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Volkswagen, like other car giants, are pushing heavily into AI to boost their technology credentials and make their cars smarter.

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German automaker Volkswagen has established its own artificial intelligence lab, the company said Wednesday, reflecting growing ambitions from the car industry to adopt the buzzy technology.

In a press release, Volkswagen said that its new AI lab will serve as a “globally networked competence center and incubator” to produce proofs of concept in the field of the tech surrounding automotive innovations.

AI labs are research and development hubs for exploring AI breakthroughs. Common examples of such labs are those of OpenAI, which Microsoft has backed with billions of dollars of funds, and Google’s DeepMind, which the Alphabet-owned tech giant acquired in 2014.

Volkswagen claimed it would bring its lab’s AI innovations to its own vehicles to make them smarter.

“We want to offer our customers genuine added value with artificial intelligence. We aim to link external digital ecosystems with the vehicle, creating an even better product experience,” says Oliver Blume, CEO of the Volkswagen Group and Porsche AG.

“Collaboration with technology companies is crucially important for us. In [the] future, we intend to simplify cooperation in organizational and cultural terms.”

Volkswagen isn’t planning on manufacturing any production models of its own, but the company intends to hold talks with partners about licensing its proprietary AI technology for use in their vehicles. Volkswagen did not name any potential partner.

The carmaker said some of the AI solutions pursued by the lab will deal with optimizing electric vehicle charging, predictive maintenance for cars, and linking vehicles with customers’ homes through internet-connected devices.

The company also said it would explore AI uses to enable in-car voice recognition.

The announcement comes as other car firms are pushing heavily into artificial intelligence to boost their technology credentials and make their cars smarter.

French carmaker DS automobiles began integrating ChatGPT into its vehicles late last year. Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft started testing in-car ChatGPT support as early as June 2023. Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD, meanwhile, launched an AI-powered smart car system to better compete with rivals on advanced technologies, such as automated parking.

Reducing reliance on tech giants

Volkswagen’s AI lab launch echoed the ambition of established technology companies that have set up or invested in their own artificial intelligence research units.The move could see Volkswagen become more independent, reducing its reliance on external AI software from technology giants like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Volkswagen has already extended its work on AI, most recently announcing that it would integrate ChatGPT in its cars at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. As part of that, the automaker was relying on OpenAI as a technological partner, rather than depending on its own proprietary technology.

By creating an AI lab, Volkswagen will be able to determine its own future in terms of what kinds of AI uses it adopts — though it has a steep hill to climb to compete with the caliber of AI technologies coming out of already advanced AI labs.

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Trump to host Jensen Huang at White House as Nvidia tops $4 trillion market cap

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Trump to host Jensen Huang at White House as Nvidia tops  trillion market cap

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers remarks next to U.S. President Donald Trump at an ‘Investing in America’ event in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2025.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, CNBC’s Megan Cassella reported.

The meeting comes as Nvidia rose slightly on Thursday, becoming the first company to close a trading day with a market cap over $4 trillion, beating Apple and Microsoft to the symbolic milestone. Nvidia touched the mark briefly on Wednesday during trading.

Trump praised Nvidia stock in a social media post Thursday morning.

“NVIDIA IS UP 47% SINCE TRUMP TARIFFS. USA is taking in Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Tariffs,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “COUNTRY IS NOW ‘BACK.'”

An Nvidia representative declined to comment, and it was unclear what the meeting is about, but Nvidia has been grappling with export controls on its artificial intelligence chips implemented by the Trump administration in April for national security reasons.

At the time, the U.S. government told Nvidia that its previously-approved H20 processor — intended exclusively for the Chinese market — would require an export license. Huang previously told investors that requirement effectively cut off Nvidia’s sales to China with “no grace period.” The AI chipmaker said that it would miss $8 billion in planned orders for the chip in the company’s July quarter.

“The $50 billion China market is effectively closed to U.S. industry,” Huang told investors on an earnings call in May.

Nvidia also faces another potential restriction on AI chip exports after the Trump administration cancelled a planned rule by former President Joe Biden called the “AI diffusion rule.” The Trump administration promised newer, simpler restrictions later this year on which countries could receive Nvidia’s technology.

WATCH: Fundstrat’s Tom Lee: Nvidia being the most valuable company in the S&P makes a lot of sense

Fundstrat's Tom Lee: Nvidia being the most valuable company in the S&P makes a lot of sense

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Musk, X to face trial in Don Lemon lawsuit alleging breach of contract

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Musk, X to face trial in Don Lemon lawsuit alleging breach of contract

Elon Musk (L) & Don Lemon

Reuters (L) | Getty Images (R)

Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon‘s lawsuit against tech billionaire Elon Musk and his social network X over the cancellation of their partnership can proceed to trial, a San Francisco judge ruled this week.

Musk’s team had tried to get the case moved to a Texas court and tried to convince the judge to strike the complaint altogether.

Attorneys for Musk and X didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In an order Tuesday, Judge Harold Kahn said Lemon and his attorneys plausibly alleged, among other claims, that X and Musk had committed “fraud by false promise” and that there was “an implied contract” between them.

Lemon filed the suit in August 2024 after X canceled a partnership with the broadcast journalist a few hours after he taped a tense interview with Musk, who owns X. The interview preceded a planned premiere of Lemon’s new show on Musk’s social network.

During the interview, Lemon pressed Musk on several contentious topics he had posted about or amplified on X. Musk had boosted the so-called “great replacement theory,” and other bigoted tropes and falsehoods, including posts that claimed there was a “Hispanic invasion” of immigrants to the U.S.

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Lemon also pressed Musk about content moderation on X, and a reported surge in antisemitic content on the platform that occurred after Musk acquired it as Twitter in a $44 billion leveraged buyout in late 2022.

Musk made sweeping changes after taking over the site, firing huge numbers of personnel and reversing account bans for users who had been booted from the platform after posting hate speech or inciting violence.

Musk, who characterized himself as a free speech “absolutist” also restored the account of President Donald Trump. The site had permanently banned Trump from the platform in January 2021 following the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

Lemon’s case against Musk and X Corp. is in San Francisco Superior Court. A date has not been set for the trial.

Musk and X have faced a litany of other lawsuits over non-payment to vendors and over failure to provide severance as promised to laid-off employees from Twitter.

Lemon was fired from CNN in 2023 following reports that he mistreated coworkers and made sexist remarks on-air, including about politician Nikki Haley. Lemon later apologized for the Haley comments.

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Bitcoin sets another record above $113,000 as investors jump into risk assets, liquidate shorts

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Bitcoin sets another record above 3,000 as investors jump into risk assets, liquidate shorts

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Bitcoin climbed to new all-time high on Thursday, building on its previous record reached just a day earlier, as investors jumped into risk assets and liquidated short positions.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by about 2% at $113,459.16. Earlier, it rose as high as $113,863.18.

On Thursday afternoon, bitcoin saw about $318 million in short liquidations across centralized exchanges in a 24 hour period, according to CoinGlass. When traders use leverage to short bitcoin and the cryptocurrency’s price rises, they buy bitcoin back from the market to close their positions, which pushes the price up and causes more positions to be liquidated.

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