Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says “Tech Support” as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Tesla’s stock started off March the way it left off February: in the red.
In CEO Elon Musk’s first full month as part of President Donald Trump‘s White House, shares of his electric vehicle company plunged 28%, the steepest drop since December 2022. The stock fell another 3% on Monday, the first trading day in March, pushing the company’s market cap to about $915 billion.
The slide on Monday followed a social media post from Musk over the weekend, suggesting that a “1000% gain for Tesla in 5 years is possible” with “outstanding execution.” And Morgan Stanley named Tesla its top pick in U.S. autos in a note on March 2.
In the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report in late January, Tesla said automotive revenue sank 8% from a year earlier and reported a 23% drop in operating income. The company cited reduced average selling prices across its Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X lines as a major reason for the decline.
Tesla also stands to take a hit from new tariffs being implemented by Trump that apply to goods and materials coming from Canada and Mexico, where some of its key suppliers are based.
But the recent stock price decline is not just about what’s been happening at Tesla. Musk’s politics, work and antics outside of Teslaare apparently taking a toll.
Musk is currently leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is making sweeping cuts to the U.S. federal workforce, slashing federal spending, and seeking to eliminate regulations and consolidate agencies, all while pursuing new government contracts for his companies.
In addition to Tesla, Musk runs SpaceX and the artificial intelligence startup xAI. He also owns social media company X.
Though he has preached transparency at DOGE, Musk has kept many details about the group’s work and plans hidden from public view, all while attaining unprecedented access to federal government computer systems and sensitive data without congressional approval.
On X, where his profile boasts 219.2 million followers, Musk has also become more involved in international affairs, for example, promoting Germany’s far-right anti-immigrant party AfD, and drawing accusations of election interference by European leaders.
The Tesla CEO has also used X to spread falsehoods about how Ukrainians view their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and to baselessly accuse him of seeking a “forever war” with Russia — comments that resemble Kremlin talking points.
In response, anti-Musk and anti-Tesla sentiment has erupted across Europe and the U.S.
An ad from London recently went viral after appearing at a bus kiosk, Euronews reported. The ad gives a Tesla car the nickname of “Swasticar,” and features an image of Musk making a gesture identified by historians as a Nazi salute. Dozens of Tesla electric vehicles were also reportedly burned in a suspected arson attack in France on Sunday night.
Tesla new vehicle registrations have been on a steep decline in Europe, falling in France and Scandinavia in the first two months of 2025, and plummeting in Germany by around 60% in January from a year earlier.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest at electric carmaker Tesla’s showroom in Seattle, Washington, U.S., Feb. 15, 2025.
David Ryder | Reuters
In the U.S., a series of vandalism incidents began on Jan. 29, at a Tesla facility in Loveland, Colorado. Over the weekend in New York, nine people were reportedly arrested and subsequently released after a demonstration outside of a Tesla dealership.
Cybertruck owners in the U.S. have complained of negative reactions to their angular, steel Tesla trucks ranging from rude gestures to more intimidating bullying or harassment.
And a movement that calls itself the Tesla Takedown is now encouraging people to divest from Tesla, and to refrain from buying cars or any other products or services from Musk’s company.
The movement has gained celebrity support. Japanese American actor and author George Takei, most famous for his portrayal of Hikaru Sulu on “Star Trek,” on Sunday encouraged his followers on social network Bluesky to consider joining the Tesla Takedown movement.
When Musk does focus his attention back on Tesla, rather than the White House, he plays up the company’s future in self-driving cars and humanoid robotics.
However, Tesla currently trails some rivals in China and the U.S. in self-driving technology, as a number of companies are already operating commercial robotaxi services while Tesla’s CyberCab is not yet in production.
Several Chinese automakers have also begun to offer partially automated driving systems that compare with Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self Driving Supervised options, either for free or at a much lower cost than Tesla’s.
On the company’s latest earnings call, Musk told investors that Tesla should “be launching unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a paid service” in Austin, Texas, in June. He said driverless testing would follow in other U.S. cities shortly after that.
Alphabet-owned Waymo is way ahead, announcing recently that it’s providing 200,000 trips each week across San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Tesla and Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.
TSMC workers walk down a hallway in a chipmaking fab in Taiwan. The company is building three such plants in Arizona.
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said on Tuesday that it had detected “unauthorized activities” that lead to the discovery of potential trade secret leaks.
The world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer told CNBC that it has taken “strict” disciplinary action against the personnel involved and that it has also launched legal proceedings.
“TSMC maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any actions that compromise the protection of trade secrets or harm the company’s interests,” the company said.
“Such violations are dealt with strictly and pursued to the fullest extent of the law. We remain committed to safeguarding our core competitiveness and the shared interests of all our employees.”
Semiconductors have grown in strategic importance in recent years as they have become the key pillar in the boom in artificial intelligence models and applications. Rising geopolitical tensions has put the spotlight on the competitive technological advantages of major firms in the chip supply chain like TSMC and other leaders across the board.
TSMC, headquartered in Taiwan, dominates the market for the manufacturing of the world’s most advanced chips and counts major tech giants including Apple and Nvidia as clients.
As the case is now under judicial review, TSMC is unable to provide further information, the firm said.
TSMC identified the issue early due to its “comprehensive and robust monitoring mechanisms,” the company said, adding that it carried out swift internal investigations.
Nikkei Asia, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, reported on Tuesday that several former employees of TSMC are suspected of attempting to obtain critical proprietary information on 2-nanometer chip development and production while they were still working at the company.
Production of the 2-nanometer chip is among the leading edge manufacturing processes in the semiconductor industry currently. TSMC said it did not have any additional information to share when asked by CNBC about the Nikkei report.
As the world’s leading chipmaker, TSMC has a treasure trove of intellectual property. By its own account, the company has previously said it has more than 200,000 trade secrets recorded in its internal system.
It is not the first time that TSMC has been the target for potential theft. In 2018, a Taiwanese court indicted a former employee for copying trade secretes related to the 28-nanometer fabrication process, with intent to transfer them to a semiconductor company in mainland China.
In 2023, ASML, which makes machines that are required to manufacture the most advanced chips, said that it discovered that a former employee in China had misappropriated data related to its proprietary technology.
The Hers app arranged on a smartphone in New York, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Hims & Hers Health fell 9% in extended trading on Monday after the telehealth company reported second-quarter results that missed Wall Street’s expectations for revenue.
Here’s how the company did based on average analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:
Earnings per share: 17 cents adjusted vs. 15 cents
Revenue: $544.8 million vs. $552 million
Revenue at Hims & Hers increased 73% in the second quarter from $315.6 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Hims & Hers reported a net income of $42.5 million, or 17 cents per share, compared to $13.3 million, or 6 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier.
For its third quarter, Hims & Hers said it expected to report revenue between $570 million to $590 million, while analysts were expecting $583 million. The company said its adjusted EBITDA for the quarter will be between the range of $60 million to $70 million. Analysts polled by StreetAccount were expecting $77.1 million.
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Hims & Hers has faced controversy in recent months over its continued sale of compounded GLP-1s, which are cheaper, unapproved versions of the blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs. Compounded drugs can be mass produced when brand-name treatments are in shortage, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in February that ongoing supply issues had been resolved.
Some telehealth companies, including Hims & Hers, have continued to offer the compounded medications. It’s legal for patients to access personalized doses of the knockoffs in unique cases, like if they are allergic to an ingredient in a branded product, for instance. Hims & Hers has said consumers may still be able to access personalized doses through its site if clinically applicable.
In June, Hims & Hers shares tumbled more than 30% after a short-lived collaboration with Novo Nordisk fell apart. The drugmaker said Hims & Hers “failed to adhere to the law which prohibits mass sales of compounded drugs” under the “false guise” of personalization.
Hims & Hers reported adjusted EBITDA of $82 million for its second quarter, up from $39.3 million last year and above the $73 million expected by StreetAccount.
Hims & Hers will host its quarterly call with investors at 5 p.m. ET.
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YTD chart of Hims & Hers Health.
–CNBC’s Annika Kim Constantino contributed to this report
Palantir topped Wall Street’s estimates Monday, surpassing $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, and hiking its full-year guidance.
Shares rallied more than 5%.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:
Earnings per share: 16 cents adj. vs. 14 cents expected
Revenue: $1.00 billion vs. $940 million expected
The artificial intelligence software provider’s revenues grew 48% during the period. Analysts hadn’t expected the $1 billion revenue benchmark from the Denver-based company until the fourth quarter of this year.
“The growth rate of our business has accelerated radically, after years of investment on our part and derision by some,” wrote CEO Alex Karp in a letter to shareholders. “The skeptics are admittedly fewer now, having been defanged and bent into a kind of submission.”
The software analytics company also boosted its full-year outlook guidance. For the full year, Palantir now expects revenues to range between $4.142 billion and $4.150 billion, up from prior guidance of $3.89 billion to $3.90 billion.
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For the third quarter, Palantir forecast revenues between $1.083 billion and $1.087 billion, beating an analyst estimate of $983 million. Palantir also lifted its operating income and full-year free cash flow guidance.
Palantir’s U.S. revenues jumped 68% from a year ago to $733 million, while U.S. commercial revenues nearly doubled from a year ago to $306 million.
The software analytics company has seen a boost from President Donald Trump‘s government efficiency campaign, which included layoffs and contract cuts. Palantir’s U.S. government revenues jumped 53% from the year-ago period to $426 million.
“It has been a steep and upward climb — an ascent that is a reflection of the remarkable confluence of the arrival of language models, the chips necessary to power them, and our software infrastructure,” Karp wrote in a letter to shareholders.
During the quarter, Palantir said it closed 66 deals of at least $5 million and 42 deals totaling at least $10 million. Total value of its contracts grew 140% from last year to $2.27 billion.
Net income rose 144% to about $326.7 million, or 13 cents a share, from about $134.1 million, or 6 cents per share a year ago.
Palantir shares have more than doubled this year as investors bet on the company’s AI tools and contract agreements with governments.
Its market value has accelerated past $379 billion and into the list of top 20 most valuable U.S companies, surpassing Salesforce, IBM and Cisco to join the top 10 U.S. tech companies by market cap. Shares hit a new high Monday.
At its size, buying the stock requires investors to pay hefty multiples.
Shares currently trade 276 times forward earnings, according to FactSet. Tesla is the only other top 20 with a triple-digit ratio at 177.