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Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump threatens Apple with a 25% tariff if it doesn't build iPhones in America
President Donald Trump on Friday demanded Apple make its iPhones in the United States or face a 25% tariff. 'I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,' Trump posted Friday morning on Truth Social. 'If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.' Trump last week during his Middle East trip said he was displeased with Cook, Apple's CEO, over the company's plan to manufacture iPhones set to be sold in the United States at newly built plants in India. Over the past several years, Apple had been working to diversify its production capabilities. Some iPhone production had already moved to India, and Cook on Apple's earnings call with investors earlier this month said he expected 'the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin.' On that call, Cook said he expected Apple would face a tariff burden of up to $900 million this quarter. However, it could have been significantly worse: Apple and other US tech companies scored a big win last month when Trump exempted electronics from his massive tariffs on China. Despite lowering his tariff to at least 30% on most Chinese goods — down from 145% earlier this month — a 10% universal tariff remains on the majority of goods entering the United States. Roughly 90% of Apple's iPhone production and assembly is based in China, according to Wedbush Securities' estimates. Trump met with Cook in Riyadh at the beginning of the president's Middle East trip last week. In Qatar, he called out Cook for his plan to build US-bound iPhones in India. 'I had a little problem with Tim Cook,' Trump said last week in Qatar. 'I said to him, 'Tim, you're my friend. I treated you very good. You're coming in with $500 billion.' But now I hear you're building all over India. I don't want you building in India.'' Cook met with Trump once again at the White House on Tuesday, an administration official told CNN. The official did not divulge the subject matter of the meeting. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The world's most valuable publicly traded company is flush with cash and rakes in tremendous profit — more than any company in history. But Apple has long contended that it cannot manufacture iPhones in America. Apple has invested billions of dollars training millions of skilled engineers abroad. China and India, with their massive populations, simply have more skilled engineers than the United States does. And it costs Apple significantly less to pay those workers. Steve Jobs, Apple's late CEO, famously brought up the issue during an October 2010 meeting with former President Barack Obama. He called America's lackluster education system an obstacle for Apple, which needed 30,000 industrial engineers to support its on-site factory workers. 'You can't find that many in America to hire,' Jobs told Obama, according to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. 'If you could educate these engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here.' In a 2012 interview with tech journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he agreed with Jobs' assessment. When asked if the day would ever come when an Apple product is made in the United States, he said: 'I want there to be … and you can bet that we'll use the whole of our influence on this.' The notion Apple can reshore iPhone production is a 'fictional tale,' Dan Ives, global head of technology research at financial services firm Wedbush Securities, told CNN's Erin Burnett last month. US-made iPhones could cost more than three times their current price of around $1,000, he said, because it would be necessary to replicate the highly complex production ecosystem that currently exists in Asia. 'You build that (supply chain) in the US with a fab in West Virginia and New Jersey, they'll be $3,500 iPhones,' he said, referring to fabrication plants, or high-tech manufacturing facilities where computer chips that power electronic devices are normally made. And even then, it would cost Apple about $30 billion and three years to move just 10% of its supply chain to the US to begin with, Ives told Burnett. Ives reiterated that stance in a statement following Trump's Friday tariff threat, saying, 'the concept of Apple producing iPhones in the US is a fairy tale that is not feasible.' But while moving iPhone production to the United States may not be possible, Apple did announce a $500 billion investment to expand its US facilities earlier this year, in an apparent effort to appease Trump. The company said the investment would create a new facility to produce servers — previously made outside the United States — in Houston to support Apple Intelligence, its new brand of artificial intelligence products. It will also expand data center capacity in several states, and plans to invest in corporate facilities and production of Apple TV+ shows in 20 states, among other efforts. This story has been updated with additional details and context. CNN's John Liu and Clare Duffy contributed to this report. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Nahar Net
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- Nahar Net
Musk damaged Tesla's brand in just a few months. Fixing it will likely take longer
by Naharnet Newsdesk 24 April 2025, 13:50 Elon Musk has been called a Moonshot Master, the Edison of Our Age and the Architect of the Future, but he's got a big problem at his car company and it's not clear he can fix it: damage to its brand. Sales have plunged for Tesla amid protests and boycotts over Musk's embrace of far right-wing views. Profits have been sliced by two-thirds so far this year, and rivals from China, Europe and the U.S. are pouncing. On Tuesday came some relief as Musk announced in an earnings call with investors that he would be scaling back his government cost-cutting job in Washington to a "day or two per week" to focus more on his old job as Tesla's boss. Investors pushed up Tesla's stock 5% Wednesday, though there are plenty of challenges ahead. Who wants a Tesla? Musk seemed to downplay the role that brand damage played in the drop in first-quarter sales on the investor call. Instead, he emphasized something more fleeting — an upgrade to Tesla's best-selling Model Y that forced a shutdown of factories and pinched both supply and demand. While financial analysts following the company have noted that potential buyers probably held back while waiting for the upgrade, hurting results, even the most bullish among them say the brand damage is real, and more worrisome. "This is a full blown crisis," said Wedbush Securities' normally upbeat Dan Ives earlier this month. In a note to its clients, JP Morgan warned of "unprecedented brand damage." Musk's take on the protests Musk dismissed the protests against Tesla on the call as the work of people angry at his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency because "those who are receiving the waste and fraud wish it to continue." But the protests in Europe, thousands of miles from Washington, came after Musk supported far-right politicians there. Angry Europeans hung Musk in effigy in Milan, projected an image of him doing a straight-arm salute on a Tesla factory in Berlin and put up posters in London urging people not to buy "Swasticars" from him. Sales in Europe have gone into a free fall in the first three months of this year — down 39%. In Germany, sales plunged 62%. Another worrying sign: On Tuesday, Tesla backed off its earlier promise that sales would recover this year after dropping in 2024 for the first time a dozen years. Tesla said the global trade situation was too uncertain and declined to repeat the forecast. Here come the rivals Meanwhile, Tesla's competition is stealing its customers. Among its fiercest rivals now is Chinese giant BYD. Earlier this year, the EV maker announced it had developed an electric battery that can charge within minutes. And Tesla's European rivals have begun offering new models with advanced technology that is making them real Tesla alternatives just as popular opinion has turned against Musk. Tesla's share of the EV market in the U.S. has dropped from two-thirds to less than half, according to Cox Automotive. Pinning hopes on cybercabs Another rival, Google parent Alphabet, is already ahead of Tesla in an area that Musk has promised will help remake his company: Cybercabs. One of the highlights of Tesla's call Tuesday was Musk sticking with his previous prediction that it will l aunch driverless cabs without steering wheels and pedals in Austin, Texas, in June, and in other cities soon after. But Google's service, called Waymo, already has logged millions of driverless cybercab trips in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin as part of a partnership with ride-hailing leader Uber. A driverless future for Tesla owners? Musk also told analysts that this driverless capability will be available on the Tesla vehicles already on the road through software updates over the air, and put a timeline on it: "There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously in the second half of the year." But he has made similar promises before, only to miss his deadlines, such as in April 2019 when he vowed full automation by the end of the next year. He repeated the prediction, moving up the date, several more times, in following years. A big problem is federal investigators have not given the all-clear that Tesla vehicles can drive completely on their own safely. Among other probes, safety regulators are looking into Tesla's so-called Full Self-Driving, which is only partial self-driving, for its tie to accidents in low-visibility conditions like when there is sun glare. On the positive side In competition with rivals in the U.S., Tesla currently has one clear advantage: It will get hurt by less by tariffs because most of its vehicles are built in the countries where they are sold, including those in its biggest market, the U.S. "Tariffs are still tough on a company where margins are still low, but we do have localized supply chains," Musk said Tuesday. "That puts us in a strong position." The company also reconfirmed that a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y sport utility vehicle, will be ready for customers in the first half of this year. That could help boost sales. Another plus: The company had a blow out first quarter in its energy storage business. And Musk has promised to be producing 5,000 Optimus robots, another Tesla business, by the end of the year. Pricey stock Even after falling nearly 50% from its December highs, Tesla's stock is still very richly valued based on the one yardstick that really matters in the long run: its earnings. At 110 times its expected per share earnings this year, the stock is valued more than 25 times higher than General Motors. The average stock on in the S&P 500 index trades at less than 20 times earnings. That leaves Tesla little margin for error if something goes wrong.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Musk damaged Tesla's brand in just few months, fixing it will likely take longer
Elon Musk has been called a Moonshot Master, the Edison of Our Age and the Architect of the Future, but he's got a big problem at his car company and it's not clear he can fix it: damage to its brand. Sales have plunged for Tesla amid protests and boycotts over Musk's embrace of far right-wing views. Profits have been sliced by two-thirds so far this year, and rivals from China, Europe and the US are pouncing. On Tuesday came some relief as Musk announced in an earnings call with investors that he would be scaling back his government cost-cutting job in Washington to a "day or two per week" to focus more on his old job as Tesla's boss. Investors pushed up Tesla's stock 5 per cent Wednesday, though there are plenty of challenges ahead. Who wants a Tesla? Musk seemed to downplay the role that brand damage played in the drop in first-quarter sales on the investor call. Instead, he emphasised something more fleeting - an upgrade to Tesla's best-selling Model Y that forced a shutdown of factories and pinched both supply and demand. While financial analysts following the company have noted that potential buyers probably held back while waiting for the upgrade, hurting results, even the most bullish among them say the brand damage is real, and more worrisome. "This is a full blown crisis," said Wedbush Securities' normally upbeat Dan Ives earlier this month. In a note to its clients, JP Morgan warned of "unprecedented brand damage." Musk's take on the protests Musk dismissed the protests against Tesla on the call as the work of people angry at his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency because "those who are receiving the waste and fraud wish it to continue." But the protests in Europe, thousands of miles from Washington, came after Musk supported far-right politicians there. Angry Europeans hung Musk in effigy in Milan, projected an image of him doing a straight-arm salute on a Tesla factory in Berlin and put up posters in London urging people not to buy "Swasticars" from him. Sales in Europe have gone into a free fall in the first three months of this year - down 39 per cent. In Germany, sales plunged 62 per cent. Another worrying sign: On Tuesday, Tesla backed off its earlier promise that sales would recover this year after dropping in 2024 for the first time a dozen years. Tesla said the global trade situation was too uncertain and declined to repeat the forecast. Here come the rivals Meanwhile, Tesla's competition is stealing its customers. Among its fiercest rivals now is Chinese giant BYD. Earlier this year, the EV maker announced it had developed an electric battery that can charge within minutes. And Tesla's European rivals have begun offering new models with advanced technology that is making them real Tesla alternatives just as popular opinion has turned against Musk. Tesla's share of the EV market in the US has dropped from two-thirds to less than half, according to Cox Automotive. Pinning hopes on cybercabs Another rival, Google parent Alphabet, is already ahead of Tesla in an area that Musk has promised will help remake his company: Cybercabs. One of the highlights of Tesla's call Tuesday was Musk sticking with his previous prediction that it will launch driverless cabs without steering wheels and pedals in Austin, Texas, in June, and in other cities soon after. But Google's service, called Waymo, already has logged millions of driverless cybercab trips in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin as part of a partnership with ride-hailing leader Uber. A driverless future for Tesla owners? Musk also told analysts that this driverless capability will be available on the Tesla vehicles already on the road through software updates over the air, and put a timeline on it: "There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously in the second half of the year." But he has made similar promises before, only to miss his deadlines, such as in April 2019 when he vowed full automation by the end of the next year. He repeated the prediction, moving up the date, several more times, in following years. A big problem is federal investigators have not given the all-clear that Tesla vehicles can drive completely on their own safely. Among other probes, safety regulators are looking into Tesla's so-called Full Self-Driving, which is only partial self-driving, for its tie to accidents in low-visibility conditions like when there is sun glare. On the positive side In competition with rivals in the US, Tesla currently has one clear advantage: It will get hurt by less by tariffs because most of its vehicles are built in the countries where they are sold, including those in its biggest market, the US. "Tariffs are still tough on a company where margins are still low, but we do have localised supply chains," Musk said Tuesday. "That puts us in a strong position." The company also reconfirmed that a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y sport utility vehicle, will be ready for customers in the first half of this year. That could help boost sales. Another plus: The company had a blow out first quarter in its energy storage business. And Musk has promised to be producing 5,000 Optimus robots, another Tesla business, by the end of the year. Pricey stock Even after falling nearly 50 per cent from its December highs, Tesla's stock is still very richly valued based on the one yardstick that really matters in the long run: its earnings. At 110 times its expected per share earnings this year, the stock is valued more than 25 times higher than General Motors. The average stock on in the S&P 500 index trades at less than 20 times earnings. That leaves Tesla little margin for error if something goes wrong.
New Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- New Indian Express
Musk damaged Tesla's brand in just a few months, fixing it will likely take longer
Elon Musk has been called a Moonshot Master, the Edison of Our Age and the Architect of the Future, but he's got a big problem at his car company and it's not clear he can fix it: damage to its brand. Sales have plunged for amid protests and boycotts over Musk's embrace of far right-wing views. Profits have been sliced by two-thirds so far this year, and rivals from China, Europe and the U.S. are pouncing. On Tuesday came some relief as Musk announced in an earnings call with investors that he would be scaling back his government cost-cutting job in Washington to a 'day or two per week" to focus more on his old job as Tesla's boss. Investors pushed up Tesla's stock 5% Wednesday, though there are plenty of challenges ahead. Who wants a Tesla? Musk seemed to downplay the role that brand damage played in the drop in first-quarter sales on the investor call. Instead, he emphasized something more fleeting — an upgrade to Tesla's best-selling Model Y that forced a shutdown of factories and pinched both supply and demand. While financial analysts following the company have noted that potential buyers probably held back while waiting for the upgrade, hurting results, even the most bullish among them say the brand damage is real, and more worrisome. 'This is a full blown crisis,' said Wedbush Securities' normally upbeat Dan Ives earlier this month. In a note to its clients, JP Morgan warned of 'unprecedented brand damage." Musk's take on the protests Musk dismissed the protests against Tesla on the call as the work of people angry at his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency because 'those who are receiving the waste and fraud wish it to continue.' But the protests in Europe, thousands of miles from Washington, came after Musk supported there. Angry Europeans hung Musk in effigy in Milan, projected an image of him doing a straight-arm salute on a Tesla factory in Berlin and put up posters in London urging people not to buy 'Swasticars' from him. Sales in Europe have gone into a free fall in the first three months of this year — down 39%. In Germany, sales plunged 62%. Another worrying sign: On Tuesday, Tesla backed off its earlier promise that sales would recover this year after dropping in 2024 for the first time a dozen years. Tesla said the global trade situation was too uncertain and declined to repeat the forecast. Here come the rivals Meanwhile, Tesla's competition is stealing its customers. Among its fiercest rivals now is Chinese giant BYD. Earlier this year, the EV maker announced it had developed an electric battery that can . And Tesla's European rivals have begun offering new models with advanced technology that is making them real Tesla alternatives just as popular opinion has turned against Musk. Tesla's share of the EV market in the U.S. has dropped from two-thirds to less than half, according to Cox Automotive. Pinning hopes on cybercabs Another rival, Google parent Alphabet, is already ahead of Tesla in an area that Musk has promised will help remake his company: Cybercabs. One of the highlights of Tesla's call Tuesday was Musk sticking with his previous prediction that it will launch driverless cabs without steering wheels and pedals in Austin, Texas, in June, and in other cities soon after. But Google's service, called Waymo, already has logged in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin as part of a partnership with ride-hailing leader Uber. A driverless future for Tesla owners? Musk also told analysts that this driverless capability will be available on the Tesla vehicles already on the road through software updates over the air, and put a timeline on it: 'There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously in the second half of the year." But he has made similar promises before, only to miss his deadlines, such as in when he vowed full automation by the end of the next year. He repeated the prediction, moving up the date, several more times, in following years. A big problem is federal investigators have not given the all-clear that Tesla vehicles can drive completely on their own safely. Among other probes, safety regulators are looking into Tesla's so-called Full Self-Driving, which is only partial self-driving, for like when there is sun glare. On the positive side In competition with rivals in the U.S., Tesla currently has one clear advantage: It will get hurt by less by tariffs because most of its vehicles are built in the countries where they are sold, including those in its biggest market, the U.S. 'Tariffs are still tough on a company where margins are still low, but we do have localized supply chains,' Musk said Tuesday. 'That puts us in a strong position.' The company also reconfirmed that a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y sport utility vehicle, will be ready for customers in the first half of this year. That could help boost sales. Another plus: The company had a blow out first quarter in its energy storage business. And Musk has promised to be producing 5,000 Optimus robots, another Tesla business, by the end of the year. Pricey stock Even after falling nearly 50% from its December highs, Tesla's stock is still very richly valued based on the one yardstick that really matters in the long run: its earnings. At 110 times its expected per share earnings this year, the stock is valued more than 25 times higher than General Motors. The average stock on in the S&P 500 index trades at less than 20 times earnings. That leaves Tesla little margin for error if something goes wrong.
The Star
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
Elon Musk damaged Tesla's brand in just a few months. Fixing it will likely take longer
NEW YORK: Elon Musk has been called a Moonshot Master, the Edison of Our Age and the Architect of the Future, but he's got a big problem at his car company and it's not clear he can fix it: damage to its brand. Sales have plunged for Tesla amid protests and boycotts over Musk's embrace of far right-wing views. Profits have been sliced by two-thirds so far this year, and rivals from China, Europe and the US are pouncing. On April 22 came some relief as Musk announced in an earnings call with investors that he would be scaling back his government cost-cutting job in Washington to a "day or two per week" to focus more on his old job as Tesla's boss. Investors pushed up Tesla's stock 5% Wednesday, though there are plenty of challenges ahead. Musk seemed to downplay the role that brand damage played in the drop in first-quarter sales on the investor call. Instead, he emphasized something more fleeting – an upgrade to Tesla's best-selling Model Y that forced a shutdown of factories and pinched both supply and demand. While financial analysts following the company have noted that potential buyers probably held back while waiting for the upgrade, hurting results, even the most bullish among them say the brand damage is real, and more worrisome. "This is a full blown crisis,' said Wedbush Securities' normally upbeat Dan Ives earlier this month. In a note to its clients, JP Morgan warned of "unprecedented brand damage." Musk dismissed the protests against Tesla on the call as the work of people angry at his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency because "those who are receiving the waste and fraud wish it to continue.' But the protests in Europe, thousands of miles from Washington, came after Musk supported far-right politicians there. Angry Europeans hung Musk in effigy in Milan, projected an image of him doing a straight-arm salute on a Tesla factory in Berlin and put up posters in London urging people not to buy "Swasticars' from him. Sales in Europe have gone into a free fall in the first three months of this year – down 39%. In Germany, sales plunged 62%. Another worrying sign: On Tuesday, Tesla backed off its earlier promise that sales would recover this year after dropping in 2024 for the first time a dozen years. Tesla said the global trade situation was too uncertain and declined to repeat the forecast. Meanwhile, Tesla's competition is stealing its customers. Among its fiercest rivals now is Chinese giant BYD. Earlier this year, the EV maker announced it had developed an electric battery that can charge within minutes. And Tesla's European rivals have begun offering new models with advanced technology that is making them real Tesla alternatives just as popular opinion has turned against Musk. Tesla's share of the EV market in the US has dropped from two-thirds to less than half, according to Cox Automotive. Another rival, Google parent Alphabet, is already ahead of Tesla in an area that Musk has promised will help remake his company: Cybercabs. One of the highlights of Tesla's call Tuesday was Musk sticking with his previous prediction that it will launch driverless cabs without steering wheels and pedals in Austin, Texas, in June, and in other cities soon after. But Google's service, called Waymo, already has logged millions of driverless cybercab trips in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin as part of a partnership with ride-hailing leader Uber. Musk also told analysts that this driverless capability will be available on the Tesla vehicles already on the road through software updates over the air, and put a timeline on it: "There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously in the second half of the year." But he has made similar promises before, only to miss his deadlines, such as in April 2019 when he vowed full automation by the end of the next year. He repeated the prediction, moving up the date, several more times, in following years. A big problem is federal investigators have not given the all-clear that Tesla vehicles can drive completely on their own safely. Among other probes, safety regulators are looking into Tesla's so-called Full Self-Driving, which is only partial self-driving, for its tie to accidents in low-visibility conditions like when there is sun glare. In competition with rivals in the US, Tesla currently has one clear advantage: It will get hurt by less by tariffs because most of its vehicles are built in the countries where they are sold, including those in its biggest market, the US. "Tariffs are still tough on a company where margins are still low, but we do have localized supply chains,' Musk said Tuesday. "That puts us in a strong position.' The company also reconfirmed that a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y sport utility vehicle, will be ready for customers in the first half of this year. That could help boost sales. Another plus: The company had a blow out first quarter in its energy storage business. And Musk has promised to be producing 5,000 Optimus robots, another Tesla business, by the end of the year. Even after falling nearly 50% from its December highs, Tesla's stock is still very richly valued based on the one yardstick that really matters in the long run: its earnings. At 110 times its expected per share earnings this year, the stock is valued more than 25 times higher than General Motors. The average stock on in the S&P 500 index trades at less than 20 times earnings. That leaves Tesla little margin for error if something goes wrong. – AP
