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Drivers charge their Teslas in Fountain Valley, California, on March 20, 2024.

Jeff Gritchen | Medianews Group | Getty Images

A car loses value as soon as you drive it off the lot, but electric vehicles are taking this adage to a new level. That’s becoming a major barrier to wider adoption, according to some industry and investment experts. 

A recent study from iSeeCars.com showed the average price of a 1- to 5-year-old used EV in the U.S. fell 31.8% over the past 12 months, equating to a value loss of $14,418. In comparison, the average price for a comparably aged internal combustion engine vehicle fell just 3.6%.

While lower used EV prices could increase their desirability to some buyers, they can also reduce demand for new electric vehicles, according to Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.

“The value a new car loses in the first few years is the single most expensive aspect of owning a new vehicle,” he said, explaining that “as more new car shoppers become aware of the massive drop in EV values they will be less interested in buying one.”

Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday, David Kuo, stock analyst and co-founder at the Smart Investor, said that the inability of EVs to retain value had kept him from investing in the industry. 

Why used EV prices are falling

According to Kuo, EVs are analogous to other consumer electronics like laptops and cell phones in that they tend to lose value and relevance quickly after being sold. 

“The same [depreciation] is going to happen to electric vehicles; it’ll probably cost you $20,000, $30,000 to buy one, but in a year’s time it will depreciate much faster than an internal combustion engine car,” he said.  

Industry insiders have also flagged EV resale problems. Speaking to Bloomberg late last year, representatives from VW and Toyota said depreciation was hurting the value proposition of their battery-powered vehicles. 

Kuo further argued that the software and computing capabilities of used EVs may become outdated and incompatible with updates by the time they are sold or even beforehand. That will be a “lightbulb moment” when buyers realize they paid too much in the first place, he added.

Unfavorable market conditions 

Despite EVs’ apparent depreciation issue, its causes might have less to do with the technology itself and more to do with market conditions.  

According to iSeeCars, dramatic drops in used electric vehicle values in the U.S. have largely been driven by aggressive price cuts by Tesla amid a broader price war in the EV market. 

Tesla is the dominant EV seller in the U.S. and as a result of lower prices for its new EVs, buyers are less likely to entertain the same price levels for used alternatives. 

Deepwater's Gene Munster shares his bull case for Tesla

“If [Elon Musk] continues to reduce Tesla prices in an effort to stimulate sales, he’ll continue to pull the entire market down, as he did over the past 15 months,” iSeeCars’ Brauer said.

In an October earnings call, Musk defended the price cuts, emphasizing the importance of cost to consumers.

“It’s not an optional thing for most people; it is a necessary thing. We have to make our cars more affordable so people can buy them,” he said.

In the following quarter’s earnings call in January, chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said the company would continue to focus on its cost reduction efforts in 2024.

Since then, the EV price war between Tesla and Chinese competitors has shown little signs of letting up. 

Additionally, overproduction of EVs relative to demand has created excessive supply, making it unlikely for new and used EV prices to rebound in the near term, according to Brauer.

What is an ongoing issue for the EV market, however, may be a boon for electric and combustion powered hybrids, which are showing increasing strength in new and used vehicle markets. 

The average price for used hybrid vehicles fell only 6.5% or $2,135 last year — a fraction of the decline of the average EV. 

“Hybrids are an excellent stepping stone between gasoline and electric cars, and I expect to see them increasing in popularity over the next 10 years,” Brauer said. 

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Adobe shares surge 15% for sharpest rally since 2020

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Adobe shares surge 15% for sharpest rally since 2020

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen speaks during an interview with CNBC on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 20, 2024.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Adobe shares surged 15% on Friday, the biggest gain since March 2020, after the software maker reported earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates.

After the bell on Thursday, Adobe reported adjusted earnings per share of $4.48, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $4.39 per share. Revenue increased 10% from a year earlier to $5.31 billion, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $5.29 billion.

CEO Shantanu Narayen attributed Adobe’s record revenue to its strong growth across Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud and its advancements in artificial intelligence.

“Our highly differentiated approach to AI and innovative product delivery are attracting an expanding universe of customers and providing more value to existing users,” Narayen said in a press release on Thursday.

New annualized recurring revenue for the Digital Media business, which includes Creative Cloud subscriptions, came in at $487 million, beating the StreetAccount consensus of $437.4 million.

Adobe’s results provide a contrast to what software investors have seen from many industry peers of late. Salesforce shares suffered their worst plunge since 2004 late last month after the cloud software vendor posted weaker-than-expected revenue and issued disappointing guidance. That same week, MongoDB, SentinelOneUiPath and Veeva all pulled down their full-year revenue forecasts.

However, there were positive signs in the sector this week. Oracle shares rallied after the database company announced cloud deals with Google and OpenAI, even as fourth-quarter results fell short of Wall Street expectations. CrowdStrike jumped on Monday following the announcement after the close last Friday that the cybersecurity company would be added to the S&P 500.

JMP analysts, who have the equivalent of a hold rating on Adobe, wrote in a note after the earnings report that the company’s results were uplifting despite a challenging economic environment and increased competition in design software.

“We like how Adobe is integrating AI functionality across its product portfolio,” the analysts wrote.

Meanwhile, analysts from Piper Sandler raised their revenue estimates slightly by $73 million for fiscal 2024 and by $71 million for 2025. 

“Customer reactions to recent innovations were encouraging, as increasing availability of AI-powered solutions are expected to drive further user acquisition” and better average revenue per user, wrote the Piper Sandler analysts, who recommend buying the stock.

Even after Friday’s rally, Adobe shares remain down 12% for the year. The stock closed at $525.31.

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Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen: People have been seeing a lot of spend in AI and infrastructure

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Google-backed Tempus AI pops by as much as 15% in Nasdaq stock market debut

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Google-backed Tempus AI pops by as much as 15% in Nasdaq stock market debut

Tempus AI CEO Eric Lefkofsky on going public: It's been an incredible journey

Tempus AI, a health-care diagnostics company that uses AI to interpret medical tests to help physicians provide more accurate treatment for their patients, rose by as much as 15% in its Nasdaq Stock Market trading debut on Friday, after going public under the ticker symbol “TEM.”

Tempus AI priced 11.1 million shares at $37 apiece on Thursday, at the top of its initial $35 to $37 target range. The company raised $410 million at an implied valuation of just over $6 billion. Its early gains, if they hold, would place the company at a valuation of roughly $7 billion.

Tempus believes that AI can help guide therapy selection and treatment decisions, in conjunction with the patient’s doctor. It generated total revenue of $531.8 million in 2023 and a net loss of $214.1 million.

“We’re on a really good trajectory,” Tempus AI CEO Eric Lefkofsky said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday morning before shares started trading. “As revenues have been growing quickly, we’re not investing all that gross profit dollar growth back into the business. We’re generating improved leverage every quarter,” he said, adding that he expects the company to be both cash flow and EBITDA positive within the next year.

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Tempus AI is applying some of the most heavily-funded technology concepts — artificial intelligence and data analysis — to building a better, more informed medical profession. The lack of diagnostic testing early in the Covid-19 outbreak was an example of how a system as mature as our health-care infrastructure can still be unprepared for the future.

The Chicago-based company said in its IPO filing, “we endeavor to unlock the true power of precision medicine by creating Intelligent Diagnostics through the practical application of artificial intelligence, or AI, in healthcare. Intelligent Diagnostics use AI, including generative AI, to make laboratory tests more accurate, tailored, and personal. We make tests intelligent by connecting laboratory results to a patient’s own clinical data, thereby personalizing the results.” 

The two-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company’s at-home testing kit was quickly rolled out during the pandemic, but the problem Tempus is attacking is not Covid-specific. The Tempus idea came to Lefkofsky, also known for co-founding Groupon, during frustration with the health-care system after his wife received a breast cancer diagnosis. Oncology is a primary focus and the company’s genomic tests are designed to understand tumors at the molecular level and tailor treatment to individuals.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Company were the lead underwriters for Tempus AI’s offering.

Investors include Google, Baillie Gifford, Franklin Templeton, NEA and T. Rowe Price, according to PitchBook data.

— CNBC’s Bob Pisani contributed to this reporting.

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Microsoft to delay launch of AI Recall tool due to security concerns

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Microsoft to delay launch of AI Recall tool due to security concerns

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Microsoft Build conference at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on May 21, 2024.

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

Microsoft will no longer ship Recall, an artificial intelligence tool that tracks user activity, when the company releases the Copilot+ PC next week, it announced in a blog post on Thursday following concerns about privacy and security.

The company wrote that Recall will shift from being a “broadly available” tool to a preview feature available only through the Windows Insiders Program, or WIP, when the new computer is released on June 18. Microsoft plans to make the AI feature available on all Copilot+ PCs soon after they receive feedback through WIP.

“This decision is rooted in our commitment to providing a trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers,” Windows Corporate Vice President Pavan Davuluri wrote in the blog post.

Microsoft first introduced the Copilot+ PC on May 20 as a computer designed to run advanced AI programs, including Recall. Recall is an AI tool that regularly takes screenshots to create a record of activity, allowing users to search for their previous actions.

Recall became a source of controversy soon after it was announced. Industry experts have expressed concern over the potential for hackers to develop tools that can retrieve user information, including usernames and passwords.

In response to the backlash, Microsoft initially announced that the Recall feature would be turned off by default, requiring users to opt in. The company also implemented additional security protections, including an encrypted search database and a requirement that Recall users enroll in Windows Hello, which has users prove their identity through a PIN, fingerprint or facial recognition.

Microsoft’s decision to delay Recall follows heightened concerns around security as the AI field evolves rapidly. Last month, a U.S. government review board criticized the company’s handling of China’s breach of U.S. government officials’ email accounts.

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