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☆ We now know just how much money Elon Musk's X made after his takeover — and it's a lot less than before his purchase
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk himself had said in 2023 that X's revenue was down. X revenues plunged 40% in the months after Elon Musk took over, Bloomberg reported. AdvertisementElon Musk was right: X did lose lots of revenue when he took over. X revenues plunged in the wake of Elon Musk's fraught acquisition of the social media giant, new documents obtained by Bloomberg reportedly show. According to regulatory filings seen by Bloomberg, X generated $1.48 billion in revenue in the first half of 2023 — down roughly 40% from the first six months of 2022 before Musk's takeover.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Elon Organizations: Elon, Bloomberg, Service, Musk's, Business

☆ Australia drops case against Elon Musk's social media platform X over church stabbing footage
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Sam Meredith | In Samuelmeredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Australia on Wednesday announced it had dropped its legal battle against Elon Musk's X to have graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney removed from the social media platform. The dispute was widely seen as a test case for the Australian government's ability to enforce its online safety standards on the social media giants. Julie Inman-Grant, Commissioner of Australia's online safety regulator, said in a statement that after weighing "multiple considerations," she decided that discontinuing the proceedings would "likely achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children." I stand by my investigators and the decisions eSafety made," Inman-Grant said, referencing Australia's independent regulator for online safety. Last month, the Musk-owned social media platform won a reprieve in Australia when a court refused to extend a temporary order blocking videos of a Sydney church stabbing globally.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, Elon Musk's, Julie Inman, eSafety, Inman, Grant, Musk, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, Australia's Organizations: SpaceX, X Holdings Corp, Milken Institute's Global, Beverly Hilton Hotel, Wednesday, Grant, X's Global Government Affairs Locations: Beverly Hills , California, Australia, Sydney, Australian

☆ Elon Musk may build a multibillion-dollar supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk's xAI may build the world's largest supercomputer in Memphis, pending approval. The Musk-founded AI business is working with Memphis to make the Tennessee city the lead location of the world's largest supercomputer, referred to as the Gigafactory of Compute, according to a statement from the Greater Memphis Chamber on Wednesday. The multibillion-dollar supercomputer would reportedly be powered by Nvidia's H100 GPUs, some of the most sought-after chips that power AI. The project could create hundreds of jobs, according to a report from the Memphis Business Journal. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: Elon Musk's, Musk, —, Elon Organizations: Service, xAI's, Greater, Greater Memphis Chamber, Memphis Business, Business Locations: Memphis, Tennessee, Greater Memphis

☆ Elon Musk's X has embraced porn. Now what?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewElon Musk's X overhauled its sensitive media policy this week, signaling an increasing coziness with the world of adult content. Porn is already a part of twitters audiences appetite so they will have to meet (OSA) priority content duties anyway. Related storiesBut taking pornography on board so squarely ramps up concerns for X users. It's also unclear how X vets material that is posted nonconsensually, Thornhill, who has advised UK lawmakers on porn regulation, said. Earlier this year, TechCrunch also reported that Musk was toying with the idea of revitalizing X's "communities" feature, with NSFW adult content.

Persons: —, Elon Musk's, TechCrunch —, Brooke Erin Duffy, Harper Thornhill Organizations: Service, Business, TechCrunch, Cornell University, Associated Press, Workers ' Union

☆ AI-generated X-rated content is officially allowed on Musk's X
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

X is formally giving adult content the green light — with a few stipulations. But the content must be consensual, and must be labeled, X said. Elon Musk's X is formally giving X-rated content the green light, allowing adult images and video — with a few rules. Users can share nudity and sexual content — including AI-generated pornography — "provided it's properly labeled and not prominently displayed," the company's policy says. Content must be made and posted consensually and cannot be shared to "highly visible places" like profile photos or banners, X said.

Persons: —, Elon Musk's Organizations: Service, Business

☆ I tracked all the ads I received in a day — here's what I saw
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-02 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

When my editor asked me to track all the ads I saw in a day, I wasn't sure how it would go. To personalize Google ads, for example, you can go to "My Ad Center" and opt to turn personalized ads on or off in the top-right corner. If you turn them on, Google will use the information it collects about you to give you more personalized ads. I decided to keep personalized ads off for Google because that's how I usually have it. I also found some of the TikTok ads interesting or helpful.

Persons: —, Elon Musk's X, Instagram, I'm, Ana Altchek, I've Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Urban Outfitters, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify

☆ Elon Musk may have a plan to get Donald Trump back on X
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk's X is planning a live town hall event with Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported. The relationship between Trump and Musk appears to be warming up. AdvertisementElon Musk's X appears to be planning to host a live town hall event with Donald Trump. The social media platform, which has been pushing toward video content, is partnering with cable network NewsNation and will air the events on both outlets, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal reported that X also plans to host a similar town hall event with rival presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Persons: Elon Musk's, Donald Trump, NewsNation, Musk, —, X, Robert F, Kennedy Jr Organizations: Street Journal, Trump, Service, The, Business

☆ Elon Musk's X to livestream Trump town hall event
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk's X will host a live town hall-style event with former President Donald Trump, the social media platform's owner and CEO confirmed Friday. Trump, a once-prolific X user, now exclusively posts on Truth Social, a similar microblogging platform he launched in late 2021. "This will be interesting," Musk, and a vocal critic of Trump's presidential rival, President Joe Biden, wrote on X on Friday in response to a New York Post report about the town hall. Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, wrote in a post replying to Musk: "The People's Town Hall!" X is partnering with the cable channel NewsNation to host the events, which will be called "The People's Town Hall," with Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Axios reported.

Persons: Elon Musk's, Donald Trump, X, Axios, Musk, Joe Biden, Linda Yaccarino, Robert F, Kennedy Jr Organizations: Trump, Capitol, SpaceX, Twitter, Nasdaq, New, New York Post Locations: New York

☆ Now you can invest in Elon Musk's xAI through Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has taken a stake in Elon Musk's startup xAI as she deepens her big bet on artificial intelligence. ARK Venture Fund has invested in xAI as of Sunday, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based asset manager said in an email to clients Tuesday evening. The xAI startup is also not the only Musk-led company Wood's venture fund bets on. The venture fund, launched in September 2022, targets smaller investors who can access the venture capital market through it with as little as $500. The xAI startup is reportedly planning to build a supercomputer to power the next version of its AI chatbot Grok.

Persons: Catherine Wood, Musk, Wood, Tesla Organizations: ARK Investment Management LLC, ARK Venture Fund, SpaceX, X Corp, Twitter, Microsoft, Google, Innovation Locations: Miami , Florida, U.S, Elon Musk's, xAI, St . Petersburg , Florida, OpenAI

☆ Elon Musk's xAI says it just raised $6 billion in funding, pulling in big bucks from Sequoia Capital and Saudi Arabia
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewElon Musk's xAI just took a critical step in building up its war chest to take on Sam Altman's OpenAI. The AI startup said in a blog post on Sunday that it had raised $6 billion for their Series B funding round. Related stories"There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk said in an X post on Monday morning. AdvertisementThe mercurial billionaire said in a subsequent X post that xAI's pre-money valuation was $18 billion. Pre-money valuation was $18B — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2024Sunday's announcement marks the first time xAI has talked about its fundraising efforts.

Persons: —, Elon Musk's xAI, Sam Altman's OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Musk, Elon, xAI, he'd, Altman, OpenAI Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, Saudi Arabia's, Business, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The New York Times, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google Locations: Saudi, Saudi Arabia's Kingdom

☆ Elon Musk's X is making 'likes' private so people can like NSFW posts without worrying
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk's X is planning to make "likes" private by default, according to X's head of engineering. The move will apparently encourage more people to like "edgy" content on the site. AdvertisementIt looks like X wants you to post more like Elon Musk. The social media platform plans to make "likes" on the site private, according to X's director of engineering, who said the move would encourage people to like more "edgy" posts. "Yeah, we are making likes private," wrote Haofei Wang in a post on X.

Persons: Elon Musk's, —, Elon, Haofei Wang Organizations: Service

☆ Nvidia shows no signs of AI slowdown after over 400% increase in data center business
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Nvidia's most important clients for its graphics processing units are the big cloud providers — Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud. For example, CoreWeave, a GPU cloud, is currently quoting $4.25 per hour to rent an Nvidia H100. Huang said Meta has declared its intention to spend billions on 350,000 Nvidia chips, even though the company isn't a cloud provider. Meta's cluster of servers is an example of "essential infrastructure for AI production," Huang said, or, "what we refer to as AI factories."

Persons: Jensen Huang, There's, Nvidia's, Colette Kress, Kress, Huang, Meta, Blackwell, Elon Musk's xAI Organizations: Nvidia Corp, Nvidia, Technology Conference, Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, NVIDIA, Facebook, Meta, Tesla Locations: San Jose , California

☆ WSJ's Tim Hggins: There's general concern Elon Musk's X usage have become a distraction for him
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWSJ's Tim Hggins: There's general concern Elon Musk's X usage have become a distraction for himTim Higgins, Wall Street Journal business columnist, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss some of the controversial comments and viewpoints from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, his fear of the 'woke mind virus', impact of his worldview on Tesla's company performance, and more.

Persons: Tim Hggins, Elon, Tim Higgins, Elon Musk Organizations: Wall Street Journal

☆ Elon Musk's X scores a win in his feud with Australia
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk won a legal victory in Australia Monday about content moderation. The fight revolves around footage on X of a church stabbing in a Sydney suburb. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementAn Australian court handed Elon Musk a victory Monday in what he described as an ongoing fight for "free speech." X had opposed the block, which was initially ordered on April 22, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, X Organizations: Elon, Australia, Service, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Business Locations: Sydney

A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against Israel's Bright Data, in a case that involved the scraping of public online data and its appropriate uses. X, formerly Twitter, sued Bright Data, alleging the company "scrapes data from X" and sells it "using elaborate technical measures to evade X Corp.'s anti-scraping technology." He added that X was not "looking to protect X users' privacy," and was "happy to allow the extraction and copying of X users' content so long as it gets paid." Bright Data says it only scrapes publicly available data that's visible to anyone without a login. At the time of the suit's filing, X made the information Bright Data scraped available to anyone.

Persons: Elon Musk's, X, William Alsup, X didn't, Meta Organizations: Israel's, Twitter, Bright Data, X Corp, LinkedIn, Bright, Data, Meta Locations: California, U.S, Texas, Dallas County

☆ Tesla's earnings report was worse than expected, but Elon Musk has a plan
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at Tesla's earnings report and what comes next for the EV maker. The big storyTesla's turnaround planJADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng; BIBad news: Tesla's earnings report was worse than expected. AdvertisementPerhaps that's why Musk spent so much of the earnings call discussing autonomy and the progress made with Tesla's Full Self-Driving software . Musk told analysts on the earnings call that Tesla is the majority of his work . If investors vote against the package at Tesla's annual meeting in June, who knows where Musk — and his AI ambitions — will end up .

Persons: —, Chelsea Jia Feng, Elon Musk, Tesla, Musk, hasn't, Insider's Linette Lopez, Matt Anderson, Tyler Le, JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic, Kolanovic, Cathie, Stocks, Goldman Sachs, Gerard Julien, Elon Musk's, Carl Godfrey, Joe Biden, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Business, Service, Getty Images, Tesla, Getty, EV, Musk's, Intel, Micron Technology, Microsoft, BI America, Amazon, Boeing, Meta, IBM, US Locations: Delaware, Outflows, United States, China, Idaho, New York, London

☆ Meta's Threads now has more daily users in the US than Elon Musk's X
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now, Threads has more daily users in the US than X, a trend that's been ongoing since December, when Threads became Apple's most downloaded app. "Threads DAUs in the US passed X in December 2023 and it has not looked back," Thomas Grant, Apptopia's VP of research, said. That's a roughly 55% increase in DAUs from December when Threads averaged an estimated 18 million users each day. According to Sensor Tower estimates, daily users of the X app worldwide are down 19% compared to October 2022, the month that Musk took over Twitter. An estimate of daily users from Apptopia for the week also shows no gain in Threads users.

Persons: Elon Musk, Thomas Grant, Apptopia's, It's, Musk, X, Mark Zuckerberg's, Taylor Swift, Swift, MAUs, Zuckerberg, X MAUs, Kali Hays Organizations: Service, Elon, Business, Apple, Google, Twitter, US Locations: That's, DAUs, khays@businessinsider.com

☆ Elon Musk's xAI is luring more investors through special purpose vehicles charging high fees
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk is raising funds for xAI at a $15 billion pre-money valuation. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementElon Musk's new AI startup is luring more investors through special purpose vehicles that charge hefty fees, according to an email sent this week. Related storiesThe email lays out the terms if investors want to take part in the xAI financing round through special purpose vehicles. AdvertisementFor prospective xAI investors, these commitments come at a cost.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Elon, Musk, Kali Hays Organizations: xAI, Twitter, Service, Business Locations: khays@businessinsider.com

☆ Elon Musk's X begins rewarding 'influential' users with blue checks, free subscriptions to platform
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Ashley Capoot | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk's social media site X began rolling out free premium features, including verification badges known as "blue checks," to select users late Wednesday in an effort to reward what it calls "influential" people on the platform. For most users, X Premium is a paid subscription service that can be opted into. By subscribing, users get access to exclusive features, like the option to display a blue checkmark on their profile. X CEO Linda Yaccarino shared Musk's post late Wednesday as the features began rolling out. It is not clear how long users will have access to free premium features, or if it will be possible for them to opt out of the service.

Persons: Elon, Musk, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: X Help, CNBC, Twitter, Disney, Apple Locations: U.S

☆ Some Tesla engineers are reportedly jumping ship to Elon Musk's AI startup
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla engineers are jumping ship to Elon Musk's AI startup, The Information reported. The report follows Musk's drive to gain more control over Tesla's AI strategy. Musk accused OpenAI of "aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers." He added he had been raising salaries for those on Tesla's AI engineering team in response. At the time, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said Musk's comments sparked a "firestorm."

Persons: —, Elon Musk's xAI, Ethan Knight, Knight, Musk, gunning, Dan Ives, Ross Gerber Organizations: Elon, xAI, Service, Tesla, Business, Big Tech, Wedbush Securities Locations: xAI

☆ I spent a day as a 'Truthsayer' on Truth Social — it was a bizarre mix of conspiracy theories and Biden-hate
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThe company behind Donald Trump's alt-right social media platform, Truth Social, made its stock market debut last week. Its parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp. and began trading under the ticker DJT on Tuesday. I decided to take a day-long visit its core platform, Truth Social, to see what goes on. Most of the content on Truth Social is highly political, and my feed was littered with fellow "Truthsayers" spouting conspiracy theories. AdvertisementUnless you have a burning desire to fill your days with overly political content, Truth Social might not be the social media platform for you.

Persons: —, Donald Trump's, Trump, MAGA, Elon Musk's, Joe Biden, Biden, it's Organizations: Service, Trump Media & Technology Group, Business, NBC, Washington Examiner, CBS News Locations: America

☆ A new generative AI model could compete with rivals like OpenAI. Say hello to Databricks' DBRX.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Lloyd Lee | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Databricks, a cloud-based data software company, launched a new AI model on Wednesday — and the company says it's faster, cheaper, and more efficient than its larger competitors. The model, called DBRX, comes at a time of fierce competition in the generative AI field. DBRX, available as open source, is the culmination of the company's $1.3 billion purchase of AI startup MosaicML last July, as many of its staffers helped build DBRX. Also, the entire DBRX model has 132 billion parameters, the company said. Ghodsi told BI that a team at Databricks was responsible for filtering copyrighted material from the data used to train DBRX.

Persons: —, Ali Ghodsi, Elon Musk's, Databricks, Ghodsi, Patrick Wendell, Wendell, Naveen Rao Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Microsoft Locations: San Francisco ., Databricks

☆ Lawsuit by Elon Musk's X was an attempt to punish free speech, judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewA lawsuit that Elon Musk's X filed last year against a research group was thrown out Monday, with US District Judge Charles Breyer saying, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech." But Breyer wrote "there can be no mistaking" that the real motive of the suit was to bully X's critics into silence. Related storiesWhen asked for comment on the decision, the press email for X replied, "Busy now, please check back later." Musk has previously said he's a "free speech absolutist" and that his "thermonuclear" lawsuits against media-watchdog groups are about "protecting free speech."

Persons: —, Elon Musk's X, Charles Breyer, X, Breyer, Musk, Imran Ahmed, lawfare Organizations: Service, US, Northern District of, Business, X Corp, Media Matters Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California

☆ Lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against nonprofit CCDH thrown out by judge on free speech grounds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, writing in a judgement Monday that the "case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech." X sued the research group in July, accusing it of implementing a "scare campaign" to drive away advertisers. The company also accused CCDH of improperly accessing data from the platform and selectively picking posts to "falsely claim" that X is "overwhelmed with harmful content." CCDH also found that Twitter failed to act on 89% of anti-Jewish hate speech and 97% of anti-Muslim hate speech on the platform. In one instance, X has sued an Israeli web data collection company called Bright Data over its allegedly unauthorized scraping of data from its social media platform.

Persons: Elon Musk's, X, CCDH, Musk, Charles Breyer, Breyer, Roberta Kaplan, Donald Trump, E, Jean Carroll, Trump, Carroll, Xfinity Organizations: CCDH, Northern District of, Twitter, CNBC, X, Bright, Media Matters, America, Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle Locations: California, Northern District, Northern District of California, Silicon Valley, Texas

☆ It's hard to compete with Elon Musk when recruiting AI talent, CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said Elon Musk's xAI is stiff competition in the recruiting space. The AI CEO said Musk's company offers the highest compensation at the moment. Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of the AI company Perplexity, said it can be difficult to compete with the Tesla CEO when recruiting. Musk launched his own AI startup, xAI, last year and Srinivas said it has since become one of the highest-paying companies for AI talent — on par with OpenAI. In January, Financial Times reported that Musk's AI venture was in talks to raise $6 billion at around a $20 billion valuation.

Persons: Aravind Srinivas, Elon Musk's, It's, —, Elon Musk, Tesla, Musk, Srinivas, OpenAI, Alex Heath, Perplexity, Heath, OpenAI's ChatGPT, xAI's, Patrick Collison, Collison, Srnivas, he'd, Mark, Fortune, X Organizations: Service, OpenAI, Street Journal, Financial Times, xAI, TechCrunch, Twitter, SpaceX, Musk .

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