Category Archives: Elon Musk

Bitcoin falls almost 30% after China crackdown

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Digital currency under pressure from payment crackdown and tweets from Elon Musk

The price of bitcoin fell by almost 30% on Wednesday, after a Chinese government crackdown on banks’ use of cryptocurrencies accelerated a long-predicted sell-off, in a day of chaotic trading.

The world’s largest digital currency tumbled to about $30,000 (£21,000) amid frenzied trading, a drop of more than 50% since it hit record highs of more than $64,000 in mid-April. However, by 10pm UK time, the bitcoin price had risen back to about $38,500, still down 11% on the day, according to Refinitiv data.

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Tesla crash driver posted videos of himself riding without hands on wheel

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  • Steven Hendrickson, 35, killed earlier this month in fatal crash
  • Authorities say car may have been operating in autopilot mode

The driver of a Tesla car in a fatal crash that California highway authorities said may have been operating on autopilot posted social media videos of himself riding in the vehicle without his hands on the wheel or foot on the pedal.

The 5 May crash in Fontana, a city 50 miles east of Los Angeles, is also under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It is the 29th case involving a Tesla the federal agency has investigated.

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Elon Musk says Tesla will no longer accept bitcoin due to fossil fuel use

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Digital currency, which is made with an energy-intensive process, falls 17% after the tweet

Tesla has suspended customers’ use of bitcoin to purchase its vehicles, Elon Musk said on Wednesday, citing concerns about the use of fossil fuel for bitcoin mining.

Related: Dogecoin’s record-breaking rise shoots ‘joke’ cryptocurrency to wider attention

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SpaceX finally launches and successfully lands its futuristic Starship

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Previous test flights of the rocketship, which Elon Musk plans to use for future missions to the moon and mars, ended in explosions

SpaceX launched and successfully landed its futuristic Starship on Wednesday, finally nailing a test flight of the rocketship that Elon Musk intends to use to land astronauts on the moon and send people to Mars.

The previous four test flights ended in fiery explosions before, during or soon after touchdown at the south-eastern tip of Texas, near Brownsville.

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Elon Musk startup shows monkey with brain chip implants playing video game

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Neuralink video appears to show monkey controlling game paddle simply by thinking

The billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup released footage on Friday appearing to show a monkey playing a simple video game after getting implants of the new technology.

The three-minute video by Neuralink shows Pager, a male macaque with chips embedded on each side of its brain, playing Mind Pong. Although he was trained to move a joystick, it is now unplugged. He appears to control the paddle simply by thinking about moving his hand up or down.

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Elon Musk denies Teslas used for spying after China’s military bans cars from bases

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We would get shut down if we were spying, says boss of electric car maker, after reports about security concerns in Beijing

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says his company would be shut down if its cars were used to spy, his first comments on news that China’s military has banned Teslas from its facilities.

“There’s a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information,” Musk told a prominent Chinese forum during a virtual discussion on Saturday. “If Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down.”

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Elon Musk changes his Tesla job title to ‘technoking’

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Company’s financial chief has been rebranded ‘master of coin’ following £1bn bitcoin investment

Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla with a penchant for eccentric behaviour, has changed his job title to “technoking” of the electric car manufacturer.

In addition to Musk, who also retains his position as chief executive, the company’s financial chief, Zach Kirkhorn, has been rebranded as “master of coin”.

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Anger after Indonesia offers Elon Musk Papuan island for SpaceX launchpad

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Biak island residents say SpaceX launchpad would devastate island’s ecology and displace people from their homes

Papuans whose island has been offered up as a potential launch site for Elon Musk’s SpaceX project have told the billionaire Tesla chief his company is not welcome on their land, and its presence would devastate their island’s ecosystem and drive people from their homes.

Musk was offered use of part of the small island of Biak in Papua by Indonesian president Joko Widodo in December.

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Tesla share price plunge knocks $267bn off market value

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Decline wipes billions off Elon Musk’s fortune as investors fear firm is vastly overvalued

A sharp decline in Tesla’s share price has wiped more than $250bn (£193bn) off the value of the electric car company, and dragged down the value of an Edinburgh-based investment fund that is one of Tesla’s biggest backers.

The shares dropped by 7.5% in early trading in the US on Friday to $575 – setting them on course to close down 16% this week and 35% below their record peak of $883 on 26 January.

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Clubhouse app: what is it and how do you get an invite to the audio app Elon Musk uses?

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The exclusive invitation-only social networking app is a hybrid of conference calls, talkback radio and Houseparty

Part talkback radio, part conference call, part Houseparty, Clubhouse is a social networking app based on audio-chat. Users can listen in to conversations, interviews and discussions between interesting people on various topics – it is just like tuning in to a podcast but live and with an added layer of exclusivity.

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Is big tech now just too big to stomach?

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The Covid crisis has turbo-charged profits and share prices. But are the big six now too powerful for regulators to ignore?

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech.

Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the past three months – 25% more than Tesco brings in over a full year.

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Up in flames: SpaceX Starship test flight ends in fiery crash, again

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  • Futuristic rocket explodes on landing after test in Texas
  • Elon Musk developing Starship to carry people to Mars

SpaceX’s second full test flight of its futuristic, bullet-shaped Starship ended in another fiery crash landing on Tuesday.

Elon Musk’s company launched its latest Starship prototype from the south-eastern tip of Texas, two months after the previous test ended in an equally explosive belly flop.

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Covid billionaires should help starving people, says charity boss

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Head of World Food Program USA says 235 million people ‘marching toward starvation’

Billionaires whose wealth has soared during the coronavirus pandemic should stump up to provide emergency aid to the record numbers of people facing starvation, the head of a US charity supporting the World Food Programme has said.

Related: Billionaires' wealth rises to $10.2 trillion amid Covid crisis

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Elon Musk becomes world’s richest person

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Tesla co-founder overtakes Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as car firm’s shares soar after ‘blue Senate’ victory

Elon Musk, the maverick boss of Tesla, has overtaken Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, after shares in the electric car company he co-founded soared on hopes that a Democrat-controlled US Senate would usher in a new green agenda.

A 4.8% rise in Tesla’s share price was enough to push Musk into the top spot according to the Bloomberg billionaires index, which tracks the daily changes in the fortunes of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.

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‘He’s a risk-taker’: Germans divided over Elon Musk’s new GigaFactory

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The Tesla project will put Grünheide on the map, but some say it is doing ‘irreversible’ harm to the environment

For the past 10 months, Silas Heineken has been flying a drone over one of Germany’s biggest building sites and posting the images on YouTube.

The 14-year-old self-named “Tesla Kid” has built a significant following, as tens of thousands tune in each week to see the latest developments in Elon Musk’s GigaFactory as it emerges at speed from the sandy ground of Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin.

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Elon Musk: I tried to sell Tesla to Apple

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Musk says Tim Cook ‘refused to take the meeting’ when a struggling Tesla could have been bought for a song

Elon Musk has said he contacted Apple Inc’s Tim Cook “during the darkest days of the Model 3 program” to discuss the possibility of Apple buying the Tesla electric car company for “1/10th of our current value … He [Cook] refused to take the meeting”.

Musk’s comment followed reports that Apple is working on producing an electric car with advanced battery technology. In Twitter threads, Musk and others questioned the nature the technology, including what was referred to in reports as a “monocell” battery with lithium iron phosphate chemistry:

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Ten billionaires reap $400bn boost to wealth during pandemic

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Covid-19 pushed many into poverty but brought huge benefits for some of the wealthiest, renewing calls for fairer taxes

Ten of the richest people in the world have boosted their already vast wealth by more than $400bn (£296bn) since the coronavirus pandemic began as their businesses were boosted by lockdowns and financial crises across the globe.

The extra wealth accumulated by the 10 men – approximately $450bn, using Forbes figures – over the past nine months is more than the £284bn the British government is estimated to have spent on tackling the pandemic and the economic damage it has wrought on its 66 million people.

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Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin space company will take first woman to the moon

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  • Amazon owner seeks Nasa lunar lander contract
  • Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Dynetics also in competition

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will take the first woman to the moon, the billionaire said as Nasa nears a decision over who will supply its first privately built lunar landers, meant to be capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024.

Related: Japan’s Hayabusa2 capsule returns to Earth carrying asteroid samples

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Elon Musk says cheaper, more powerful electric vehicle batteries are 3 years off

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Tesla CEO acknowledged the design and manufacturing process of the new cells, which he says will be half as expensive, is not complete

Elon Musk described a new generation of electric vehicle batteries that will be more powerful, longer lasting, and half as expensive as the company’s current cells at Tesla’s “Battery Day” on Tuesday.

Tesla’s new larger cylindrical cells will provide five times more energy, six times more power and 16% greater driving range, Musk said, adding that full production is about three years away.

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Wealth of US billionaires rises by nearly a third during pandemic

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Report includes Jeff Bezos, whose personal fortune has risen by 65% since 18 March

The already vast fortunes of America’s 643 billionaires have soared by an average of 29% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has at the same time laid waste to tens of millions of jobs around the world.

The richest of the superrich have benefited by $845bn , according to a report by a US progressive thinktank, the Institute for Policy Studies.

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