
EXCLUSIVE 'Elon's become a lot more nasty and yelling at people.' FREDDY GRAY hears Washington whispers that the billionaire's brain is 'decaying' under the pressure, as rumours swirl of his ketamine, ecstasy and mushrooms 'cocktail'
At the height of his power, Alexander the Great wept because there were no more worlds left to conquer. Elon Musk, the richest man of our age, may have been blubbing for a different reason last week, as yet another of his unfathomable ambitions came crashing to earth.
On its ninth test flight, his SpaceX 'Starship' enterprise, which has been designed to make 'humans an interplanetary species', went up with barely a hitch. Then, on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the 400ft machine lost contact with the control room, span out of control and blew up. Musk, wearing his favoured 'OCCUPY MARS ' T-shirt for the big occasion, tried to put a positive spin on Starship's third mid-flight immolation in a row. He called the crash-test 'a big improvement' and posted triumphant videos of the spacecraft thrusting majestically towards the heavens.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
6 minutes ago
- Reuters
Sanofi finds M&A fix for its multiple itches
LONDON, June 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Sanofi ( opens new tab is one European giant that's still focused on the United States. The $123 billion French drugmaker will pay up to $9.5 billion, opens new tab for Blueprint Medicines (BPMC.O), opens new tab, a U.S. group whose key product fights a rare blood disorder which causes painful skin rashes. Aptly enough, it scratches a range of itches. Sanofi Chief Executive Paul Hudson has been in a tricky position. He needs to bolster his business to cope with a heavy reliance on eczema treatment Dupixent, which is expected to account for over a third of revenue this year, according to Visible Alpha data, but loses exclusivity early next decade. The strategy is to sell assets, like a stake in Sanofi's consumer drugs unit Opella, and invest more in new treatments. Yet the group's research record is patchy, as evidenced by recent, opens new tab underwhelming data for a much-fancied respiratory drug. The added risk is that Sanofi's pristine balance sheet, with debt equivalent to just a third of this year's EBITDA according to LSEG data, gets frittered away on expensive deals. Small wonder Sanofi is now worth just over 10 times forward earnings, a discount to European peers like Novartis (NOVN.S), opens new tab or AstraZeneca (AZN.L), opens new tab. Blueprint Medicines, however, may help assuage those M&A fears. Its key product, Ayvakit, is used to treat systemic mastocytosis, a condition that causes reactions like hives and even organ damage. Its niche status probably means it shouldn't be affected by the U.S. government's efforts to force drugmakers to cut prices by selling directly to consumers, JPMorgan analysts reckon. And, given Ayvakit is already approved and on the market, Sanofi is less exposed to the risk of failed trials, a key danger in biotech M&A. True, Blueprint does bring risks. Analysts expect Ayvakit sales to roughly quadruple by 2030 to over $2 billion, but as of now it makes operating losses. A rival treatment from Cogent Biosciences, with trial data expected this year, could lead to greater competition. All the same, there's a way to adequate returns, if shareholders are prepared to wait. In 2031, as per Visible Alpha forecasts, Blueprint could generate operating profit of $1.2 billion. That's obviously some way off, but it's also a near-11% post-tax return on his $9.2 billion outlay, after factoring in cash and assuming no cost savings. The pharma sector's cost of capital is less than 9%, according to NYU Stern School of Business estimates. If Hudson can find other viable targets, Sanofi's depressed shareholders may find more to cheer about. Follow @Unmack1, opens new tab on X


Reuters
10 minutes ago
- Reuters
Applied Digital and CoreWeave ink 15-year lease worth $7 billion
Applied Digital (APLD.O), opens new tab said on Monday it has entered into two 15-year leases with CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab, a specialized cloud services provider backed by Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, which will generate about $7 billion in revenue for the data center operator over the lease period. The deal could prove to be a major lifeline for Applied Digital, which has been facing challenges in the data center hosting sector as it transitions into a data center real estate investment trust. The company's shares surged by 17% in premarket trading following the lease announcement. "These leases solidify Applied Digital's position as an emerging provider of infrastructure critical to the next generation of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing,' CEO of Applied Digital, Wes Cummins, said in a statement. "Through these newly signed long-term leases with CoreWeave, we are taking a step forward in our strategic expansion into advanced compute infrastructure." The emergence of new cloud service providers, known as "neoclouds" like CoreWeave, focuses on renting Nvidia's highly sought-after chips to software developers. Leasing data center infrastructure from companies like Applied Digital helps reduce some of the financial burden of providing AI-centric cloud services. CoreWeave's shares were up close to 4%.


Reuters
16 minutes ago
- Reuters
US Supreme Court turns away challenge by Alpine Securities to FINRA
WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge by broker-dealer Alpine Securities claiming that the enforcement power given by the federal government to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street's self-regulator, is unconstitutional. The justices turned away Salt Lake City-based Alpine's appeal of a lower court's ruling that allowed FINRA to move forward with an enforcement action against the company for allegedly stealing more than $54.5 million from customers. FINRA, a non-governmental self-regulatory organization, is responsible under federal law for supervising broker-dealers in the United States with the aim of protecting investors and the integrity of securities markets. FINRA has considered the expulsion of Alpine, accusing it of stealing from customers by charging excessive fees and misusing their investments. Alpine responded with a lawsuit to block the FINRA expulsion proceeding, arguing that the organization's structure violates the U.S. Constitution. Specifically at issue is a constitutional principle called the private nondelegation doctrine, which involves limits on the ability of federal agencies set up by Congress to hand off authority to private entities like FINRA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed Alpine a partial victory in 2022, ruling that FINRA cannot expel member firms in expedited proceedings without obtaining review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal regulatory agency. The D.C. Circuit decided that a lack of SEC review likely violated the private nondelegation doctrine. But that court also let FINRA continue its enforcement proceeding against Alpine, saying it would not cause the kind of irreparable harm Alpine could face if later expelled, such as going out of business. This prompted Alpine's appeal to the Supreme Court. FINRA opposed Alpine's appeal, as did President Donald Trump's administration. Chief Justice John Roberts in March denied Alpine's emergency request to stop the FINRA proceeding.