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JB Straubel, Tesla Motors’ former chief technical officer, speaks during a ribbon cutting for a new Supercharger station outside of the Tesla Factory on August 16, 2013 in Fremont, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Tesla has nominated JB Straubel, the CEO and founder of e-waste recycler Redwood Materials, to its eight-member board of directors, according to an SEC filing out Thursday. Straubel founded his Carson City, Nevada recycling venture while he was still serving as CTO of Tesla in 2017, and left the automaker to focus on it in 2019.

Straubel is deemed a co-founder of Tesla due to his engineering and operations leadership at Tesla from early on. Joining the company in 2004 — well before Elon Musk took the reins as CEO — Straubel oversaw the build-out of Tesla’s first battery factory outside of Reno, among other things.

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If he wins shareholders’ votes, Straubel would replace current Tesla board member Hiromichi Mizuno who does not plan to stand for re-election at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for May 16.

Mizuno was previously the chief investment officer Japan’s government pension investment fund and has been a member of the Tesla board since April 2020. Mizuno has been a member of Tesla’s audit committee.

Besides Straubel, Tesla is nominating CEO Elon Musk and chair Robyn Denholm to be re-elected to the board of directors again.

According to its annual report, Tesla is also asking investors to again approve Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) as the company’s auditor and to vote on two different executive compensation-related matters.

Only one shareholder-submitted proxy proposal will be eligible for a vote in May. Stockholders proposed that Tesla provide a “key-person risk” report to investors, identifying how the company would deal with the departure of key executives for any reason, from retirement to an untimely death or disability.

Of particular concern is Tesla’s reliance on CEO Elon Musk. The company has previously and repeatedly stated in financial filings that it is “highly reliant on the services” of Musk.

Since last fall, many Tesla investors have criticized Musk over his decision to sell billions of dollars worth of his Tesla holdings to lead a $44 billion buyout of Twitter. Musk appointed himself and remains CEO of the social media platform, and has authorized high-ranking Tesla employees to work with him there, too.

A Tesla director, James Murdoch, testified in court that Musk has confidentially discussed a potential successor to head the electric vehicle business with him. But some investors are still looking for answers about the key-man risk.

The proxy proposal notes, “According to a 2018 Morgan Stanley report, in 2017 59 S&P 500 CEOs left their companies, and these companies then underperformed the market by 11% in the subsequent 12 months.”

The Tesla board is asking shareholders to vote against the key-person risk report. They wrote in opposition to the proposal, arguing that the disclosures requested by shareholders — like identifying executives most critical to Tesla’s long-term success and who may replace them — would invite competitors to “target and recruit high-value executives away from Tesla.”

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Government’s Intel intervention is ‘essential’ for national security, tech analyst says

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Government's Intel intervention is 'essential' for national security, tech analyst says

It's 'essential' for the Trump administration to take a stake in Intel: D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria

A government intervention in struggling chipmaker Intel is “essential” for the sake of national security, analyst Gil Luria said Friday, following a report that the Trump administration is weighing taking a stake in the company.

“We’re all capitalists,” Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want government to intervene and own private enterprise, but this is national security.”

Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in Intel. The news sent Intel shares higher, and the stock climbed again Friday.

Intel previously declined to comment on the report.

Luria said such a deal is needed to revive Intel and reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor to manufacture chips. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high-end technology to be made in the U.S.

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How the White House could structure such an intervention is still in question. Bloomberg reported Friday that the administration has discussed using funds from the CHIPS Act.

Intel received $7.9 billion from the Department of Commerce through the CHIPS Act, and it was awarded roughly $3 billion under the CHIPS Act for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program.

“Intel has had many opportunities over decades to get it right, and it hasn’t. So we need to intervene,” Luria said. “The government’s going to come in and it’s going to give Intel unfair advantages, and if it’s going to do that, it wants a piece of the business.”

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his resignation based on allegations that he has ties to China.

Luria pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that the rise of superintelligent AI could be “the next wave of nuclear proliferation,” as evidence that direct intervention by the government is needed.

“We can’t rely on somebody else making shell casings for our nuclear arsenal,” Luria said. “We have to get it right.”

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Applied Materials shares sink 10% on light forecast amid macroeconomic uncertainties

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Applied Materials shares sink 10% on light forecast amid macroeconomic uncertainties

The Applied Materials logo on Dec. 17, 2024.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Applied Materials shares sank more than 10% in extended trading Thursday as the semiconductor equipment company provided outlook for the current quarter that came in light.

Here’s how Applied Materials did in its third-quarter earnings results versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • EPS: $2.48, adjusted, versus $2.36 estimated.
  • Revenue: $7.3 billion vs $7.22 billion estimated.

Applied Materials said it expects $2.11 per share in adjusted earnings in the current quarter, lower than LSEG estimates of $2.39 per share. The company said to expect $6.7 billion in revenue, versus $7.34 billion estimated.

CEO Gary Dickerson said that the current macroeconomic and policy environment is “creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility.” He said the company’s China business is particularly effected by the uncertainty.

The Trump administration’s tariffs could double the price of imported chips unless companies buying them commit to building in the U.S. Applied Materials makes tools for chip foundries to physically make chips, much of which currently happens in Asia.

Applied Materials said that it has a large backlog of pending export license applications with the U.S. government, but that it’s assuming none of them will be issued in the next quarter.

“We are expecting a decline in revenue in the fourth quarter driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing,” the company’s finance chief said in a statement. He added that it expected lower China business to continue for several more quarters.

Applied Materials reported $1.78 billion in net income, or $2.22 per diluted share in the quarter, versus $1.71 billion or $2.05 in the year-ago period.

The company’s most important division, semiconductor systems, reported $5.43 billion in sales, topping estimates, and representing a 10% rise from last year.

Applied Materials was praised by President Donald Trump earlier this month after it was included in an Apple program to make more chips in the U.S.

Apple said it would partner with the chipmaker to produce more manufacturing equipment in Austin, Texas.

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Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker

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Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker

Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.

Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel shares rose 7% on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the chipmaker to have the U.S. government take a stake in the struggling company.

Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.

The government’s stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.

Earlier this week, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited Trump in the White House, a meeting that took place after the president had called for Tan’s resignation based on allegations he has ties to China.

Intel said at the time that Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.” An Intel representative declined to comment about reports that the government is considering taking a stake in the company.

“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson said.

Tan took over Intel earlier this year after the chipmaker failed to gain significant share in artificial intelligence chips, while it was spending heavily to build its foundry business, which manufactures chips for other companies.

Intel’s foundry business has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step in moving towards expansion and giving other potential customers the confidence to turn to Intel for manufacturing.

In July, Tan said that Intel was canceling plans for manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland and would slow down development in Ohio, adding that spending at the chipmaker would be closely scrutinized.

Under Trump, the U.S. government has increasingly moved to put itself at the center of deals in major industries. Last week, it said it would take 15% of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China. The Pentagon bought a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials. It also took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. industrial giant.

Intel shares are now up 19% this year after losing 60% of their value in 2024, the worst year on record for the chipmaker.

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