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Tesla Chief Executive Office Elon Musk speaks at his company’s factory in Fremont, California.
Noah Berger | Reuters

A San Francisco federal court decided that Tesla must pay a former worker, Owen Diaz, around $137 million after he endured racist abuse working for the company, his attorneys told CNBC on Monday. The jury awarded more than attorneys asked for their client, including $130 million in punitive damages and $6.9 million for emotional distress.

Bloomberg first reported on the decision.

Diaz, a former contract worker who was hired at Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company through a staffing agency in 2015, faced a hostile work environment in which, he told the court, colleagues used epithets to denigrate him and other Black workers, told him to “go back to Africa” and left racist graffiti in the restrooms and a racist drawing in his workspace.

According to Diaz’s attorneys, J. Bernard Alexander with Alexander Morrison + Fehr LLP in Los Angeles and Larry Organ with the California Civil Rights Law Group in San Anselmo, the case was only able to move forward because the worker had not signed one of Tesla’s mandatory arbitration agreements.

Tesla uses mandatory arbitration to compel employees to resolve disputes behind closed doors rather than in a public trial.

Like other companies that use mandatory arbitration, Tesla rarely faces significant damages or takes deep corrective actions after arbitrators settle a dispute. However, Tesla was required to pay $1 million — as the result of an arbitration agreement — to another former worker, Melvin Berry, who also endured a racist, hostile workplace at Tesla.

A pending class-action lawsuit in Alameda County in California — Vaughn v. Tesla Inc. — also alleges that Tesla is rife with racist discrimination and harassment.

“We were able to put the jury in the shoes of our client,” Alexander told CNBC. “When Tesla came to court and tried to say they were zero tolerance and they were fulfilling their duty? The jury was just offended by that because it was actually zero responsibility.”

A shareholder activist, Nia Impact Capital, is urging Tesla’s board to study the effects of mandatory arbitration on their own employees and culture.

In particular, the Oakland-based social impact fund is concerned that mandatory arbitration can enable and hide sexual harassment and racist discrimination from Tesla stakeholders, ultimately harming employees, dampening morale and productivity as well as weighing on the bottom line.

In a recent shareholder proposal Nia Impact Capital wrote:

“The use of mandatory arbitration provisions limits employees’ remedies for wrongdoing, precludes employees from suing in court when discrimination and harassment occur, and can keep underlying facts, misconduct or case outcomes secret and thereby prevent employees from learning about and acting on shared concerns.”

Institutional Shareholder Services, the proxy advisory firm, recommended shareholders vote for Nia’s proposal, noting that Tesla has faced many serious allegations of sexual and racial harassment and discrimination over the years.

This is the second year in a row that Nia Impact Capital has floated such a proposal.

This year, as it did last year, Tesla’s board has advised shareholders to vote against reporting on the impacts of mandatory arbitration on employees.

Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7 and will take place at Tesla’s new vehicle assembly plant under construction outside of Austin, Texas.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Elon Musk’s X will be allowed back online in Brazil after paying one more fine

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Elon Musk's X will be allowed back online in Brazil after paying one more fine

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) in Brazil suspends Elon Musk’s social network after it fails to comply with orders from Minister Alexandre de Moraes to block accounts of those being investigated by the Brazilian justice system. 

Cris Faga | Nurphoto | Getty Images

X has to pay one last fine before the social network owned by Elon Musk is allowed back online in Brazil, according to a decision out Friday from the country’s top justice, Alexandre de Moraes.

The platform was suspended nationwide at the end of August, a decision upheld by a panel of judges on Sept. 2. Earlier this month, X filed paperwork informing Brazil’s supreme court that it is now in compliance with orders, which it previously defied.

As Brazil’s G1 Globo reported, X must now pay a new fine of 10 million reals (about $2 million) for two additional days of non-compliance with the court’s orders. X’s legal representative in Brazil, Rachel de Oliveira, is also required to pay a fine of 300,000 reals.

The case dates back to April, when de Moraes, the minister of Brazil’s supreme court, known as Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), initiated a probe into Musk and X over alleged obstruction of justice.

Musk had vowed to defy the court’s orders to take down certain accounts in Brazil. He called the court’s actions “censorship,” and railed online against de Moraes, describing the judge as a “criminal” and encouraging the U.S. to end foreign aid to Brazil.

In mid-August, Musk closed down X offices in Brazil. That left his company without a legal representative in the country, a federal requirement for all tech platforms to do business there.

By Aug. 28, de Moraes’ court threatened a ban and fines if X didn’t appoint a legal representative within 24 hours, and if it didn’t comply with takedown requests for accounts the court said had engaged in plots to dox or harm federal agents, among other things.

Earlier this month, the STF froze the business assets of Musk companies, including both X and satellite internet business Starlink, operating in Brazil. The STF said in court filings that it viewed Starlink parent SpaceX and X as companies that worked together as related parties.

Musk wrote in a post on X at that time that, “Unless the Brazilian government returns the illegally seized property of and SpaceX, we will seek reciprocal seizure of government assets too.”

On August 29, 2024, in Brazil, the Minister of the Supreme Court, STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes, orders the blocking of the accounts of another company, Starlink, of Elon Musk, to guarantee the payment of fines imposed by the STF due to the lack of representatives of X in Brazil. 

Ton Molina | Nurphoto | Getty Images

As head of the STF, de Moraes has long supported federal regulations to rein in hate speech and misinformation online. His views have garnered pushback from tech companies and far-right officials in the country, along with former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters.

Bolsonaro is under investigation, suspected of orchestrating a coup in Brazil after losing the 2022 presidential election to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

While Musk has called for retribution against de Moraes and Lula, he has worked with and praised Bolsonaro for years. The former president of Brazil authorized SpaceX to deliver satellite internet services commercially in Brazil in 2022.

Musk bills himself as a free speech defender, but his track record suggests otherwise. Under his management, X removed content critical of ruling parties in Turkey and India at the government’s insistence. X agreed to more than 80% of government take-down requests in 2023 over a comparable period the prior year, according to analysis by the tech news site Rest of World.

X faces increased competition in Brazil from social apps like Meta-owned Threads, and Bluesky, which have attracted users during its suspension.

Starlink also faces competition in Brazil from eSpace, a French-American firm that gained permission this year from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to deliver satellite internet services in the country.

Lukas Darien, an attorney and law professor at Brazil’s Facex University Center, told CNBC that the STF’s enforcement actions against X are likely to change the way large technology companies will view the court.

“There is no change to the law here,” Darien wrote in a message. “But specifically, big tech companies are now aware that the laws will be applied regardless of the size of a business and the magnitude of its reach in the country.”

Musk and representatives for X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Late Thursday, X Global Government Affairs posted the following statement:

“X is committed to protecting free speech within the boundaries of the law and we recognize and respect the sovereignty of the countries in which we operate. We believe that the people of Brazil having access to X is essential for a thriving democracy, and we will continue to defend freedom of expression and due process of law through legal processes.”

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OpenAI sees roughly $5 billion loss this year on $3.7 billion in revenue

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OpenAI sees roughly  billion loss this year on .7 billion in revenue

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at the Hope Global Forums annual meeting in Atlanta on Dec. 11, 2023.

Dustin Chambers | Bloomberg | Getty Images

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, expects about $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion in revenue this year, CNBC has confirmed.

The company generated $300 million in revenue last month, up 1,700% since the beginning of last year, and expects to bring in $11.6 billion in sales next year, according to a person close to OpenAI who asked not to be named because the numbers are confidential.

The New York Times was first to report on OpenAI’s financials earlier on Friday after viewing company documents. CNBC hasn’t seen the financials.

OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, is currently pursuing a funding round that would value the company at more than $150 billion, people familiar with the matter have told CNBC. Thrive Capital is leading the round and plans to invest $1 billion, with Tiger Global planning to join as well.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told investors in an email Thursday that the funding round is oversubscribed and will close by next week. Her note followed a number of key departures, most notably technology chief Mira Murati, who announced the previous day that she was leaving OpenAI after six and a half years.

Also this week, news surfaced that OpenAI’s board is considering plans to restructure the firm to a for-profit business. The company will retain its nonprofit segment as a separate entity, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The structure would be more straightforward for investors and make it easier for OpenAI employees to realize liquidity, the source said.

OpenAI’s services have exploded in popularity since the company launched ChatGPT in late 2022. The company sells subscriptions to various tools and licenses its GPT family of large language models, which are powering much of the generative AI boom. Running those models requires a massive investment in Nvidia’s graphics processing units.

The Times, citing an analysis by a financial professional who reviewed OpenAI’s documents, reported that the roughly $5 billion in loses this year are tied to costs for running its services as well as employee salaries and office rent. The costs don’t include equity-based compensation, “among several large expenses not fully explained in the documents,” the paper said.

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Alibaba, Tencent rally as Beijing stimulus plans push China’s tech stocks to 13-month high

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Alibaba, Tencent rally as Beijing stimulus plans push China's tech stocks to 13-month high

The Alibaba office building is seen in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, Aug 28, 2024. 

CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Chinese tech stocks, including beaten-down names like Alibaba, rallied this week, hitting highs not seen in more than a year after China’s central bank announced measures to stimulate the world’s second-largest economy.

The Hang Seng Tech Index in Hong Kong, which contains most of the big Chinese tech stocks, closed up nearly 6% at its highest level since early August 2023. The index is up 20% this week.

Alibaba closed above $100 per share for the first time since August last year in the U.S. on Thursday, after surging 10% during the session. On Friday, the company’s Hong Kong-listed stock reached its highest close since February 2023, up nearly 5% to 102.50 Hong Kong dollars. The e-commerce giant’s shares in Hong Kong are around 18% higher this week.

Tencent, the owner of China’s biggest messaging app WeChat and one of the largest gaming firms in the world, closed up nearly 2% at 437.80 Hong Kong dollars per share. This is the firm’s highest close in more than two-and-a-half years and comes after Tencent’s stock rallied around 49 % this year amid a recovery in its core gaming business.

Food delivery giant Meituan meanwhile ended the session 8% higher at 164.60 Hong Kong dollars a share, the company’s highest close level since February last year.

The market uptick comes after the People’s Bank of China this week announced a cut to the amount of cash that banks need to have on hand. The central bank outlined plans to further support the struggling property market, including extending measures for two years and cutting the interest rates on existing mortgages.

These measures have been declared in the hope of boosting the Chinese economy. Prior to the cuts, investors had been cautious on Chinese tech stocks like Alibaba and Meituan which are sensitive to the economy and consumer in China.

However, big-name investor have started to strike a bullish tone on Chinese stocks. Billionaire hedge fund founder David Tepper told CNBC on Thursday that, after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates this month, he bought more Chinese stocks including names like Alibaba and Baidu.

Other names including JD.com and Baidu also logged share increases this week.

Despite the latest upswing, Chinese tech stocks remain significantly off their all-time highs hit in 2021.

CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.

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