Latest news with #GerberKawasaki
Bloomberg
15 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Apple Isn't Even at the AI Party, Ross Gerber Says
"Siri is clueless and doesn't work," Ross Gerber, president and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, says while discussing Apple's WWDC 2025. Speaking on "Bloomberg The Close," Gerber also says Steve Jobs would call Apple's new products "garbage." (Source: Bloomberg)
CNBC
4 days ago
- Automotive
- CNBC
'Closing Bell Overtime' Tesla panel talks impact of Elon Musk's feud with Pres. Trump
Ross Gerber, Gerber Kawasaki, and Brett Winton, ARK Invest, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk the impact of Elon Musk and Trump's feud on Tesla as a company and its shareholders.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Irish Times
‘Nobody on the right or left is gonna buy a Tesla' - the Trump spat threat to Musk's business empire
What began as Elon Musk's embrace of right-wing populism has become a defining – and potentially harmful – chapter in his business career. By endorsing Donald Trump's MAGA movement and far-right parties in Europe, Musk alienated a big portion of his original customer base, eroding Tesla's brand , sales and market share around the globe. Then came this week's rupture: a personal and public break-up with Trump that prompted threats of retaliation from a man with control over the world's most powerful government. By simultaneously burning bridges with both his customers and now the political movement he funded and amplified for months, Musk now faces a rare convergence of threats: collapsing brand loyalty, shaky revenues, and mounting legal and regulatory risk. Tesla's sales are already stumbling under the weight of partisan baggage. SpaceX, long seen as a strategic national asset, is facing new scrutiny as political winds shift. And the green shoots at X – Musk's $44 billion 'free speech' experiment – that were fuelled by Musk's proximity to the White House and the ad dollars that followed, may soon disappear. READ MORE 'Elon isn't functioning to the benefit of his shareholders,' said Ross Gerber, the chief executive officer of Tesla shareholder Gerber Kawasaki, which has been reducing its Tesla holdings over the last few years. Speaking on Bloomberg Television on Thursday while the meltdown was still going on, Gerber said Musk's behaviour is leading to the 'dismantling of the Musk empire in real time.' With enemies on both flanks, Musk finds himself at the centre of a storm fuelled by consumer revolt and political hostility. [ Donald Trump 'not interested' in talking to Elon Musk Opens in new window ] [ Trump-Musk bromance descends into a jaw-dropping feud Opens in new window ] 'Nobody on the right is gonna buy a Tesla, nobody on the left is gonna buy a Tesla. Elon is a man without a country,' said Steve Bannon, an outside adviser to Trump who has long been critical of Musk, in an interview. Bannon says he is 'in continual conversations at the most senior levels' of the Trump administration to push them to revoke Musk's security clearance and use the Defense Production Act to seize SpaceX and Starlink on grounds they are vital to US national security. Even if Trump does not take such extreme measures, there is no shortage of retaliatory options for the White House. The president could try to wield the power of agencies like the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration to inflict real harm – or even just incessant regulatory morass – on to all of Musk's businesses and the source of his wealth. In just one day, the Musk-Trump spat shaved $34 billion from his personal net worth, the second-largest loss ever in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the 500 wealthiest people on the planet. The only bigger wealth hit: his own wipeout in November 2021. Tesla lost $153 billion of market value on Thursday, with shares reversing course on Friday after Musk began to simmer down. Musk has faced deep stretches of pain before. There are flanks of sceptics who have, over the years, called for his impending demise only to be proven wrong by the world's richest man and his cult following of fans and funders willing to throw ever-growing sums of money at his ambitions. [ Elon Musk has damaged himself and shows no signs of stopping Opens in new window ] Most famously, Tesla flirted with bankruptcy only to reverse course and become the biggest electric vehicle seller in the world. Musk's $44 billion purchase of X was widely panned as the company's debt languished on banks' books, only to see those fortunes reversed after Trump's election. 'Musk has a habit of teetering on the edge of destruction and pulling himself back just in the nick of time,' said Nancy Tengler, whose firm holds 3.5 per cent of its growth portfolio Tesla stock, in a Friday interview on Bloomberg Television. Tengler, chief executive and chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, said her firm has been adding Tesla shares in recent months but now has a 'full position.' 'He needs to dial down the rhetoric and the drama and get back to the business,' she says, as investors own Tesla stock for growth, not for 'the histrionics.' To pull off a rebound this time around, Musk is going to have to convince people to start buying his electric vehicles at a faster clip and reverse the painful sales slide in the US, Europe and around the world. He is also going to have to attract riders to his new robotaxi service in Austin as the company makes a gigantic bet on artificial intelligence, robotics and self-driving cars. Musk has lobbied lawmakers to help clear a path for driverless vehicles, something Trump initially endorsed. It is now unclear if the Trump-Musk fallout complicates the regulatory environment for autonomous vehicles and potentially slows the path forward for Tesla's robotaxi network. 'The disagreement will not help Tesla demand but could potentially (temporarily) alienate multiple sides of the political spectrum,' said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a research note entitled 'Well That Escalated Quickly...' Jonas said emotions are 'running high' and that he is sticking to his long-term $410 price target on Tesla's share price but is bracing for near-term volatility and is 'prepared for the stock to give up more.' Other tests in the coming weeks may include a $5 billion debt offering of the billionaire's AI company, xAI Corp, as well as funding rounds for xAI and SpaceX. Musk recently closed a $650 million late-stage raise for his neurotechnology company Neuralink from big investors including Sequoia Capital, ARK Investment Management and Founders Fund. From a legal and regulatory perspective, there is even more at stake for Musk if the Trump administration turns on the billionaire and claws back contracts like the president threatened on Thursday. SpaceX, one of the world's most valuable start-ups with a market value of $350 billion, has received more than $22 billion in unclassified contracts from the Defense Department and Nasa since 2000, according to data from Bloomberg Government. It launches critical national security satellites for the Pentagon and the US is depending on the Musk-led company to develop a spacecraft to put American astronauts on the moon in as little as two years. Musk's vow to decommission its all-important Dragon spacecraft, which ferries cargo and people to the International Space Station for the US, sent shock waves throughout the industry. Following through with the threat, which Musk later walked back, would sever a vital part of the US space program. 'It is untenable to have a CEO of a prime defence and aerospace contractor threaten to shut down services the government has contracted with them to perform,' said Lori Garver, a former Nasa deputy administrator under former president Barack Obama. Garver says Nasa needs SpaceX, but that SpaceX's business model also depends, in part, on the US government. 'Elon has already walked back decommissioning Dragon, because they do require now, as a big part of their business plan, government contracts. But they provide a service for those contracts. So it's a symbiotic relationship,' Garver said. On a more day-to-day basis, government agencies could try to inflict pain on Musk's businesses by delaying everything from space launches to satellite service to robotaxi expansion. Investigations into publicly traded Tesla or the finances of his companies could include the SEC, as well as antitrust probes and Federal Trade Commission interest around social media moderation, data use or AI. So far, Musk and Trump may be trying to at least press pause on the public spectacle. White House officials say Trump plans to focus his attention on inflation and the economy rather than speak to Musk, and insinuated without evidence that the billionaire was agitating for a call with the president. (In a pair of posts on his social media platform Friday morning, Trump intensified his push for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower rates.) As for pulling Musk's government contracts, Trump has not yet pursued any steps to follow through with his threats, one of these people said. He is, however, thinking of getting rid of his Tesla. – Bloomberg
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Will Tesla have to play catch up to Waymo's robotaxis?
Tesla (TSLA) looks to move into its "golden age," according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, through the rollout of its robotaxi beta in Austin, Texas, on June 12. Waymo — whose parent company is tech giant Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) — remains Tesla's biggest robotaxi competitor with years of data to back it up. DVx Ventures CEO Jon McNeill explains what is still setting Waymo apart from Tesla. McNeill previously served as the president of Tesla (TSLA) between 2015 and 2018, the chief operating officer of Lyft (LYFT) from 2018 until the next year, and was a member of General Motors' (GM) board. Also catch Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management CEO Ross Gerber — a long-time Tesla investor and Elon Musk critic — share his thoughts on Waymo's robotaxi model as compared to Tesla's plans with Yahoo Finance. McNeill also discusses expanding investments into the AI ecosystem, beyond just Nvidia (NVDA), through this ETF in this clip here. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla vs. Waymo: The battle of the robotaxis
Tesla (TSLA) is in the process of rolling out and launching its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, next month. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management CEO Ross Gerber — a long-time Tesla investor and critic of Musk — comes on the program to talk about the tough competition Tesla's autonomous driving faces from Waymo's own robotaxis. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL). Also catch Gerber discuss Tesla CEO Elon Musk's recommitment to the electric vehicle developer. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. Your point about self-driving cars being a long-term trend, and it's well taken. I do wonder whether you think, I don't want to overstate it, Ross, but whether you think something might be shifting there. I mean, I was just struck by this. The Waymo co-CEO telling reporters this week they have reached 10 million trips, doubling in the past five months. As an investor in a long-time tech investor, Ross, are you excited about that trend, not in the near term, or in the intermediate term, but 5, 10 years out? And how do you think about Tesla's potential role in it? Well, this is kind of one of my favorite things to do as an investor is really try to like, you know, brainstorm what does this future really look like when you think about it from a more human perspective, not what the tech people expect us to do, you know. So there's two issues here. One, Waymo is incredible. It's doing an incredible job. It drives safer than humans. It's incredibly effective service and we see them as the leader in robo taxi, and they're rapidly expanding and people love the experience with Waymo. They're doing phenomenally well here in Los Angeles in the Santa Monica area. You see Waymos working non-stop and I have yet to hear anybody say anything bad about it, and we talk to a lot of Waymo customers. So Uber really has to worry about Waymo for sure. Secondly, there's no doubt in my mind that Waymo has solved robo taxi in a way that makes driving safer, where Tesla has not yet. And this is an important difference because until you can make the car safer than humans, you know, driving, it's really hard to get mass adoption of, of sort of not driving. So, you know, in my mind, the, the robo taxi has been solved by Waymo and Tesla should look at what Waymo's doing and, and in a lot of ways, they're copying them. And I think eventually we'll see very big similarities between what Tesla's doing and what Waymo's doing, especially with the hardware on the car, which Elon's gonna have to admit at some point isn't adequate for real safe, full self-driving. So the real issue is, are you going to give up your car and the convenience of having a car whenever you want it to do errands and drop off your kids and pick up the dry cleaning, and then go stop by the beach for a run, you know, like, people, this is a symbol of who you are and your independence. And I personally don't see myself giving up driving because I, I love cars and I love driving. And I asked my kids this, like, you know, because my kids are like 13, and I'm like, you know, should I teach you how to drive a car, or are you just cool like taking robo cabs your whole life? And he looks at me like I'm nuts. He can't wait to have a car. You know, so there's a part of the human behavior here that I think isn't going to change. And even replacing the vehicle fleet would take 20 years and Elon told me that himself, many years ago when I asked him. And so I just don't see robo taxi expanding the market for taxi services substantially on the near term at all. So it's really a competition between Uber, Waymo, and Tesla in the end to, to get your ride service needs done. But how does this market really expand? That's the big question. And I'm not sold that humans are giving up their cars. Sign in to access your portfolio
