Tesla CEO Elon Musk lauded Chinese automakers Friday, calling them the “most competitive in the world,” during a pre-recorded question-and-answer stream at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress, which is hosted in China’s Hainan province.
Musk was highly complementary of the nation that’s imperative to his electric vehicle company, and the comments come as Tesla tries to improve its reputation in China.
“I have a great deal of respect for the many Chinese automakers for driving these (EV) technologies,” Musk said. In the three-minute appearance, Musk said Chinese carmakers are some of the best at software, which he said will “shape the future of the automobile industry.”
The company broke ground on a major Shanghai factory in 2019 and was seen as a poster child for Beijing’s attempts to show it’s allowing more foreign businesses into its relatively closed market.
However, negative press about Tesla in China has increased over this past year. One high-profile case occurred in April when a woman, who claimed to be a Tesla customer, protested an alleged brake failure in her car at the Shanghai auto show. A video of the incident went viral on Chinese social networks, and state media said Tesla had an “arrogant and overbearing stance” in China.
It’s also faced regulatory scrutiny around its privacy and a handful of recalls in China.
“Tesla is fully aware of the severity of the PR crisis” it faces in China, JL Warren Capital, an equity research firm that focuses on Chinese and U.S. companies with significant exposure in China, wrote earlier this summer. Tesla also reached out to social media influencers in China to try to get them to remove or recant their critical posts, including some by noted automotive experts, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla sold 44,264 China-made vehicles in August, including 31,379 for export. It was an increase from the 32,968 China-made vehicles sold in July and 33,155 units sold in June.
Following a disappointing revenue forecast in its quarterly earnings report late Wednesday, Salesforce’s stock slumped 8%, bringing its decline for 2025 to 28%. That’s the worst performance in large-cap tech.
Revenue increased 10% in the fiscal second quarter from a year earlier, cracking double-digit growth for the first time since early 2024. Sales of $10.24 billion topped the average analyst estimate of $10.14 billion, and earnings per share also exceeded expectations.
However, for the fiscal third quarter, Salesforce said revenue will be $10.24 billion to $10.29 billion, while analysts were expecting $10.29 billion, according to LSEG.
Salesforce regularly touts its investments in artificial intelligence and the advancements in its software as a service, or SaaS, but the company hasn’t been lifted by the AI boom in the same way as many of its tech peers — particularly those focused on infrastructure.
There’s also a concern on Wall Street that AI is going to eat away at much of the software sector.
“While the investor community oozes angst over the future of SaaS, the here and now from Salesforce, while impressive at scale, is not enough to reshape the narrative,” wrote analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets, in a report on Wednesday. The analysts have a buy rating on the stock.
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Salesforce is dealing with challenges selling marketing and commerce products, Robin Washington, the company’s president and chief operating and financial officer, said on a conference call with analysts.
In its earnings release, Salesforce said it closed over 12,500 total deals for Agentforce, which can automate the handling of customer service questions. That includes 6,000 paid deals. The company said that over 40% of bookings for Agentforce and its data cloud came from existing customers.
CEO Marc Benioff maintained his optimistic tone, downplaying concerns about the AI threat to software and telling analysts on the earnings call that “we are seeing one of the greatest transformations” in the space.
“To hear some of this nonsense that’s out there in social media or in other places, and people say the craziest things, but it’s not grounded in any customer truth,” Benioff said.
Salesforce kept its full-year revenue outlook but now sees higher earnings. The company is targeting $11.33 to $11.37 in adjusted earnings per share on $41.1 billion to $41.3 billion in revenue.
Figma shares plummeted nearly 20% on Thursday, falling to the lowest price since the design software vendor’s IPO in July after the company reported earnings for the first time as a public company.
Results for the second quarter were largely inline with expectations, as Figma had issued preliminary results a little over a month ago. Revenue increased 41% from a year earlier to $249.6 million, slightly topping analyst estimates of $248.8 million, according to LSEG.
Analysts at Piper Sandler described the report as “largely a non-event,” but noted that the “shares have witnessed hyper-volatility” following their 250% surge in the trading debut.
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Since closing at $115.50 on its first day, the stock has lost more than half its value, lowering the company’s market cap to about $27 billion.
For the third quarter, Figma forecasted revenue of between $263 million and $265 million, which would represent about 33% growth at the middle of the range. The LSEG consensus was $256.8 million.
Figma’s IPO was significant for Silicon Valley and the tech sector broadly as it represented one of the highest-profile offerings in years and signaled Wall Street’s growing appetite for growth. The market had been in a multiyear lull that began in early 2022, when inflation was soaring and interest rates were on the rise.
Figma reported a 129% net retention rate, a reflection of expansion with existing customers. The figure was down from 132% in the first quarter.
A JetBlue Airways Airbus A321-231 departs San Diego International Airport en route to New York on March 4, 2025 in San Diego, California.
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JetBlue Airways plans to install Amazon‘s Project Kuiper on some of its airplanes to bolster in-flight Wi-Fi, the companies announced Thursday, in a vote of confidence for the nascent internet satellite service.
The technology will be added to about a quarter of the airline’s fleet, with the rollout beginning in 2027 and expected to be complete in 2028, JetBlue President Marty St. George said on a call with reporters.
The team-up is a significant win for Amazon, which has been working to build a constellation of internet-beaming satellites in low-Earth orbit, called Project Kuiper. The service will compete directly with Elon Musk‘s Starlink, which currently dominates the market and has 8,000 satellites in orbit.
Amazon has sent up 102 satellites through a series of rocket launches since April. It’s aiming to meet a deadline by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires it to have about 1,600, or half of its full constellation, in orbit by the end of July 2026.
The company hopes to begin commercial service later this year.
“Even though we still have a lot more work to do, we’re super excited to have JetBlue as the first airline customer for Kuiper,” Chris Weber, Kuiper’s vice president of sales and marketing, told reporters.
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Starlink has signed up a growing number of airlines to use its services. JetBlue is Kuiper’s first airline partner, though Amazon has signed several deals recently as it tries to expand the service, including with European plane maker Airbus in April.
JetBlue has offered free in-flight internet for years through a partnership with Viasat, which operates a network of geostationary, or GEO, satellites. That partnership will continue, St. George said.
He praised Amazon’s satellite service, saying Kuiper offers high speed, low latency and high reliability compared with GEO satellite networks. JetBlue could eventually use a combination of low-Earth orbit and GEO satellites for in-flight internet, St. George added.
U.S. airlines have been working to improve their in-flight Wi-Fi, which has long been derided for slow speeds and high prices.
Delta Air Lines followed JetBlue in unveiling complimentary connectivity in 2023 for its SkyMiles loyalty program members. Hawaiian Airlines is using Starlink for free in-flight Wi-Fi, and Alaska Airlines, which acquired that carrier last year, recently said it would outfit its planes with the same service.
United Airlines is also working to equip its planes to offer its loyalty program members free Wi-Fi through Starlink. American Airlines, for its part, in April said it plans to have free in-flight internet on most of its planes next year for members of its AAdvantage program.