More than two dozen House Democrats on Tuesday accused Elon Musk‘s X of “profiting off violent content by a terrorist organization” and demanded that he and CEO Linda Yaccarino address Hamas-related content on the social media platform.
“The platform has become a hotbed of misinformation and terrorist propaganda,” wrote the group of 27 Democrats, led by Reps. Dan Goldman of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, in a letter obtained by CNBC.
The already “inexcusable” issue of antisemitic content on X, they wrote, had become “outright indefensible” since the deadly Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel by Hamas militants. The U.S. has labeled Hamas a terror group since 1997.
“Given the many flagrant examples of X profiting off this content, we need detailed answers from X in considering potential legislation that would prevent such activity in the future,” wrote the lawmakers.
They gave Musk and Yaccarino until Dec. 1 to provide “all forms of written communications” related to content moderation for any posts or accounts connected to Hamas.
In addition to the records, the House Democrats asked Yaccarino and Musk to detail how X plans to address Hamas-related content currently on the platform. They also want to know what changes the company “plans to implement to ensure that the harmful spread of terrorist propaganda does not happen again.”
X did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The letter comes as Musk, the world’s richest man, and X, the platform he bought for $44 billion last year, fend off new accusations of antisemitism that are threatening to cut deeply into the company’s ad-based revenue model.
Apple, Disney, and Comcast, the parent company of CNBC, are some of the major brands that paused their online advertising on X last week, after Musk publicly agreed with an antisemitic conspiracy theory that “Jewish communities” were pushing “dialectical hatred against whites.”
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote last Wednesday in response to that post.
The exchange drew fierce condemnation from X users, Wall Street investors and Washington politicos. The White House accused Musk of promoting “antisemitic and racist hate.”
The fallout coincided with a new report from the progressive nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters for America, which accused X of placing ads from major brands next to posts that promoted Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
Musk has vehemently denied allegations that he is bigoted, writing in a post on Sunday that media reports labeling him antisemitic over his rhetoric are “bogus,” and “nothing could be further from the truth.”
“I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all,” he wrote.
He has also repeatedly slammed Media Matters as “pure evil” and vowed to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” on Monday against the outlet “and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”
Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chief whom Musk tapped in May as his CEO, said Thursday that X has “been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.”
Media Matters president Angelo Carusone in a statement Saturday slammed Musk’s legal threat as a “meritless” effort to “silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate.”
The letter from Goldman and Raskin on Tuesday largely avoided personally singling out Musk over his controversial posts.
Instead, the Democrats highlighted numerous X accounts that have reportedly been “spreading Hamas terrorist propaganda videos glorifying barbaric acts of violence against Israelis.”
The TTP investigation found accounts that paid for X’s Premium service sharing graphic, uncensored videos including “bloodied bodies on the ground, and rocket and drone attacks on Israeli tanks and vehicles.”
Those videos had also been featured on the website of Hamas’ military wing and were posted on X in apparent violation of the company’s contentpolicies, according to TTP.
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An ISD report, meanwhile, identified 128 posts from 45 unique accounts “containing glorification and support for terrorist content on X” in just 24 hours between Oct. 11 and Oct. 12.
Both reports noted that one of the Premium accounts spreading Hamas propaganda and antisemitic messages had been promoted by Musk himself in a since-deleted post.
The reports also showed that X is “profiting from the spread of this gruesome and harmful propaganda through account subscription fees and ad revenue,” the lawmakers wrote.
By buying X Premium, the accounts identified in the TPP and ISD reports are “paying for verification without any formalized vetting process and being promoted by the website’s algorithm,” the Democrats wrote.
The letter also cited a mid-October report from the misinformation tracker NewsGuard, which analyzed 250 high-engagement posts that promoted false or unproven claims related to the Israel-Hamas War. it found that 186 of the 250 came from accounts that had paid for Premium verification.
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Google on Friday made the latest a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf.
As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others.
“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”
The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI coding startup had been in talks with OpenAI for a $3 billion acquisition deal, CNBC reported in April. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move ratchets up the talent war in AI particularly among prominent companies. Meta has made lucrative job offers to several employees at OpenAI in recent weeks. Most notably, the Facebook parent added Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment into his startup.
Douglas Chen, another Windsurf co-founder, will be among those joining Google in the deal, Jeff Wang, the startup’s new interim CEO and its head of business for the past two years, wrote in a post on X.
“Most of Windsurf’s world-class team will continue to build the Windsurf product with the goal of maximizing its impact in the enterprise,” Wang wrote.
Windsurf has become more popular this year as an option for so-called vibe coding, which is the process of using new age AI tools to write code. Developers and non-developers have embraced the concept, leading to more revenue for Windsurf and competitors, such as Cursor, which OpenAI also looked at buying. All the interest has led investors to assign higher valuations to the startups.
This isn’t the first time Google has hired select people out of a startup. It did the same with Character.AI last summer. Amazon and Microsoft have also absorbed AI talent in this fashion, with the Adept and Inflection deals, respectively.
Microsoft is pushing an agent mode in its Visual Studio Code editor for vibe coding. In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI is composing as much of 30% of his company’s code.
The Verge reported the Google-Windsurf deal earlier on Friday.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, holds a motherboard as he speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 11, 2025.
The sale, which totals 225,000 shares, comes as part of Huang’s previously adopted plan in March to unload up to 6 million shares of Nvidia through the end of the year. He sold his first batch of stock from the agreement in June, equaling about $15 million.
Last year, the tech executive sold about $700 million worth of shares as part of a prearranged plan. Nvidia stock climbed about 1% Friday.
Huang’s net worth has skyrocketed as investors bet on Nvidia’s AI dominance and graphics processing units powering large language models.
The 62-year-old’s wealth has grown by more than a quarter, or about $29 billion, since the start of 2025 alone, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. His net worth last stood at $143 billion in the index, putting him neck-and-neck with Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett at $144 billion.
Shortly after the market opened Friday, Fortune‘s analysis of net worth had Huang ahead of Buffett, with the Nvidia CEO at $143.7 billion and the Oracle of Omaha at $142.1 billion.
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The company has also achieved its own notable milestones this year, as it prospers off the AI boom.
On Wednesday, the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker became the first company to top a $4 trillion market capitalization, beating out both Microsoft and Apple. The chipmaker closed above that milestone Thursday as CNBC reported that the technology titan met with President Donald Trump.
Brooke Seawell, venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, sold about $24 million worth of Nvidia shares, according to an SEC filing. Seawell has been on the company’s board since 1997, according to the company.
Huang still holds more than 858 million shares of Nvidia, both directly and indirectly, in different partnerships and trusts.
Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington DC, USA on February 13, 2025.
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Tesla will open a showroom in Mumbai, India next week, marking the U.S. electric carmakers first official foray into the country.
The one and a half hour launch event for the Tesla “Experience Center” will take place on July 15 at the Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, according to an event invitation seen by CNBC.
Along with the showroom display, which will feature the company’s cars, Tesla is also likely to officially launch direct sales to Indian customers.
The automaker has had its eye on India for a while and now appears to have stepped up efforts to launch locally.
In April, Tesla boss Elon Musk spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss collaboration in areas including technology and innovation. That same month, the EV-maker’s finance chief said the company has been “very careful” in trying to figure out when to enter the market.
Tesla has no manufacturing operations in India, even though the country’s government is likely keen for the company to establish a factory. Instead the cars sold in India will need to be imported from Tesla’s other manufacturing locations in places like Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany.
As Tesla begins sales in India, it will come up against challenges from long-time Chinese rival BYD, as well as local player Tata Motors.
One potential challenge for Tesla comes by way of India’s import duties on electric vehicles, which stand at around 70%. India has tried to entice investment in the country by offering companies a reduced duty of 15% if they commit to invest $500 million and set up manufacturing locally.
HD Kumaraswamy, India’s minister for heavy industries, told reporters in June that Tesla is “not interested” in manufacturing in the country, according to a Reuters report.
Tesla is looking to recruit roles in Mumbai, job listings posted on LinkedIn . These include advisors working in showrooms, security, vehicle operators to collect data for its Autopilot feature and service technicians.
There are also roles being advertised in the Indian capital of New Delhi, including for store managers. It’s unclear if Tesla is planning to launch a showroom in the city.