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Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) joins former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024.

Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images

Tesla shares jumped on Monday following a report that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team are planning to make a federal framework to regulate self-driving vehicles a top priority for the U.S. Transport Department.

As of 6:11 a.m. ET, Tesla stock was up 7.98% in U.S. premarket trading after the release of the Bloomberg News report, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

CNBC could not independently verify the report and has requested comment from the Trump team and from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a Transportation Department unit tasked to oversee self-driving technologies.

Musk was a central figure in the business world pushing for Trump’s return to the White House in the lead-up to this month’s elections. The tech billionaire now stands to benefit from the close relationship he has formed with the Republican politician, who previously served a first presidential term between 2017 and 2021.

Last week, Trump picked Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency — or “DOGE for short — which he said would end government “bureaucracy,” relax “excess” regulations and cut “wasteful” expenditures.

A federal framework for regulating self-driving vehicles would be a major boon to Musk’s Tesla, which has been promising fully self-driving vehicles for several years but has so far failed to deliver a car capable of being driven autonomously without a human behind the wheel.

The long-term vision for Tesla is to produce a fleet of so-called “robotaxis,” autonomous vehicles that can drive people around without the need for human supervision.

Last month, Musk showed off Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi — a concept car called the “Cybercab,” a $30,000 two-seater vehicle with no steering wheels or pedals.

Tesla has already been beaten to the punch in the robotaxi race by Google’s Waymo venture, which is among the few companies that have successfully launched self-driving cars on public roads.

Speaking during an event unveiling Tesla’s Cybercab and “Robovan” vehicles, Musk said he expects Tesla to have “unsupervised” Full Self-Driving technology up and running in Texas and California next year in the company’s Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles.

Full Self-Driving, or FSD, is Tesla’s premium driver assistance system, currently available in a “supervised” version for Tesla electric vehicles. FSD currently requires a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.

Trump’s transition team is reportedly looking for policy leaders for the Transportation Department to develop a federal regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles, according to Bloomberg.

They include Emil Michael, a former Uber executive, Republican Representatives Sam Graves of Missouri and Garret Graves of Louisiana, Bloomberg reported.

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U.S. House tells staffers not to use Meta’s WhatsApp

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U.S. House tells staffers not to use Meta’s WhatsApp

A woman walks past a logo of WhatsApp during a Meta event in Mumbai, India, on Sept. 20, 2023.

Niharika Kulkarni | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Meta is pushing back against a ban on WhatsApp from government devices.

The chief administrative officer, or CAO, of the U.S. House of Representatives told staffers on Monday that they are not allowed to use Meta’s popular messaging app. The CAO cited a lack of transparency about WhatsApp’s data privacy and security practices as the reason for the ban, according to a report by Axios that cited an internal email from the government office.

The CAO told House staff members in the email that they are not allowed to download WhatsApp on their government devices or access the app on their smartphones or desktop computers, the report said. Staff members must remove WhatsApp from their devices if they have the app installed on their devices, the report said.

“Protecting the People’s House is our topmost priority, and we are always monitoring and analyzing for potential cybersecurity risks that could endanger the data of House Members and staff,” U.S. House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor told CNBC in a written statement.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on Monday responded to the report via a post on X, saying the company disagrees “with the House Chief Administrative Officer’s characterization in the strongest possible terms.”

“We know members and their staffs regularly use WhatsApp and we look forward to ensuring members of the House can join their Senate counterparts in doing so officially,” Stone said.

In a separate X post, Stone said WhatsApp’s encrypted nature provides a “higher level of security than most of the apps on the CAO’s approved list that do not offer that protection.”

Some of the messaging apps the CAO said are acceptable alternatives to WhatsApp include Microsoft Teams, Signal and Apple’s iMessage, the Axios report said.

Meta is currently embroiled in an antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission over the social media company’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.

Last week, Meta debuted ads in WhatsApp in an effort to monetize the app that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has deemed “the next chapter” for his company’s history.

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Super Micro shares fall on planned $2 billion convertible debt offering

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Super Micro shares fall on planned  billion convertible debt offering

The Super Micro Computer headquarters in San Jose, California, on Dec. 3, 2024.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Super Micro Computer shares fell about 6% on Monday after the server maker said it plans to offer $2 billion in convertible notes, maturing in 2030.

A company’s stock often falls on the announcement of a convertible offering because the eventual conversion to equity could dilute existing shareholders’ stakes.

Super Micro, which has seen its business boom due to soaring demand for Nvidia’s artificial intelligence processors, said in a press release that it plans to use the proceeds from the offering for “general corporate purposes, including to fund working capital for growth and business expansion.” It also said it would spend about $200 million to repurchase its stock from the note issuers.

Even after Monday’s slide, Super Micro shares are up close to 40% so far in 2025 as the company remains one of a handful of server makers that can sell systems based around new chips from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel soon after they start shipping. The stock has been viewed by Wall Street as an AI pure play that will appreciate with tech megacap companies expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers to support AI workloads.

Super Micro also secured a major contract with a data center in Saudi Arabia when President Donald Trump visited the Middle East in May.

Super Micro “has emerged as a market leader in AI-optimized infrastructure,” Raymond James analysts wrote in a report last month, saying that 70% of the company’s revenue was attributable to AI. The analysts recommend buying the stock.

Investors soured on Super Micro in March and April on concerns about tariffs, and in May the company slashed its fiscal 2025 guidance and chose not to reiterate its previous forecast for $40 billion in fiscal 2026 sales, due to tariff and AI chip uncertainty.

The stock has recouped some of those losses but is still trading well below its high for the year reached in February.

Super Micro had a tumultuous 2024 largely because of accusations of accounting irregularities, and was forced to refile financials with the SEC in order to avoid delisting from the Nasdaq. Super Micro also named a new auditor, removed its CFO and named additional members to its board of directors.

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Amazon launches second batch of Kuiper internet satellites, taking on Elon Musk’s Starlink

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Amazon launches second batch of Kuiper internet satellites, taking on Elon Musk's Starlink

An Atlas V rocket of United Launch Alliance (ULA) lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 23, 2025.

Gregg Newton | Afp | Getty Images

Amazon‘s second batch of Kuiper internet satellites reached low Earth orbit on Monday, adding to its plans for a massive constellation and ramping up competition with SpaceX’s Starlink.

A United Launch Alliance rocket carrying 27 Kuiper satellites lifted off from a launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6:54 a.m. ET, according to a livestream.

“We have ignition and lift off of United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation, continuing a new chapter in low Earth orbit satellite connectivity,” Ben Chilton, an ordnance engineer at ULA, said on the livestream following the launch.

Monday’s mission was rescheduled twice, owing to inclement weather and a problem with the rocket booster.

Read more CNBC Amazon coverage

Six years ago, Amazon unveiled its plans to build a constellation of internet-beaming satellites in low Earth orbit, called Project Kuiper. The service will compete directly with Elon Musk’s Starlink, which currently dominates the market and has 8,000 satellites in orbit.

Amazon in April successfully sent up 27 Kuiper internet satellites into low Earth orbit, a region of space that’s within 1,200 miles of the Earth’s surface.

The 54 craft currently in orbit are the start of Amazon’s planned constellation of 3,236 satellites. The company has to meet a Federal Communications Commission deadline to launch half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, by July 2026.

The company has booked more than 80 launches with several providers, including rival SpaceX, to deliver Kuiper its satellites into orbit.

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