the platforms with no tracking. The DMA ruling said that Meta needs to offer a third option: free use with limited data sharing.
The companies have 60 days to comply with the orders or additional fines will be levied. The companies are reportedly planning on appealing the rulings.
What we now know about Tesla’s Austin robotaxi launch this year
It’s expected “end of June or July” and “in many other cities in the US by the end of this year.”
Musk to return to Tesla and decrease his time at DOGE significantly next month
“Starting probably next month in May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk told investors at the start of the company’s Q1 earnings call. “I’ll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so, and as long as it is useful, but starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.” The stock is trading up 4% after-hours despite falling far short of analyst expectations.
Tesla earnings fall far short of lowered expectations
Tesla fell short of analysts’ already diminished expectations for the first quarter, reporting earnings per share of $0.27, compared with Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of $0.47, and revenue of $19.3 billion, compared with an expected $22.1 billion.
Analysts had been significantly cutting back their expectations for the electric vehicle company’s revenue and earnings over the past month, since Tesla released disappointing delivery numbers, selling 50,000 fewer vehicles in the first quarter than analysts had expected or than it had a year earlier.
Still, the company said plans for its robotaxi launch and less expensive vehicles remain on track. The stock was little changed after-hours.
Despite CEO Elon Musk repeatedly referring to the company as an AI and robotics firm, Tesla makes the vast majority of its revenue — 72% in Q1 — from vehicles, so car sales are heavily tied to the company’s financial performance. Tesla has been offering heavy discounts in order to move inventory and lowering its average selling price, so the impact on Tesla’s bottom line wasn’t expected to look pretty.
Tesla last quarter promised a “return to growth in 2025” as far as vehicle sales. In 2024, Tesla delivered a disappointing 1.8 million vehicles. Its latest announcement no longer mentions that return to growth.
The earnings report follows disappointing full-year earnings for 2024, when Tesla’s annual net profit declined by more than 50% year on year.
Short sellers have made $11.5 billion in mark-to-market profits so far in Tesla’s terrible 2025, according to CNBC, citing S3 Partners. That’s more than double the $5.3 billion short sellers booked in all of 2024 on Tesla, whose stock is down about 40% this year and which reports earnings after the bell today. This year’s short-seller gains are an about-face from $12 billion in mark-to-market losses short sellers incurred in 2023 on the oft-shorted stock.
Bezos-backed EV company teases $25,000 trucks ahead of Tesla earnings, where low-cost Model Ys expected to be delayed
Slate Auto, the stealth electric vehicle company backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has recently been pretty loud about its ~$25,000 Tesla competitor. It’s apparently planted a number of concept versions of the new vehicle on California streets, including this one ridiculously wrapped in pink and blue spotted by The Autopian and advertising what appears to be a fake business for driving babies around until they fall asleep.
“It’s a marketing tactic that teases the secretive startup’s strategy to sell a ‘Transformer’-like vehicle,” according to TechCrunch, which uncovered the company last month. TechCrunch added that other versions of the truck look like a hatchback or a pickup truck.
The vehicle is expected to be formally unveiled at a launch event at Long Beach Airport on April 24.
EV publication Electrek called the move a “masterstroke of marketing,” since Tesla, which reports earnings today, scrapped plans for its long-awaited $25,000 vehicles. Now even lower-cost versions of existing models are expected to be delayed.
To us, this seems like just the latest volley in a battle of egos between billionaires.
“It’s a marketing tactic that teases the secretive startup’s strategy to sell a ‘Transformer’-like vehicle,” according to TechCrunch, which uncovered the company last month. TechCrunch added that other versions of the truck look like a hatchback or a pickup truck.
The vehicle is expected to be formally unveiled at a launch event at Long Beach Airport on April 24.
EV publication Electrek called the move a “masterstroke of marketing,” since Tesla, which reports earnings today, scrapped plans for its long-awaited $25,000 vehicles. Now even lower-cost versions of existing models are expected to be delayed.
To us, this seems like just the latest volley in a battle of egos between billionaires.
Analysts expect Tesla’s gross margins to be lower than they’ve been since 2012
Investors are bracing for how bad Tesla’s disappointing vehicle sales reported earlier this month will be for the company’s bottom line when it reports earnings after the bell.
One particularly low expectation is for Tesla’s auto gross margins, which Morgan Stanley has pegged at 12.7% without auto credits — the lowest they’ve been in more than a decade, the investment bank said in a note today. “We have to go back to 2Q12 (when the company delivered only 5,612 cars) to find a lower auto gross margin,” according to the analysts.
On the earnings call, investors want to know about the timing of Tesla’s various future products — Cybercab, unsupervised full self-driving, Optimus — as well as the potential effect of tariffs on the company.
The stock is up 4% today after closing down nearly 6% yesterday.
