Tesla’s earnings accelerate

Tesla’s earnings have increased by an impressive $400 million in the last quarter, making headlines worldwide.

1. Guess who’s back

Tesla has reported record Q4 2022 earnings of $3.7 billion, despite facing challenges such as slowing economic growth and rising interest rates. CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that 2022 was a challenging year, but emphasized the success of their recent price cuts which led to a surge in orders.

Tesla warned of “an uncertain macroeconomic environment” in 2023 but is looking ahead, with plans to produce 1.8 million cars in 2023, including the highly-anticipated Cybertruck, which is set to roll off the production line by the end of the year.

2. Iron brothers

Chinese steel giant, Baowu’s recent landmark deal to mine and ship iron ore from Guinea could have implications for Australia’s iron ore export dominance.

Work is underway to build key infrastructure designed to unlock one of the world’s biggest unexploited deposits, with a target for first production of 2025.

3. Head in the clouds

Microsoft reported Q2 profits that exceeded analyst expectations, driven by strong performance in its Azure cloud-services business. This comes one week after the company announced a strategic investment in OpenAI, the company behind language model ChatGPT.

Even though the results are above expectations, CEO Satya Nadella, was quick to warn that the pandemic-fueled boom in tech spending is coming to an end. He said that organizations are “exercising caution given the macro uncertainty” and that Microsoft will focus on helping its customers “realize more value from their tech spend” and cutting its own costs.

4. Rupert says no

Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan have halted plans for a potential merger between Fox Corporation and News Corporation, stating that it is not in the best interests of shareholders.

The decision comes at the same time as News Corp is in advanced talks with rival CoStar about the sale of its stake in US real-estate listings site Move, which could be worth more than $3 billion. According to some sources, the potential deal may have played a role in the decision to stop the merger plans.

5. The buzzword is AI

BuzzFeed’s stock soared by a record 120% as the company announced its plans to use OpenAI to bolster its content creation. The move sparked a trading frenzy with more than 190 million shares changing hands, bringing BuzzFeed’s market value to nearly $300 million, its biggest gain since going public in December 2021.

CEO Jonah Peretti stated that “AI inspired content” will become “part of our core business” this year, including enhancing the company’s famous quizzes, and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence will be “opening up a new era of creativity.”compress jpg