Latest news with #TeslaFiles'
Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Irish Independent
The Big Tech Show: The Tesla Files: What it's really like to work for Elon Musk
Sönke Iwersen, co-author of The Tesla Files, the inside story of Musk's empire, and an award-winning journalist who has led the investigative team at Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper, joins Adrian on this week's episode of The Big Tech Show. In May 2023, a mass of internal documents from a Tesla worker were leaked to German newspaper Handelsblatt. The 'Tesla Files' have shed light on deep-rooted issues in how the company manages data, workplace safety, and product reliability. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Sells X to Elon Musk's AI Company at $33 Billion Valuation, Mogul Says
Wait — Elon Musk just sold X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, to himself? Well, kind of. Musk, in a post on X Friday, said that his artificial-intelligence company, xAI, has acquired X in an all-stock transaction that values X at $33 billion ($45 billion minus $12 billion in debt). The deal gives xAI a valuation of $80 billion, Musk claimed. Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion and took the company private. More from Variety X Goes Down for Thousands of Users How Do Political Docs Stay Alive in New Trump Era? Key Documentary Players Meet at CPH:DOX to Ponder Alternatives After 'Streamers Went to the Right' 'Tesla Files' Documentary Aims to Expose Inner-Workings of Tesla and Question Elon Musk's Political Ambition (EXCLUSIVE) What's going on here? With the sale of X to xAI, Musk is exchanging the investor base of the social network with that of his AI company (some of which they share). Equity owners in X included Musk himself, along with Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Foundation, Fidelity Investments, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Sean 'Diddy' Combs. The investors in xAI, meanwhile, include Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, BlackRock, Alwaleed's Kingdom Holdings Ltd., Lightspeed Venture Partners, MGX, Morgan Stanley, Oman Investment Authority, the Qatar Investment Authority, Sequoia, Valor and Vy Capital. Musk, in his post, said that X has more than 600 million active users. 'xAI and X's futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.' Musk claimed that the combination 'will unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X's massive reach. The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn't just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.' Best of Variety What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart Jokes Trump's Defense Secretary Was ‘Distracted by ‘White Lotus' When Accidentally Leaking War Plans to The Atlantic: ‘Oopsie Poopsie'
On this week's episode of 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart went after President Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, for leaking top secret U.S. war plans to The Atlantic by accidentally including the publication's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in a group chat. Before diving into the brief segment, Stewart sarcastically prefaced the audience by saying he wanted to provide a 'quick update on an administration that is, once again, carrying out its planswith competence and professionalism.' More from Variety Trump's Defense Secretary Accidentally Texted War Plans to The Atlantic: 'I Didn't Think It Could Be Real,' Editor Says Donald Trump Calls George Clooney a 'Second Rate Movie Star' After Clooney Calls Out the Government for Trying to 'Make Journalists Smaller': 'They Don't Like the Press' 'Tesla Files' Documentary Aims to Expose Inner-Workings of Tesla and Question Elon Musk's Political Ambition (EXCLUSIVE) Stewart then played a series of news clips illustrating the situation. They explained that Hegseth had mistakenly included Goldberg in a group chat on Signal meant to discuss attack plans on Huthi rebels in Yemen. Other individuals in the chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, according to Goldberg's story detailing the incident, which he published Monday. 'Oopsie poopsie!' Stewart exclaimed. 'You know, back in my day, if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you had to work the sources, meet them in dark garages, you earned trust, pound the pavement. Now you wait for the national security advisor to be distracted by 'White Lotus' while he's setting up his 'Bomb Yemen' group chat. 'Are those guys jerking each other off?'' Stewart continued, 'By the way, I might also be in this. I don't know. I don't check my group chats. Perhaps my favorite text of the entire group chain was the one from our defense secretary saying, 'We are currently clean on op-sec.' For those of you who don't know, 'op-sec' means operational said that in a group chat, a group chat with a journalist!' Stewart added that Goldberg 'didn't think it could be real' until Yemen was bombed. That detail invoked a mixed reaction from the crowd. Stewart then joked, 'Oh, did I bring you down?' Watch the entire monologue below. Best of Variety The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Defense Secretary Accidentally Texted War Plans to The Atlantic: ‘I Didn't Think It Could Be Real,' Editor Says
Pete Hegseth, President Trump's secretary of defense, inadvertently included the top editor of The Atlantic in a Signal text chat group revealing the U.S.'s attack plans on Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month, according to the magazine. The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported in a nearly 3,500-word story Monday that the top-most national-security leaders of the United States included him in a group chat on Signal about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. 'I didn't think it could be real,' he wrote. 'Then the bombs started falling.' More from Variety Donald Trump Calls George Clooney a 'Second Rate Movie Star' After Clooney Calls Out the Government for Trying to 'Make Journalists Smaller': 'They Don't Like the Press' 'Tesla Files' Documentary Aims to Expose Inner-Workings of Tesla and Question Elon Musk's Political Ambition (EXCLUSIVE) Rosie O'Donnell Questions 'Why' Donald Trump Won Every Swing State Considering He Is 'Best Friends' With a 'Man Who Owns and Runs the Internet': 'I Would Hope That Would Be Investigated' According to Goldberg's report, he received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. 'I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump's national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz,' Goldberg wrote. In the story, Goldberg detailed how the same user later added him to a group chat called 'Houthi PC small group' (or principals committee), with contacts who appeared to be most of the Trump administration's national-security leaders, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. On March 15, about two hours before America's bombing in Yemen became publicly known, Hegseth texted the Signal group the war plan — which included 'precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing,' Goldberg wrote. 'I have never seen a breach quite like this,' Goldberg wrote. 'It is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal. But the app is used primarily for meeting planning and other logistical matters — not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action. And, of course, I've never heard of an instance in which a journalist has been invited to such a discussion.' According to the Atlantic, the veracity of the messaging group was confirmed by Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council. 'This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,' Hughes wrote. 'The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Tesla Files' Documentary Aims to Expose Inner-Workings of Tesla and Question Elon Musk's Political Ambition (EXCLUSIVE)
A high-profile doc working-titled 'Tesla Files' that seeks to expose the alleged danger of Elon Musk's political influence is set to be unveiled as a work-in-progress this week at the CPH:DOX international documentary festival in Copenhagen. Produced by Germany's Beetz Brothers and directed by Andreas Pichler ('The Milk System') 'Tesla Files' takes its cue from 100GB of leaked internal data provided by a whistleblower named Lukasz Krupski, who worked for Tesla in Norway, to German business newspaper Handelsblatt. More from Variety CPH:Roughcut Filmmakers Talk Ukraine, OnlyFans, Migrant Hunter in Bulgaria, Stav Shaffir, Herding Tradition Under Threat (EXCLUSIVE) Rosie O'Donnell Questions 'Why' Donald Trump Won Every Swing State Considering He Is 'Best Friends' With a 'Man Who Owns and Runs the Internet': 'I Would Hope that Would be Investigated' How Gunnar Hall Jensen Had the Guts to Complete His Documentary About His Son After the Young Man's Death (EXCLUSIVE) Krupski – who was fired from Tesla in 2022 – claimed the technology behind Tesla's self-driving cars while he worked there was not safe enough to allow the cars to be driven on public roads. In order to 'understand Elon Musk today, we must examine The Elon Musk System — how he announces ideas, executes them, and relentlessly pushes forward technological solutions, often at the expense of truth and with real human consequences,' says the synopsis for 'Tesla Files.' The timely doc is being produced by Beetz Brothers in tandem with a still unspecified German public broadcaster and a streamer. Beetz Brothers is a doc powerhouse specialized in political and investigative stories whose recent standout titles include true-crime docuseries 'Mafia Hunters' and 'German Cocaine Cowboy' and monarchic power exposé 'Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King.' Besides Krupski, 'Tesla Files' provides testimonies from other former Tesla employees and whistleblowers. 'We wanted to move beyond the data and show the human cost — families affected, victims, lawyers trying to fight back. These stories are painful and global,' Beetz Brothers CEO Christian Beetz told Variety. Anne Von Petersdorff, who is producing the doc, noted that 'Right now, Tesla is under investigation across Europe and by the Department of Justice in the U.S.' Therefore, 'The timing of Musk's political rise raises serious questions — was it a move to protect himself from accountability?,' she said. The 'Tesla Files' doc will weave three interconnected narratives. The first one is a storyline 'that examines Musk's grip on Tesla and his transformation from tech entrepreneur to political strategist,' according to promotional materials. The second is 'victim stories, which focus on personal tragedies caused by Tesla's autopilot, contrasting Musk's grand technological ambitions with the real suffering of those left behind.' And the third delves into investigations into Musk following journalists and lawyers uncovering the inner workings of Tesla through leaked data and 'revealing a pattern of cover-ups, regulatory evasion, and a growing entanglement between Musk's empire and political power,' the materials say. 'Tesla Files' is being sold by Mediawan Rights, the sales unit of European media conglomerate Mediawan. Mediawan owns Germany's Leonine Studios that, in turn, owns Beetz Brothers. They are roughly halfway through production. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
