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Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2020.

Ding Ting | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Shares of Tesla rose Tuesday after the electric carmaker’s CEO Elon Musk met with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

It comes as Beijing is pushing to show it is open to foreign business, and as Musk reportedly signaled further expansion of his car company’s business in China.

Qin, who was until recently China’s ambassador to the U.S., said “Chinese-style modernization,” characterized by a huge population and “common prosperity” will create “unprecedented growth potential and market demand,” according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

He added that China’s electric vehicle market “has broad prospects for development” and that China will continue to open up and create a better market-oriented and law-based business environment for foreign firms like Tesla.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry statement, Musk praised the Chinese people and China’s achievements. Tesla opposes “decoupling” and is willing to continue to expand its business in China, the statement said.

Shares of Tesla jumped 5% shortly after markets opened Tuesday, before later paring gains. As of 10 a.m. ET, the stock was trading at $202.93, up 2.6% for the session.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a CNBC request to verify the Chinese foreign ministry’s statement.

The meeting between Musk and Qin comes at a time of continued tensions between the U.S. and China over technology. Last year, Washington enacted sweeping export restrictions on key chips and semiconductor equipment to China, in a move that could hobble’s Beijing’s attempts to boost its domestic industry in a critical technology.

This month, Chinese regulators barred operators of “critical information infrastructure” in China from buying products from U.S. chipmaker Micron.

The Chinese foreign minister on Tuesday said that a “constructive” U.S. and China relationship is in the interest of both countries and the world.

Competition

On Tesla’s side, Musk’s visit of Tuesday comes as the company faces heightened competition and a price war in China. Tesla has been adjusting the prices of its cars in China amid a tougher macroeconomic environment in the world’s second-largest economy.

The Chinese foreign ministry statement did not supply much detail on what was discussed between Musk and Qin. China is Tesla’s second-biggest market, and Musk has sought to maintain good relations with Beijing. The billionaire has pledged investments over the years and praised the country’s technology.

“China rocks in my opinion,” Musk said in 2020.

Tesla’s biggest car production factory is in the Chinese mega-city Shanghai, and the company in April announced plans to build another plant locally to manufacture its Megapack energy storage system.

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Tether reportedly seeks lofty $500 billion valuation in capital raise

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Tether reportedly seeks lofty 0 billion valuation in capital raise

Venezuelan Bolivar and U.S. Dollar banknotes and representations of cryptocurrency Tether are seen in this illustration taken Sept. 8, 2025.

Dado Ruvic | Array

Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, is planning to raise as much as $20 billion in a deal that could put the crypto company’s value on par with OpenAI, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

The crypto company is looking to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion in exchange for a roughly 3% stake through a private placement, the report said, citing two individuals familiar with the matter. The transaction would involve new equity rather than existing investors selling their stakes, the people told the news service.

The report said that one person close to the matter warned that the talks are in an early stage, which means that the eventual details, including the size of the offering, could change.

However, the deal could ultimately value Tether at around $500 billion, according to the report. That would mean the crypto giant’s valuation would rival some of the world’s biggest private companies, including SpaceX and OpenAI. OpenAI’s fundraising round earlier this year valued the tech company at $300 billion.

Tether, which was once accused of being a criminal’s “go-to cryptocurrency,” has been furthering its plans to return to the U.S. in recent months, given President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance. The company earlier this month named a CEO for its U.S. business and launched a new token for businesses and institutions in the U.S. called USAT, which will be regulated in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act.

Stablecoin USD Tether (USDT) is pegged to the U.S. dollar with a market cap that recently surpassed $172 billion. In second place is Tether rival Circle’s USDC stablecoin, which is worth about $74 billion.

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Micron beats on earnings as company sales rise 46% on AI boom

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Micron beats on earnings as company sales rise 46% on AI boom

A person walks by a sign for Micron Technology headquarters in San Jose, California, on June 25, 2025.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Micron reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue on Tuesday as well as a robust forecast for the current quarter.

The stock rose in extended trading.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with the LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: $3.03, adjusted, vs. $2.86 expected
  • Revenue: $11.32 billion vs. $11.22 billion expected

Micron said revenue in the current period, its fiscal first quarter, will be about $12.5 billion, versus the $11.94 billion average analyst estimate per LSEG.

The company said it had $3.2 billion, or $2.83 per share in net income, versus $887 million, or 79 cents in the year-ago period.

Micron shares have nearly doubled so far in 2025. The company makes memory and storage, which are important components for computers. Micron has been one of the winners of the artificial intelligence boom. That’s because high-end AI chips like those made by Nvidia require increasing amounts of high-tech memory called high-bandwidth memory, which Micron makes.

“As the only U.S.-based memory manufacturer, Micron is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the AI opportunity ahead,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.

Overall company revenue rose 46% on a year-over-year basis during the quarter.

Micron’s largest unit, which sells memory for cloud providers, reported $4.54 billion in sales during the quarter, more than tripling on a year-over-year basis.

However, the company’s core data center business unit saw sales decline 22% on an annual basis to $1.57 billion in revenue.

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YouTube to allow creators banned for Covid-19, election misinformation to apply for reinstatement

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YouTube to allow creators banned for Covid-19, election misinformation to apply for reinstatement

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Google-owned YouTube on Tuesday said it will soon allow previously banned accounts to apply for reinstatement, rolling back a policy that had treated violations as permanent.

The change applies to channels removed for posting Covid-19 or election-related misinformation, according to a letter from Alphabet lawyer Daniel Donovan to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Previously, those types of offenses carried lifetime bans.

“Today, YouTube’s Community Guidelines allow for a wider range of content regarding Covid and elections integrity,” Donovan wrote.

YouTube wrote on X that it will be a limited pilot project open to a subset of creators as well as channels that were terminated under policies the company has since retired. YouTube also said its new reinstatement program will launch soon.

Among channels previously banned under those rules were some associated with Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s not yet clear whether those channels will be reinstated.

This move follows mounting Republican pressure on tech companies to reverse Biden-era speech policies on vaccine and political misinformation. In March, Rep. Jordan subpoenaed Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, alleging YouTube was a “direct participant in the federal government’s censorship regime.”

In 2021, YouTube said it would remove content that spread misinformation about all approved vaccines.

Donovan wrote that during the pandemic, senior Biden administration officials pressed the company to remove certain Covid-related videos that did not technically violate YouTube’s policies.

In the letter, Donovan said this pressure was “unacceptable and wrong.”

YouTube ended its stand-alone Covid misinformation rules in December 2024, according to Donovan’s letter.

YouTube “will not empower third-party fact-checkers” to moderate content and will continue to enable “free expression” on the platform, Donovan wrote. While Donovan writes that YouTube has not used fact-checkers, the platform has produced programs that are meant to label context on videos.

Similarly, Meta said in January that it had eliminated its fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram.

YouTube has a feature that will display information panels with links to independent fact checks under videos. The feature says it provides more context on videos across YouTube with information from third-party sources.

In 2017, Google launched a fact-checking tool that would display labels on search and news results.

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