SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L) at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on May 15, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty Images
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an email to “everybody” at his electric vehicle maker on Monday, expressing concern over the company’s current hiring practices.
“I would like to gain a better understanding of our hiring,” Musk wrote in the email. “VPs should send me a list of their department hiring requests once a week.”
Tesla staffers read the email as either a soft hiring freeze, or a signal that Musk is renewing his focus on the car company now that he’s named a CEO for Twitter, according to an employee, who asked to remain unnamed in order to speak candidly.
On Friday, Musk said NBCUniversal ad chief Linda Yaccarino would be Twitter’s new CEO, about six months after he purchased the social media company for $44 billion.
Last month, Tesla reported a more than 20% drop in first-quarter net income from a year earlier, contributing to a 10% drop in the company’s stock price. Musk at the time suggested the company would prefer higher volumes to higher margins, a comment that prompted some concern from analysts.
“Think carefully before sending me a request,” Musk wrote in Monday’s email. “No one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, until you receive my email approval.”
Musk has generally been involved in new hire and budget approvals at Tesla since he took over as CEO in 2008.
Electrek, a publication focused on EVs, previously reported on the email. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday, Tesla is slated to host its annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas. Stakeholders must decide whether to approve of new and old board appointments, including the addition of ex-Tesla technology chief JB Straubel.
Proxy advisory Glass Lewis recommended last month that shareholders vote against Straubel, because they didn’t view him as an appropriate independent director given his history with the company from its early years through 2019, when he resigned.
A separate consortium of environment, social and governance-focused funds also urged shareholders to reconsider who they appoint to Tesla’s board. Some admonished the company’s current board to rein in an “over-committed” CEO in an open letter.
Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to finance his Twitter takeover, and has courted controversy ever since.
Under Musk’s watch, Twitter restored the accounts of previously banned and divisive figures, including neo-Nazi website founder Andrew Anglin. In recent days, the company bowed to demands to throttle some content and users on the app in Turkey, ahead of an important election there.
Here’s Monday’s email from Musk:
To: Everybody
From: Elon Musk
Subj. Hiring
Date: May 15, 2023
I would like to gain a better understanding of our hiring. VPs should send me a list of their department hiring requests once a week.
Think carefully before sending me a request. No one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, until you receive my email approval.
Perplexity AI on Wednesday launched a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser called Comet in the startup’s latest effort to compete in the consumer internet market against companies like Google and Microsoft.
Comet will allow users to connect with enterprise applications like Slack and ask complex questions via voice and text, according to a brief demo video Perplexity released on Wednesday.
The browser is available to Perplexity Max subscribers, and the company said invite-only access will roll out to a waitlist over the summer. Perplexity Max costs users $200 per month.
“We built Comet to let the internet do what it has been begging to do: to amplify our intelligence,” Perplexity wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions and links out to the original source material on the web. After the company was accused of plagiarizing content from media outlets, it launched a revenue-sharing model with publishers last year.
In May, Perplexity was in late-stage talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, a source familiar confirmed to CNBC. The startup was also approached by Meta earlier this year about a potential acquisition, but the companies did not finalize a deal.
“We will continue to launch new features and functionality for Comet, improve experiences based on your feedback, and focus relentlessly–as we always have–on building accurate and trustworthy AI that fuels human curiosity,” Perplexity said Wednesday.
A worker sorts packages on Amazon Prime Day in New York on July 8, 2025.
Klaus Galiano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. online sales jumped 9.9% year over year to $7.9 billion on Tuesday, the kickoff of Amazon‘s Prime Day megasale, according to Adobe Analytics.
At that level, it marks the “single biggest e-commerce day so far this year,” Adobe said. It also eclipsed total online spending during Thanksgiving last year, when sales on the holiday reached $6.1 billion.
Amazon’s Prime Day bargain blitz began on Tuesday and lasts through Friday. The event, first launched in 2015 as a way to hook new Prime members, has pushed other retailers to launch counterprogramming.
Home and outdoor goods showed signs of strong demand during the first day of Amazon’s discount event, said Kashif Zafar, CEO of Xnurta, an advertising platform that serves more than 20,000 online businesses.
Read more CNBC Amazon coverage
Other historically well-performing categories such as beauty and household essentials saw softer demand early on, but could see demand pick up as Prime Day continues, he added.
“Early Prime Day numbers might look soft compared to last year’s surge, but it’s too early to call the event a miss,” Zafar said in an email. “With four days instead of two, we’re seeing a different rhythm, consumers are spreading out their purchases.”
Adobe expects online sales to reach $23.8 billion across all retailers during the 96-hour event, a level that’s “equivalent to two Black Fridays.”
U.S. online shoppers spent $14.2 billion during the 48-hour Prime Day event last year, according to Adobe.
This year’s Prime Day is landing at an uncertain time for retailers and consumers as they grapple with the fallout of President Donald Trump‘s unpredictable tariff policies.
U.S. consumer confidence worsened in June after improving in May as Americans remained concerned about the tariffs’ effect on the economy and prices, according to the Conference Board.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month the company hasn’t seen prices “appreciably go up” on its site as a result of tariffs.
Some third-party sellers previously told CNBC they were considering raising or had already raised the price of some of their products manufactured in China as the cost of tariffs became burdensome.
Top executives from tech, media and finance gathered in Sun Valley, Idaho, for Allen & Co.’s annual conference this week, an event that is often referred to as “summer camp for billionaires.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Disney CEO Bob Iger and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were all pictured entering the lodge.
Wednesday’s agenda includes interviews with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IAC Chairman Barry Diller, sources told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin.
When he arrived on Tuesday, Altman said he is not concerned about the artificial intelligence talent war and that he would talk to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week.
Scroll down to see the tech and media moguls arriving at the exclusive event.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Tim Cook arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David Grogan | CNBC
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Disney CEO Bob Iger
Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, and Bob Iger (R), CEO of Walt Disney Co., attend the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
TV host Gayle King
Gayle King attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
GM CEO Mary Barra
Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Spanx founder Sara Blakely
Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon
Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Entertainment executive Casey Wasserman
Casey Wasserman, CEO of Wasserman Media Group, arrives for the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC owner John Henry
John Henry attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor
Bret Taylor, chairman of the board of directors of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone
Ken Langone attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller
Stanley Druckenmiller attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.