Cruise founder and CEO Kyle Vogt has resigned from his role at the autonomous vehicle venture owned by General Motors, according to a company statement sent to CNBC on Sunday.
Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt has resigned from his role at the autonomous vehicle venture owned by General Motors, according to a company statement sent to CNBC on Sunday.
Mo Elshenawy, who previously served as executive vice president of engineering at Cruise, will now serve as president and CTO for Cruise, the company said.
Vogt confirmed his resignation Sunday night in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He did not give a reason for the resignation, and said he plans “to spend time with my family and explore some new ideas.”
The departing CEO also offered words of encouragement, writing: “Cruise is still just getting started, and I believe it has a great future ahead. The folks at Cruise are brilliant, driven, and resilient. They’re executing on a solid, multi-year roadmap and an exciting product vision. I’m thrilled to see what Cruise has in store next!”
Vogt’s resignation follows a string of missteps by Cruise.
As CNBC previously reported, the company issued a voluntary recall affecting 950 of its robotaxis, and suspended all vehicle operations on public roads following a series of incidents that sparked criticism from first responders, labor activists and local elected officials, especially in San Francisco.
In one serious incident in October, the human driver of another vehicle struck a pedestrian in San Francisco at night, tossing her into the path of a Cruise self-driving car, which then drove over and dragged her.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles after that incident. “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits,” the regulators said in a statement at the time.
In orders of suspension the California DMV issued to Cruise, the regulators accused the company of failing to give a transparent account of what happened during the pedestrian collision.
Separately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Cruise to determine whether its automated driving systems “exercised appropriate caution around pedestrians in the roadway,” according to a filing on the agency’s website.
GM execs, including CEO and Chair Mary Barra, had hoped the startup would be ramping up a driverless transportation network this year, and hoped Cruise would play a notable role in doubling the company’s revenue by 2030.
In October 2021, GM said it expected “new businesses” such as Cruise and its BrightDrop commercial EV business to grow from $2 billion to $80 billion during that timeframe.
According to its most recent quarterly update, GM has lost roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise between January and September 2023, including $732 million in the third quarter alone.
Barra also serves as chair of the Cruise board of directors. Former Tesla and Lyft executive Jon McNeill, a member of GM’s board of directors since 2022, was appointed vice chairman of the self-driving unit’s board following Vogt’s resignation.
Alex Roy from transportation consultancy Johnson & Roy told CNBC, “Responsibility starts at the top. If Cruise is going to survive, and they have great technology there, the CEO had to go.”
“I suspect at least one more high level exec will have to resign — anyone who made the call to obfuscate or omit information in communication with the California DMV,” he said. “In my opinion, Cruise has been too slow in taking steps to rebuild trust with staff, regulators and the public. Executive departures are table stakes.”
Vogt’s resignation comes roughly two years after he was reappointed as CEO, following an unexpected departure by Dan Ammann, a former GM executive, in December 2021.
Ammann, a former investment banker, began leading Cruise in 2019 after serving as GM’s president and chief financial officer before that. He was credited with the 2016 acquisition of Cruise.
CoreWeave shares sank 13% on Tuesday after CEO Mike Intrator addressed delays at a third-party data center developer that hit full-year guidance in its latest earnings report.
“Quite frankly, every single part of this quarter went exactly as we planned, except for one delay at a singular data center,” Intrator told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Tuesday.
He then clarified that a “singular data center provider” is more accurate.
“Some people might think it’s one complex, but when I go over the numbers, we’re talking about multiple places,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer said. “And it just so happens that the places are all connected to an outfit called Core Scientific that you tried to buy.”
Cramer noted delays at complexes in Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina.
Intrator said the companies have been working together on infrastructure for a long time a would continue work to bring it online. He did not directly confirm that Core Scientific is the third-party provider.
CoreWeave tried to acquire Core Scientific for $9 billion earlier this year. Core Scientific shareholders voted against the proposed deal. Core Scientific shares sank 7% Tuesday.
During CoreWeave’s quarterly earnings call on Monday, JPMorgan Securities analyst Mark Murphy asked if the delay was related to Core Scientific, but Intrator declined to name the company. At another point in the call, the CEO suggested that just one data center, not multiple sites, were affected.
“There was a problem at one data center that’s impacting us, but there are 41 data centers in our portfolio,” Intrator said.
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At a different point in the call, CoreWeave’s CFO Nitin Agrawal said the delays stem from “a single provider, data center provider partner.”
When reached for comment about how many sites were affected, CoreWeave did not provide a number and pointed to Intrator’s statements on the earnings call and during his “Squawk on the Street” interview.
CoreWeave, which provides infrastructure for artificial intelligence companies, reported third-quarter results on Monday that showed $1.36 billion in revenue for the period, up 134% from $583.9 million a year ago. But CoreWeave now sees 2025 revenue coming in between $5.05 billion and $5.15 billion, below the average analyst estimate of $5.29 billion.
Intrator told CNBC on Tuesday that CoreWeave has teams of employees working with contractors and Core Scientific at those sites “every single day” to get things back on track.
“It became apparent to us in Q3 that there were delays at the facility,” Intrator said. “CoreWeave responded by deploying our own boots on the ground to ensure that everything was being done in order to move those facilities along as quickly as possible.”
Intrator told analysts on Monday that the delays would not affect its backlog or get the full value from contracts.
Core Scientific did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CoreWeave has been on a deal-making blitz as big tech companies and AI startups race to build out their computing infrastructure.
The company announced in September that it agreed to provide Meta with $14.2 billion of AI cloud infrastructure, just days after expanding its contract with OpenAI to $22.4 billion.
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s key moments. 1. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq were down Tuesday as Big Tech was pressured following CoreWeave’s quarterly results Monday evening. The AI infrastructure provider disappointed investors after lowering its revenue outlook. Shares of CoreWeave plunged around 14%. Regarding the broader AI trade, Jim said, “I’m getting antsy about the fact that there’s too much borrowed money now starting to go into the data center.” However, Jim is not currently advocating changes to the portfolio. Wall Street also focused on soft labor market data after ADP’s payroll tracker showed a weekly decline of 11,250 jobs on average for the four weeks ending Oct. 25. 2. Linde shares were up over 1% Tuesday after UBS upgraded the industrial gas giant to a buy from a hold-equivalent rating. The analysts, who cut their price target to $500 from $507, said that earnings-per-share growth in 2026 will be a positive catalyst for Linde. This is a reassuring call for the recently lagging Club holding. After all, Linde’s pricing power has allowed the company to deliver earnings beats quarter after quarter despite the macroeconomic backdrop. 3. Nvidia stock shed around 3% on Tuesday after SoftBank announced that it sold its entire stake in the chipmaker. Weakness among AI-related names didn’t help investor sentiment, either. The sale of Nvidia stock is a source of cash that will be used to fund SoftBank’s whopping $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI, CNBC reported Tuesday. The news doesn’t make us concerned about Nvidia. We maintain our “own, don’t trade” thesis on shares. Instead, it adds to our aforementioned caution around mounting debt from the AI data center boom. 4. Stocks covered in Tuesday’s rapid fire at the end of the video were: CoreWeave, Paramount Skydance , Amgen , Dutch Bros , and Coterra Energy. On Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET, Jim will be signing copies of his new book, “How to Make Money in Any Market,” at the Atlantic Avenue Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long NVDA, LIN. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Rocket Lab‘s stock rose as much as 3% on Tuesday after the space company posted record revenues in the third-quarter as it scoops up more launch deals and builds its backlog.
The company, which makes satellites and rockets and provides launch services to its customers, on Monday reported revenue of $155 million for the period. That surpassed the $152 million forecast from analysts polled by LSEG, and it was up 48% from about $105 million a year ago. Rocket Lab also posted a smaller-than-expected loss of 3 cents per share, versus the 10-cent per share loss anticipated.
Additionally, Rocket Lab issued strong guidance for the current quarter, saying it expects revenues between $170 million and $180 million. Analysts had forecast $172 million in revenues.
Rocket Lab said it’s experiencing a record backlog, with 49 rocket launches on contract. The company said it signed 17 of those deals during the third quarter and plans to close out the year with over 20 launches.
In an earnings release, CEO Peter Beck said the Long Beach, California, company is “just days away” from reaching a new annual launch record. Rocket Lab is also tackling mergers and acquisitions that target key defense initiatives such as President Donald Trump’s missile defense system plan known as the ‘Golden Dome,” Beck added.
Competition is intensifying in the space technology sector as the U.S. government and NASA lean on more independent contractors, including Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, to power missions to return to the moon. Growing excitement has also brought a wave of space companies to the public markets this year, including Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
Last month, Rocket Lab’s stock jumped more than 31% after announcing a slew of new launch deals. Shares have more than doubled this year and surged nearly 270% over the last twelve months. The stock has pulled back about 13% in November amid a broader market selloff.
During the third quarter, the company closed its acquisition of satellite sensor maker Geost and opened a new launch site for its Neutron rocket.
Rocket Lab reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $26.3 million, topping the $21 million to $23 million loss range previously forecast. Analysts anticipated a $22.2 million adjusted EBITDA loss, according to FactSet.
The company expects adjusted EBITDA losses to range between $23 million and $29 million in the fourth quarter, surpassing the $13 million loss forecast by FactSet.