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White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump was returning to the White House after spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. 

Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tesla shares rose Wednesday after Politico reported that Elon Musk could leave his post at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, paving the way for the CEO to return his focus on the struggling EV maker.

The White House later called the report “garbage.”

The stock was last up about 5%. At its session lows, it had dropped as much as 6.4% on the back of weaker-than-expected vehicle deliveries for the first quarter.

The report — which cites Trump insiders — noted that, while President Donald Trump is pleased with Musk and the DOGE spending cuts that have been pushed through, the two decided in recent days that the billionaire would soon return to his businesses. NBC News is reporting that Trump told the cabinet Musk could leave in the coming months.

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TSLA recovers

Wednesday’s report comes during a tough stretch for Tesla. Despite Wednesday’s gains, the stock has dropped more than 5% over the past month. Year to date, it has tumbled more than 31%. Shares also shed 36% in the first quarter, marking their biggest quarterly drop since 2022.

Musk’s role in the White House is one factor weighing on Tesla’s stock. It has sparked waves of protests, boycotts and violent attacks on Tesla stores and vehicles around the world. Trump’s automotive tariffs are also a concern as they involve Tesla’s key suppliers — notably in Mexico and China.

“My Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has gone, went roughly in half,” Musk said on Sunday night at a rally he held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to promote a Republican judge he backed in Tuesday’s state supreme court election, Brad Schimel. “This is a very expensive job is what I’m saying.”

In addition to holding the rally in Wisconsin, Musk spent millions and frequently posted about the race on his social network X. Judge Susan Crawford, who won the seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, was backed by Democrats and progressive groups who criticized Musk, his money and influence on the race as well as his DOGE work in their campaigns.

Separately, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander urged the city to sue Tesla on behalf of NYC pension funds citing Musk’s work for the White House.

In a Tuesday statement, Lander’s office said: “The basis of the potential litigation are the material misstatements from Tesla claiming that CEO Elon Musk spends significant time on the company and is highly active in its management, despite his helming the Trump Administration’s DOGE initiative, spending little of his time actually managing Tesla, and promoting policies that are actively harmful to Tesla’s business.”

CNBC reached out to the White House for comment.

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Waymo, Toyota strike partnership to bring self-driving tech to personal vehicles

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Waymo, Toyota strike partnership to bring self-driving tech to personal vehicles

A Waymo self-driving car, seen with a driver, stops at a red light outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 31, 2025.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Alphabet-owned Waymo and Toyota on Tuesday announced a preliminary partnership to explore bringing robotaxi tech to personally-owned vehicles.

“The companies will explore how to leverage Waymo’s autonomous technology and Toyota’s vehicle expertise to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles,” the two companies announced.

The companies said they aim to use the partnership to more quickly develop driver assistance and autonomous vehicle technologies for personal vehicles. Toyota is the world’s largest automaker by sales. 

Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the strategic partnership could also result in the Google-owned company incorporating Toyota’s “vehicles into our ride-hailing fleet.”

The Toyota tie-up is the latest automotive partnership for Waymo.

The self-driving company has previously worked with automakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, Stellantis predecessor Fiat Chrysler, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler, Hyundai Motor and China’s Geely Zeekr. The partnerships, many of which touted long-term tie-ups, largely resulted in automakers producing modified vehicles for testing or for Waymo to use in its fleets.

The partnership with Toyota will not affect Waymo’s plans to deploy Hyundai and Zeekr vehicles through the Waymo One service in the future, a spokesman for the Alphabet-owned company told CNBC.

Waymo is now serving 250,000 paid rides per week, up from 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. Waymo is already running its commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin regions.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai noted in first-quarter earnings last week that Waymo has not entirely defined its long-term business model, and there is “future optionality around personal ownership” of vehicles equipped with Waymo’s self-driving technology.

Waymo and Toyota are not the only companies turning their focus to personally-owned autonomous vehicles. When GM announced in December that it was abandoning its Cruise robotaxi business, the company said it would instead focus on the development of autonomous systems for use in personal vehicles.

Toyota previously invested in and partnered with Tesla, Elon Musk’s automaker which now aims to compete with Waymo on driverless tech. Toyota sold the its stake in the EV maker in June 2017.

Tesla, once seen as a pioneer in self-driving tech, does not yet produce cars that are safe to use without a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, criticized Waymo on a recent earnings call claiming the robotaxis are too expensive for mass-production. Musk also promised Tesla will be “selling fully autonomous rides in June in Austin,” using Model Y vehicles with a new “unsupervised” version of the company’s “Full Self-Driving” or FSD systems installed.

— CNBC reporter Michael Wayland contributed to this report.

WATCH: Pichai: Google may offer personal Waymo robotaxis

Pichai: Google may offer personal Waymo robotaxis

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Super Micro shares dive after server maker issues weak preliminary financials

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Super Micro shares dive after server maker issues weak preliminary financials

Super Micro Computer CEO Charles Liang at the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 5, 2024.

Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Super Micro shares fell as much as 19% on Tuesday after the server maker announced preliminary results for the fiscal third quarter that were lower than analysts had projected.

Here’s how the company’s preliminary numbers compare with the LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: 29 to 31 cents per share adjusted vs. 54 cents expected
  • Revenue: $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion vs. $5.50 billion expected

Super Micro lowered the ranges from earlier guidance for the quarter, which ended on March 31, according to a statement. The new revenue range implies 18% growth year over year. That’s a large step down from the 200% growth Super Micro delivered a year ago.

“During Q3 some delayed customer platform decisions moved sales into Q4,” the company said in the statement. In addition, the company faced higher inventories from older products, as well as expedite fees. The two factors narrowed Super Micro’s preliminary gross margin by 220 points from the prior quarter.

Shares of server competitor Dell were down almost 5% in after-hours trading, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise was down about 2%. Nvidia shares also fell roughly 2%.

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Super Micro shares over the past year.

The pre-announcement is the latest blow for Super Micro, which has been mired in controversy for the past year due to delayed financial filings and troubling reports from short sellers. In February, the company filed its financials for its fiscal 2024 year and the first two quarters of fiscal 2025 just in time to meet Nasdaq’s deadline to stay listed. Last year, after Super Micro delayed its annual report, it lost its auditor, Ernst & Young, citing governance issues.

After more than tripling in 2023, thanks to the company’s position in the AI boom and its sales of servers packed with Nvidia’s processors, Super Micro shares plummeted in the second third and fourth quarters last year, wiping out more than 80% of its market cap.

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“We have confidence that our calendar year 2025 growth could be a repeat of calendar year 2023, if not better, assuming the supply chain can keep pace with demand,” Charles Liang, Super Micro’s CEO, told analysts on a conference call in February.

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, the stock was up 18% in 2025, rallying as the broader tech market was in decline.

Super Micro will go over the results with analysts on a conference call at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 6.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.

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Snap plunges 13% on ‘headwinds’ to start quarter, inability to offer guidance

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Snap plunges 13% on 'headwinds' to start quarter, inability to offer guidance

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2025.

Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images

Snap reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue Tuesday but declined to provide guidance, citing macroeconomic uncertainties that could weigh on advertising demand.

Shares dropped 13% in after-hours trading.

Here is how the company did compared with Wall Street’s expectations:

  • Earnings per share: Loss of 8 cents. That figure is not comparable to analysts’ estimates.
  • Revenue: $1.36 billion vs. $1.35 billion expected, according to LSEG 
  • Global daily active users: 460 million vs. 459 million expected, according to StreetAccount
  • Global average revenue per user: $2.96 vs. $2.93 expected, according to StreetAccount

Snap did not offer an outlook for the second quarter, citing uncertainties surrounding “how macro economic conditions may evolve in the months ahead, and how this may impact advertising demand more broadly.”

Analysts had expected $1.39 billion in second-quarter revenue guidance. The company said it expects daily active users to come in near the midpoint of its second-quarter range at 468 million.

“While our topline revenue has continued to grow, we have experienced headwinds to start the current quarter, and we believe it is prudent to continue to balance our level of investment with realized revenue growth,” the company said in a letter to investors.

Like many tech companies, Snap is facing a turbulent macro setup as it grapples with President Donald Trump’s evolving trade plans. Many fear that global trade uncertainty might lead companies to lower guidance or pull back spending this earnings season.

Snap’s cited potential constraints on advertising demand as the reason for holding off on guidance. Ad revenues for the period rose 9% year over year to $1.21 billion. That growth came mainly from direct response advertising. The company also said that brand-oriented advertising revenue dipped 3% from a year ago.

The company isn’t alone. Last Thursday, Alphabet reported first-quarter sales of $90.23 billion, which surpassed Wall Street expectations, but executives told analysts that the company may experience headwinds to its online ad business in the Asia-Pacific region.

Snap lowered its full-year adjusted operating expenses range to between $2.65 billion and $2.70 billion, down from $2.70 billion to $2.75 billion. The company also revised its full-year cost guidance for stock based compensation downward to between $1.13 billion and $1.16 billion from $1.15 billion to $1.20 billion.

Sales in Snap’s first quarter jumped 14% to $1.36 billion from $1.19 billion in the year-ago period. The company reported a net loss of about $140 million, or 8 cents per share. That narrowed 54% from about $305 million, or 19 cents, in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $108 million, topping a $64 million estimate from StreetAccount.

The company attributed the 8 cents loss to a $70.1 million charge related to cash severance, stock-based compensation expenses and other costs associated with a 2024 restructuring. “These charges are not reflective of underlying trends in our business,” the company said.

Snap posted 460 million daily active users during the period, up from 453 million the previous quarter. The company also said that it reached 900 million monthly active users, up from 850 million in August, the last time Snap provided that stat.

Meta reports its latest earnings on Wednesday, followed by Reddit on Thursday and Pinterest on May 8.

WATCH: ‘Fast Money’ traders react to Alphabet earnings.

'Fast Money' traders react to Alphabet earnings

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