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Packages move along a conveyor at an Amazon fulfillment center on Cyber Monday in Robbinsville, New Jersey, U.S., on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chad Rubin was looking for a way to spice up his Amazon listing for a vacuum hose. He was struggling to come up with a catchy title that would make shoppers want to click on his hose instead of the countless others in Amazon’s vast marketplace.

For assistance, Rubin turned to ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that’s gone viral since its launch late last year. He soon began to experiment with the tool for completing tasks such as generating copy on his product page. Rubin asked ChatGPT to “generate 5 insanely clever and catchy headlines” for an infographic promoting his vacuum cleaner hose.

“Dirt destroying air flow,” he said, reading off one of ChatGPT’s responses. “I would have never in a million years thought of that for a vacuum hose.”

As ChatGPT rapidly finds its way into use by lawyers, clinicians, professors and their students, it’s also showing its utility in the business world, notably for Amazon sellers seeking the tiniest competitive advantage as they try to bolster sales. Third-party merchants who have embraced ChatGPT say it can make the job of selling on Amazon’s marketplace easier and more lucrative.

A stream of YouTube videos, articles and LinkedIn posts have appeared in recent months touting the benefits of ChatGPT for Amazon sellers. E-commerce software providers such as JungleScout have also jumped on the trend by integrating ChatGPT into their services.

“This is one of those technologies that is going to fundamentally change everything we do in our lives,” said JungleScout technology chief Stephen Curial, who previously spent a decade at Amazon in software development. “It’s that powerful.”

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Curial said it won’t be long before generative AI tools such as ChatGPT become ordinary productivity aides, similar to calculators or spellcheck, helping busy businesspeople minimize daily grunt work.

ChatGPT has taken the technology industry by storm since it was introduced to the public in November by OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed startup that’s reportedly held talks with investors to sell shares at a $29 billion valuation.

Millions of people are using the free chatbot to do things such as write fiction, generate computer code and edit resumes. Microsoft has incorporated the technology into its Bing search engine, while Google introduced rival chatbot Bard last month.

Investors are pouring into the market with massive checks even as the broader tech startup market continues to suffer from the 2022 downturn. Last week, a 22-person pre-revenue startup called Character.AI, which was founded by two former Google employees, raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Hamza Amor, an Amazon seller and founder of e-commerce consulting firm Fussy Penguins, has posted TikTok videos showing how ChatGPT can help merchants discover their next hit product.

Amor started experimenting with ChatGPT in December, asking it questions such as “Tell me more about you” and “What is the meaning of life?” He then asked it to write small passages, such as a children’s story, and was impressed by the results.

ChatGPT helped him improve his products after he asked the chatbot to summarize what users like and dislike about an item based on a set of reviews. For an under-desk footrest, it suggested he use different packaging and more durable materials, or consider offering multiple sizes and the ability to adjust the height of the footrest.

‘It does it in seconds’

The software also assisted with the writing of a few listings, a process that normally requires hours of writing and editing.

“It does it with the tone you suggest, and it does it in seconds,” Amor said. “That’s the part that was mind-blowing.”

ChatGPT’s handiwork has already delivered results for some users. Rubin said the conversion rate, or the percentage of clicks on an ad that result in sales, went up for several of his vacuum filters, coffee filters and air filters after he used ChatGPT for help with listings. For one product, the conversion rate increased from an average of 26% to 46% over an eight-week period, he said.

Rubin sees the opportunity to further capitalize on the trend by giving other sellers a streamlined way to use it. That’s important because third-party sellers are often managing dozens, if not hundreds, of listings on Amazon at the same time and are competing with many new sellers every day.

In 2021, Rubin started a pricing software company called Profasee, which has used AI in some of its features. Rubin said he plans to incorporate ChatGPT into a new tool that will help sellers quickly fine-tune their product listings.

But despite the hype, there’s good reason for skepticism when it comes to ChatGPT’s effectiveness. The nascent technology has shown that it’s prone to making mistakes and, in some cases, just making stuff up. ChatGPT learns to write by analyzing large volumes of information from the internet, and it can get things wrong, a phenomenon that AI experts call “hallucination.”

Aidan Duffy, a seller who also runs a consulting firm, turned to ChatGPT to help improve the listing for a sauna backrest, one of his newer products. Not only did the chatbot assist with writing bullet points on the listing, it also suggested he create an adjustable backrest for taller or shorter users, which he said he considered having manufactured.

Still, Duffy said he has some concerns about the technology’s accuracy. He recently used it for advice on the best way to import products from China, where his items are manufactured.

“It came back with a readable answer, but I see it as a baseline,” Duffy said. “It won’t do your job for you.”

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Chipmakers get larger tax credits in Trump’s latest ‘big beautiful bill’

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Chipmakers get larger tax credits in Trump’s latest ‘big beautiful bill’

U.S. President Donald Trump (right) and C.C. Wei, chief executive officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (left), shake hands during an announcement of an additional $100 billion into TSMC’s U.S. manufacturing at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., on March 3, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The latest version of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” could make it cheaper for semiconductor manufacturers to build plants in the U.S. as Washington continues its efforts to strengthen its domestic chip supply chain.

Under the bill, passed by the Senate Tuesday, tax credits for those semiconductor firms would rise to 35% from 25%. That’s more than the 30% increase that had made it into a draft version of the bill. 

Companies eligible for the credits could include chipmakers such as Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Micron Technology, provided that they expand their advanced manufacturing in the U.S. ahead of a 2026 deadline

The new provisions expand on tax incentives under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which provided grants of $39 billion and loans of $75 billion for U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing projects. 

But before the expanded credits come into play, Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package will have to be passed again in the House, which narrowly passed its own version last month. The president has urged lawmakers to get the bill passed by July 4.

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Trump has previously stated that tariffs, as opposed to the CHIPS Act grants, would be the best method of onshoring semiconductor production. The Trump administration is currently conducting an investigation into imports of semiconductor technology, which could result in new duties on the industry.

In recent months, a number of chipmakers with projects in the U.S. have ramped up planned investments there. That includes the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, as well as American chip companies such as Nvidia, Micron and GlobalFoundries.  

According to Daniel Newman, CEO at tech advisory firm Futurum Group, the threat of Trump’s tariffs has created more urgency for semiconductor companies to expand U.S. capacity. If the increased investment tax credits come into law, those onshoring efforts are only expected to accelerate, he told CNBC. 

“Given the risk of tariffs, increasing manufacturing in the U.S. remains a key consideration for these large semiconductor companies,” Newman said, adding that the tax credits could be seen as an opportunity to offset certain costs related to U.S.-based projects.

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Tesla shares drop on Musk, Trump feud ahead of Q2 deliveries

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Tesla shares drop on Musk, Trump feud ahead of Q2 deliveries

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.

Jim Lo Scalzo | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla shares have dropped 7% from Friday’s closing price of $323.63 to the $300.71 close on Tuesday ahead of the company’s second-quarter deliveries report.

Wall Street analysts are expecting Tesla to report deliveries of around 387,000 — a 13% decline compared to deliveries of nearly 444,000 a year ago, according to a consensus compiled by FactSet. Prediction market Kalshi told CNBC on Tuesday that its traders forecast deliveries of around 364,000.

Shares in the electric vehicle maker had been rising after Tesla started a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in late June and CEO Elon Musk boasted of its first “driverless delivery” of a car to a customer there.

The stock price took a turn after Musk on Saturday reignited a feud with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the massive spending bill that the commander-in-chief endorsed. The bill is now heading for a final vote in the House.

That legislation would benefit higher-income households in the U.S. while slashing spending on programs such as Medicaid and food assistance.

Musk did not object to cuts to those specific programs. However, Musk on X said the bill would worsen the U.S. deficit and raise the debt ceiling. The bill includes tax cuts that would add around $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

The Tesla CEO has also criticized aspects of the bill that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars in support for renewable energy development in the U.S. and phase out tax credits for electric vehicles.

Such changes could hurt Tesla as they are expected to lower EV sales by roughly 100,000 vehicles per year by 2035, according to think tank Energy Innovation.

The bill is also expected to reduce renewable energy development by more than 350 cumulative gigawatts in that same time period, according to Energy Innovation. That could pressure Tesla’s Energy division, which sells solar and battery energy storage systems to utilities and other clean energy project developers.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Musk was, “upset that he’s losing his EV mandate,” but that the tech CEO could “lose a lot more than that.” Trump was alluding to the subsidies, incentives and contracts that Musk’s many businesses have relied on.

SpaceX has received over $22 billion from work with the federal government since 2008, according to FedScout, which does federal spending and government contract research. That includes contracts from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, among others.

Tesla has reported $11.8 billion in sales of “automotive regulatory credits,” or environmental credits, since 2015, according to an evaluation of the EV maker’s financial filings by Geoff Orazem, CEO of FedScout.

These incentives are largely derived from federal and state regulations in the U.S. that require automakers to sell some number of low-emission vehicles or buy credits from companies like Tesla, which often have an excess.

Regulatory credit sales go straight to Tesla’s bottom line. Credit revenue amounted to approximately 60% of Tesla’s net income in the second quarter of 2024.

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Jeff Bezos sells $737 million worth of Amazon shares

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Jeff Bezos sells 7 million worth of Amazon shares

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos leaves Aman Venice hotel, on the second day of the wedding festivities of Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez, in Venice, Italy, June 27, 2025.

Yara Nardi | Reuters

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unloaded more than 3.3 million shares of his company in a sale valued at roughly $736.7 million, according to a financial filing on Tuesday.

The stock sale is part of a previously arranged trading plan adopted by Bezos in March. Under that arrangement, Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares of Amazon over a period ending May 29, 2026.

Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 but remains chairman, has been selling stock in the company at a regular clip in recent years, though he’s still the largest individual shareholder. He adopted a similar trading plan in February 2024 to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock through late January of this year.

Bezos previously said he’d sell about $1 billion in Amazon stock each year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin. He’s also donated shares to Day 1 Academies, his nonprofit that’s building a chain of Montessori-inspired preschools across several states.

The most recent stock sale comes after Bezos and Lauren Sanchez tied the knot last week in a lavish wedding in Venice. The star-studded celebration, which took place over three days and sparked protests from some local residents, was estimated to cost around $50 million.

Bezos is ranked third in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $240 billion. He’s behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk at $363 billion and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at $260 billion.

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