Google, Tesla continue layoffs
Google and Tesla continue laying off people this year across multiple rounds. While Google has reportedly laid off atleast 200 “core” team employees from the U.S. and plans to move several job roles to India and Mexico, Musk’s Tesla is laying off hundreds from their Supercharging team along with key executives. A report by The Information stated that Daniel Ho, Tesla’s head of the new vehicles program and Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of EV charging, were two of these leaders. The company had announced last month that they would be laying off more than 10% of its workforce or 14,000 people. Musk said that this was a part of the company’s reorganisation and streamlining process that has to be done every 5 years.
The EV market leader has been struggling this year with a considerable drop in vehicle deliveries and a recall notice for more than 3,000 Cybertrucks. Google, on the other hand, has beaten analyst expectations and gave a stock buyback to investors for the first time in their previous earnings report that came out last week.
India ‘shocked’ by Musk’s surprise China visit
Elon Musk’s recent surprise visit to China pleased Tesla investors after a less-than-impressive earnings report but India felt rejected by the move after cancelling a scheduled trip to the country earlier this month. The reaction underlines the strained diplomatic and business relations between India and China since a 2020 border clash between the two neighbours. Musk was meant to meet Indian PM Narendra Modi last week to announce a $3 billion investment here in a car plant but cancelled citing “very heavy obligations.” The Indian government had already sent out invites publicising Musk’s attendance at a startup event by then.
Musk met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to roll out its advanced driver assistance package in China, which is the world’s largest auto market. Musk is potentially shifting focus Tesla’s plans from expansion since their earnings report which showed growing competition from Chinese EVs and lagging demand for Tesla. The visit could also have boosted Modi’s ongoing re-election campaign.
EU pulls up Meta for election misinformation
Meta’s Instagram and Facebook are under investigation by the European Commission for failing to tackle false advertising and disinformation ahead of the European Parliament elections. Besides concerns around Russia, China and Iran spreading disinformation, political parties in the EU were also resorting to fake news to get votes for the June 6-9 vote to select the next five-year parliament. The Digital Services Act which was formed last year held Big Tech companies to fight illegal and harmful content on their platforms seriously or pay a fine of as much as 6% of their global annual turnover.
A spokesperson from Meta defended the company saying they had a set process to tackle misinformation. The EU pointed out towards the removing their disinformation tracker without replacing it. Meta has to inform the EU within five days about what corrective measures it will take.
