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Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X speaks during the Milken Conference 2024 Global Conference Sessions at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2024. 

David Swanson | Reuters

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies on Monday after the iPhone maker announced a partnership with OpenAI.

In a series of posts on his social media platform X, Musk shared concerns about whether Apple and OpenAI will protect users’ information.

He called the software integration between the two companies “an unacceptable security violation,” and said Apple has “no clue what’s actually going on.”

Apple announced its long-awaited push into artificial intelligence on Monday, which included an update to its voice assistant Siri. As part of the update, Siri can tap into OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot. Apple said users will be asked for permission to share their questions with ChatGPT, and their requests and information will not be logged.

“It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!” Musk wrote after the event.

He specifically said that Apple devices would be banned if the company “integrates OpenAI at the OS level,” referring to Apple’s operating system.

Apple told CNBC that the company is using its own AI, and its integration with OpenAI is an optional feature.

Musk replied directly to a post from Apple CEO Tim Cook and claimed he will ban Apple devices from his companies’ premises unless Cook decides to “stop this creepy spyware.” He added that his companies’ visitors will be asked to check their Apple devices at the door.

Tesla, Musk’s largest company, employed 140,473 people worldwide as of Dec. 31. The company has implemented layoffs this year exceeding 10% of headcount.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and stepped down from its board in 2018. He’s been a vocal critic of the company and CEO Sam Altman of late. In March, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, among others, alleging they abandoned the company’s founding mission to develop AI “for the benefit of humanity broadly.”

Musk raised $6 billion in a recent funding round for his would-be OpenAI competitor, xAI, whose first product, Grok, is meant to serve as a politically incorrect answer to ChatGPT. In addition to Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, Musk is founder of brain interface startup Neuralink and tunneling venture Boring Company.

Musk and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

— CNBC’s Steve Kovach and Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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Nvidia partner Foxconn reports 26% revenue spike as AI boom continues

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Nvidia partner Foxconn reports 26% revenue spike as AI boom continues

The logo of multinational tech company Foxconn (also known as Hon Hai), which is a major manufacturer for Apple products, in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 16, 2025.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Foxconn, a key Nvidia partner in its artificial intelligence buildout, saw its revenue spike 26% year-on-year in November, as demand for servers continued to ramp up amid the AI boom.

The Taiwanese company, also known as Hon Hai, is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and makes the servers that hold chips in data centers, as well as assembling Apple’s iPhone. 

Foxconn on Friday reported “strong growth” year-on-year for its cloud and networking products, pointing to “momentum for AI server racks,” in its monthly revenue report. It reported revenue of NT$844.3 billion ($27 billion) for November. 

A longstanding partner to many of the world’s largest tech companies including Nvidia and Apple, Foxconn has become a key player in the rollout of AI infrastructure in recent times. 

It was announced in May that the company would provide infrastructure to a major AI factory in Taiwan, in collaboration with Nvidia and the Taiwanese government. Two months later Foxconn announced it was taking a stake in data center construction company TECO Electric & Machinery Co.

OpenAI said last month that it would collaborate with the Taiwanese company on design work and U.S. manufacturing readiness for next generation AI infrastructure hardware.  

OpenAI taps Foxconn to build AI hardware in the U.S.

Foxconn’s month-on-month revenue was down around 6%, with the company pointing to its smart consumer electronics segment slightly declining. 

“AI server rack shipments continue to ramp up, and ICT products are in peak season in the second half of the year,” the monthly report said in its business outlook for the fourth quarter. 

The company said in November that growth in its AI server business had seen its third-quarter profits jump 17% year-on-year.

Foxconn’s share price has jumped 26% since the start of 2025, following a 76% uptick over the previous 12 months.

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Meet Binance’s new co-CEO Yi He: The mysterious and omnipresent ‘life partner’ of CZ

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Meet Binance's new co-CEO Yi He: The mysterious and omnipresent 'life partner' of CZ

Yi He, co-founder of Binance, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on May 10, 2023.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Binance Holdings, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, named a new co-CEO Wednesday in a major shake-up of its leadership structure.

Yi He, who co-founded Binance with former head Changpeng Zhao in 2017 and has children with the crypto mogul, will now split duties with acting CEO Richard Teng, who announced the news this week.

The move represents the firm’s most significant leadership change since Teng succeeded Zhao, who pleaded guilty to violating U.S. money-laundering laws in 2023. 

Teng, who was appointed amid intense regulatory scrutiny of Binance and crypto more broadly, notably had a background in financial regulation and services, formerly holding a senior regulatory role at Singapore’s central bank.

“[Yi He] has been there from the start, and she has been driving a lot of changes and driving the growth of Binance,” Teng told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Wednesday shortly after the announcement.

Binance CEO sees exponential growth for company with new leadership structure

Yi He’s elevation to the co-CEO position represents the appointment of an insider with longstanding ties to Zhao, also known as CZ.

The move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned CZ, who had previously pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering while heading the cryptocurrency exchange.

The Trump administration has taken a friendlier stance toward the crypto industry, with several high-profile cases dropped in recent months. 

Queen behind the scenes

Yi He has maintained a relatively low public profile compared to CZ, with many details regarding her roles and activities at Binance unclear.

Her social profiles list her most recent position as Chief Customer Service Officer at the crypto exchange.

One of the last major public statements from the businesswoman was in defense of CZ during his 2024 trial, among 161 letters requesting leniency from the court.

In her letter written in Chinese, Yi He identified herself as CZ’s business partner and “the mother of his three children.”

She claimed that she met CZ at a public blockchain event in 2014, three years before Binance was founded. She was then working at cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin and recruited CZ to join her.

“As CZ’s life partner, I’ve known him for nearly ten years, so I understand a side of him that’s often overlooked,” she wrote in the 2024 letter defending him.

Binance said in a statement Wednesday that Yi He has “played a fundamental role in shaping Binance’s vision and culture, guiding a strategy focused on users’ needs and innovation.”

The company also included a public statement from Yi He, in which she emphasized her and Teng’s “complementary perspectives and shared vision.” 

“Together, we bring diverse perspectives and are confident in leading the future of the industry during this pivotal time, as we responsibly expand our global presence and drive sustainable innovation with our users always at the center,” she said.

Binance CEO Richard Teng on crypto regulation and Trump's pardon for founder CZ

Federal probes into Binance have also referenced her role in the company. In 2020, U.S. prosecutors reportedly sought records of communications involving Yi He and other executives related to anti-money laundering compliance and the creation of Binance’s U.S. entity.

Media reports have previously painted Yi He as a “Crypto Queen” wielding massive sway behind the scenes at Binance. 

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal in 2023,  Yi He was a former Chinese talk-show host before joining OKCoin, and she entered a relationship with CZ while working together in Shanghai. 

The report added that He would assume sweeping control over the crypto giant’s marketing and investment divisions. 

Binance and Yi He did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

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Global websites back online as Cloudflare issues a dashboard fix

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Global websites back online as Cloudflare issues a dashboard fix

The Cloudflare logo appears on a smartphone screen and on the background on computer screen Internal server error in this photo illustration on November 18, 2025 in Lviv, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine | Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images

U.S. internet infrastructure company Cloudflare said on Friday it had issued a fix for an issue with its dashboard and related apps.

Shares of the company fell as much as 4.5% in premarket trading after global websites went down and Cloudflare said it was investigating.

The company issued an update minutes later saying it had “implemented a fix” and was watching for results. Cloudflare shares pared some of its losses on the news and were last seen 2% lower.

Sites including professional networking platform LinkedIn, digital currency exchange Coinbase and online publishing platform Substack were among those that appeared to be impacted by the issue.

Outage monitoring site Downdetector, which itself appeared to be briefly impacted, said users reported a sharp uptick in problems on sites, including e-commerce platform Shopify, HSBC and food delivery group Deliveroo, among others, at around 9:16 a.m. London time.

These reports fell as Cloudflare implemented its fix shortly thereafter.

The outage comes less than three weeks after a similar Cloudflare crash caused error messages across the internet, an issue that the company said was “unacceptable” at the time, given the importance of its services.

Cloudflare’s software is used by many businesses worldwide, helping to manage and secure traffic for about 20% of the web. Among the services it provides are that it guards against distributed denial of service attacks, which are when malicious actors attempt to overload a website’s system with so many traffic requests that it can’t function.

— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.

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