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Tesla Inc.s estimate-smashing deliveries of electric vehicles in the first quarter suggest boss Elon Musks bet on growth in China and Europe is starting to pay off.

The results marked a strong start to a year in which Musk, the companys chief executive officer, is counting on global operations to help scale-up production and sales. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla delivered 184,800 cars worldwide in the years first three months, trouncing the 169,850 average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts and beating the fourth-quarter figure by about 4,000 vehicles.

The quarter was a massive home run in the eyes of the bulls, Dan Ives at Wedbush wrote in a research note Friday. On Sunday, he upgraded Tesla to outperform from neutral, and raised his 12-month price target for the stock to $1,000, from $950. Teslas shares could hit $1,300 in a long-term bull case scenario, he said.

The 1Q delivery numbers released on Friday was a paradigm changer and shows that the pent-up demand globally for Teslas Model 3/Y is hitting its next stage of growth as part of a global green tidal wave underway, Ives said in the April 4 note. We now believe Tesla could exceed 850k deliveries for the year with 900k a stretch goal, despite the chip shortage and various supply chain issues lingering across the auto sector.

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Musk is pushing into China -- already the worlds largest automotive market, including for EVs -- to gain a foothold amid competition from local electric-vehicle startups as well as Volkswagen AG. Auto sales are forecast to rise in the nation this year for the first time since 2017, and in March, Premier Li Keqiang told the National Peoples Congress the government will help boost the number of EV charging stations and battery-swapping facilities.

Teslas volume stands apart from most other automakers, who are mainly showing declines in part because of electronic-chip constraints, analysts at Jefferies said in a research note. Shares should respond well to the Q1 delivery data.

After a remarkable run in 2020 that saw its stock price surge by more than 700%, Teslas shares fell roughly 6% this year through April 1. Friday was a market holiday in the U.S.

While the EV sector and Tesla shares have been under significant pressure so far this year, we believe the tide is turning on the Street and the eye popping delivery numbers coming out of China cannot be ignored, Ives said.

Tesla recently refreshed the Model S sedan and the X, an SUV. No Model S and X vehicles were made in the quarter, and only 2,000 were delivered in total.

We are encouraged by the strong reception of the Model Y in China and are quickly progressing to full production capacity, Tesla said in a statement. The new Model S and Model X have also been exceptionally well-received, the company said, adding that its in the early stages of ramping production.

Cowen & Co. raised its Model Y forecasts for this year off the back of the robust numbers.

Receptivity to the Model Y in China was always a gray area in our minds, since there was never disclosure on deposit/interest levels from Tesla, analysts led by Jeffrey Osborne wrote in an April 4 report. Given the upside in 1Q21 coupled with the positive tone in the release, we are raising our Model Y forecasts for 2021 and would expect the Street to do so as well.

Osborne added that production at 180,338 for the quarter was pleasing, suggesting that the lingering semiconductor shortage plaguing other auto OEMs is not affecting Tesla in a big way despite the two shutdowns at Fremont in February.

Tesla currently makes the Model S and X only at its factory in Fremont, California, and the smaller Model 3 and Y both there and at its plant in Shanghai. It plans to build two more factories this year, one in Texas and another near Berlin. The company doesnt break out sales by geography, but the U.S. and China are its largest markets and nearly all the sales were of the Model 3 and Y.

With production at the Fremont factory temporarily shutting in February over parts supply issues, Teslas higher-margin Shanghai plant will account for a bigger share of volume in the quarter, which should support profitability, Jefferies said in the note.

Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn warned in January that production would be low due to the transition to the revamped products, while the global semiconductor shortage and delays at ports were also expected to weigh on the quarter.

Tesla said its delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative and final numbers could vary by as much as 0.5% or more.

The quarterly delivery figure is widely seen as a barometer of demand for both Teslas vehicles and consumer interest in electric vehicles worldwide as legacy automakers roll out electric cars of their own.

(Updates with Wedbush most recent note from third paragraph.)

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Tesla China Demand Fuels 'Home Run' Quarter for Deliveries - Bloomberg

Tesla is finally coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, it is with a service center and not a factory, but its still a start.

After Tesla announced plans to build a factory in the middle of the US to build Cybertrucks and supply the east coast with Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, Tulsa, Oklahoma launched a massive effort to attract the automaker.

They offered some land, they built a very creative website, and they even painted an oil drilling monument with a Tesla logo pictured above.

Unfortunately for them, as Electrek first reported, Tesla had its sights set on Austin, Texas as the location for the new factory since May.

In July, Tesla ended up confirming the plan to build the next Gigafactory in Austin.

At least Tulsa got an acknowledgment from Tesla CEO Elon Musk for their campaign to bring the automaker to Oklahoma and he said that they might still consider Tulsa for future projects.

Now weve learned that Tesla is bringing its first official location in Tulsa albeit not a factory.

Currently, Tesla doesnt have any retail or service presence in the greater Tulsa region. The closest Tesla store or service center is in Dallas, Texas.

Today, Electrek learned that Tesla is planning its first Tesla center in Tulsa.

A source familiar with the matter shared the building permit application filed by Tesla:

It is going to be located in a relatively new building on 6010 S 129th E Ave in Tulsa:

Tesla plans to invest $645,000 in the location to turn it into a Tesla Center.

Last year, we reported on Tesla fleshing out a plan for new Tesla Centers to open in major metro areas.

The plan is to have large new locations that will operate sales, service, and delivery 7 days a week.

The fact that Tesla plans to launch such a location in Tulsa shows that the automaker has some faith in the market.

Interestingly, we have also learned that Tesla plans to open a service center in Oklahoma City:

It is going to be located at 1125 N Broadway Ave, Oklahoma City, OK less than two hours away from the upcoming new Tulsa Tesla Center.

The new Tesla service center is going to be located in a former Volvo dealership:

Tesla plans to invest $400,000 to turn it into its own sales and service location.

Last month, we reported on Tesla looking for new locations immediately available to expand service as the automaker is trying to increase both its retail and service presence in the US.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

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Tesla is finally coming to Tulsa, but not with a factory ...

Contents

Serbian-American engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) made dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission and application of electric power. He invented the first alternating current (AC) motor and developed AC generation and transmission technology. Though he was famous and respected, he was never able to translate his copious inventions into long-term financial successunlike his early employer and chief rival, Thomas Edison.

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox church and his mother managed the familys farm. In 1863 Teslas brother Daniel was killed in a riding accident. The shock of the loss unsettled the 7-year-old Tesla, who reported seeing visionsthe first signs of his lifelong mental illnesses.

Did you know? During the 1890s Mark Twain struck up a friendship with inventor Nikola Tesla. Twain often visited him in his lab, where in 1894 Tesla photographed the great American writer in one of the first pictures ever lit by phosphorescent light.

Tesla studied math and physics at the Technical University of Graz and philosophy at the University of Prague. In 1882, while on a walk, he came up with the idea for a brushless AC motor, making the first sketches of its rotating electromagnets in the sand of the path. Later that year he moved to Paris and got a job repairing direct current (DC) power plants with the Continental Edison Company. Two years later he immigrated to the United States.

Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 and was hired as an engineer at Thomas Edisons Manhattan headquarters. He worked there for a year, impressing Edison with his diligence and ingenuity. At one point Edison told Tesla he would pay $50,000 for an improved design for his DC dynamos. After months of experimentation, Tesla presented a solution and asked for the money. Edison demurred, saying, Tesla, you dont understand our American humor. Tesla quit soon after.

After an unsuccessful attempt to start his own Tesla Electric Light Company and a stint digging ditches for $2 a day, Tesla found backers to support his research into alternating current. In 1887 and 1888 he was granted more than 30 patents for his inventions and invited to address the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on his work. His lecture caught the attention of George Westinghouse, the inventor who had launched the first AC power system near Boston and was Edisons major competitor in the Battle of the Currents.

Westinghouse hired Tesla, licensed the patents for his AC motor and gave him his own lab. In 1890 Edison arranged for a convicted New York murderer to be put to death in an AC-powered electric chaira stunt designed to show how dangerous the Westinghouse standard could be.

Buoyed by Westinghouses royalties, Tesla struck out on his own again. But Westinghouse was soon forced by his backers to renegotiate their contract, with Tesla relinquishing his royalty rights.

In the 1890s Tesla invented electric oscillators, meters, improved lights and the high-voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil. He also experimented with X-rays, gave short-range demonstrations of radio communication two years before Guglielmo Marconi and piloted a radio-controlled boat around a pool in Madison Square Garden. Together, Tesla and Westinghouse lit the 1891 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago and partnered with General Electric to install AC generators at Niagara Falls, creating the first modern power station.

In 1895 Teslas New York lab burned, destroying years worth of notes and equipment. Tesla relocated to Colorado Springs for two years, returning to New York in 1900. He secured backing from financier J.P. Morgan and began building a global communications network centered on a giant tower at Wardenclyffe, on Long Island. But funds ran out and Morgan balked at Teslas grandiose schemes.

Tesla lived his last decades in a New York hotel, working on new inventions even as his energy and mental health faded. His obsession with the number three and fastidious washing were dismissed as the eccentricities of genius. He spent his final years feedingand, he claimed, communicating withthe citys pigeons.

Tesla died in his room on January 7, 1943. Later that year the U.S. Supreme Court voided four of Marconis key patents, belatedly acknowledging Teslas innovations in radio. The AC system he championed and improved remains the global standard for power transmission.

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Nikola Tesla - Inventions, Facts & Death - HISTORY

TipRanks

Working the stock market is a data game. Getting the best information, in a timely way, and knowing how to use it, are keys to success. So, here are some numbers to think about. According to industry market research, artificial intelligence companies and products are on the verge of explosive growth. The AI market was valued at $9.5 billion in 2018, over $27 billion in 2019, and is projected to exceed $250 billion in 2027. AI refers to the use of data to simulate human intelligence processes including learning, reasoning and self-correction by machines. AI is making its way into almost every industry. Data collection and collation, automation systems from factories to self-driving cars, even online shopping site they all benefit from AI applications. And this has not been ignored by Wall Street. Analysts say that plenty of compelling investments can be found within this space. With this in mind, weve opened up TipRanks database to find two AI stocks that have gotten the seal of approval from 5-star analysts, stock pros rated among the top 3% of their peers. Lets find out why they recommend these two AI plays. Veritone, Inc. (VERI) The first AI stock we're looking at is Veritone, a software company whose flagship product, an AI-powered operating system called aiWARE, allows the user to coordinate machine learning models and integrate disparate data sources including audio and visual into actionable intelligence results. The system boasts an open architecture, and has been applied in the entertainment, government, legal, and media sectors. At the beginning of March, Veritone released its 4Q20 earnings, showing record quarterly revenue at $16.8 million a year-over-year gain of 35%. The increase was driven by yoy sales gains in aiWARE SaaS, which was up 53%, and Advertising, which was up 50%. However, Veritone stock saw a 49% fall from the peak value it hit in February. Investors liked the strong financials, but there is some worry about the companys future guidance. Management is predicting a non-GAAP net loss in the range of $3.9 million to $4.4 million in 1Q21, and while that represents a 38% improvement at the mid-point from 1Q20, investors do want to see a profit. Roth Capital's 5-star analyst Darren Aftahi, however, thinks this new, lower stock price could offer new investors an opportunity to get into VERI on the cheap. Aftahi sees this stock as a well-positioned AI growth story. VERI put up better 4Q results, but more importantly, accelerating topline growth in both AI SaaS and Advertising (both over 50%). If our assumption about its Content and Licensing business returning to 2019 levels (with modest growth) is correct in 2021, it implies its 2021 guide (which was much better by the way) for advertising and AI SaaS is north of 40% growth (~30% for Advertising and ~low 60%s for AI). Most importantly, its AI SaaS line was guided to 60-65% growth, showing a doubling of growth y/y, Aftahi noted. In line with his comments, Aftahi rates the stock a Buy, and his $50 price target implies growth of 104% in the year ahead. (To watch Aftahis track record, click here) All in all, with a share price of $24.53 and a consensus average price target of $38.75, VERI shares offer investors a chance for 58% share growth this year. The analyst consensus rating, a Moderate Buy, is based on 3 Buy reviews and 1 Sell. (See VERI stock analysis on TipRanks) Verint Systems (VRNT) Verint stock has appreciated 107% over the last 12 months, with a large part of that gain coming in a 31% jump at the beginning of February. That jump came in reaction to the companys split into two entities Cognyte, the spin-off, took on the parents intelligence and cyber operations, while Verint continued as a pure-play, AI-powered customer engagement service. The company uses its combination of market experience and AI and analytic products to enable customers to optimize their automation, knowledge, and workforce. Verints fiscal year 2021 ended on January 31, the day before the split, and the company reported its Q4 and full year results at the end of March. Those results beat expectations for the quarter, with $349 million in total revenue a 3% year-over-year gain. For the full year, however, the $1.27 billion in revenue was a shade below the $1.3 billion reported in the previous year. The Q4 data bodes for the Verint in its pure-play customer engagement incarnation, as those AI cloud sectors grew more than 30% year-over-year in that quarter. Calling Verint a "unique AI engagement company," Oppenheimer's 5-star analyst Timothy Horan sees the new Verint in a strong position to move forward. VRNT reported solid 4Q21 earnings and is now a pure play customer engagement AI company following its split. VRNT is successfully executing its transition to a SaaS/ Cloud model. New perpetual license bookings (PLE) was up 15% this quarter. The transition away from licensed sales is difficult but largely behind it as revenue growth should accelerate from this quarter onward. Cloud demand has seen a healthy 50/50 split between existing and new customers. Getting to the bottom line, Horan adds, It exited the year with strong momentum in cloud and bookings. We think it can continue to sign large cloud deals across contact center and other verticals. These are upbeat comments, and Horan backs them with an Outperform (i.e., Buy) rating, and a $60 price target indicating room for ~32% growth in the next 12 months. (To watch Horans track record, click here) Overall, there is broad agreement on Wall Street that Verint is a stock to Buy, as shown by the unanimous Strong Buy analyst consensus rating. This is based on 6 recent positive reviews. The shares have an average price target of $59.33, suggesting ~30% upside potential from the current trading price of $45.50. (See VRNT stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for AI stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Apple, GM, JetBlue, Lululemon, Tesla And More - Yahoo Finance

Tesla has filed an appeal against a National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) ruling, which commanded CEO Elon Musk to delete an anti-union tweet.

The company is also requesting that the US Court of Appeals review the board's decisionthat the company breached US labor law after it fired a union activist, Reuters reported.

The tweet in question was posted in 2018. Musk wrote:"Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare."

Last month, the NLRB ordered Musk to remove the tweet and publicly address the unlawful tweet at all of its sites, and include speech that says, "WE WILL take appropriate steps to ensure Musk complies with our directive," according to Reuters.

The NLRB told Tesla to reinstate a former employee and revoke a ban on the sharing of union details in its car park without prior company permission.

Tesla workers at its Fremont plant had been trying to form a union with the United Auto Workers, amid apparently grueling working conditions, as Insider previously reported.

Tesla employees also accused the company of firing workers who were staying at home during the pandemic, despite previously telling staff they were able to do so.

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Tesla is appealing against a labor board ruling that ordered Elon Musk to delete an anti-union tweet - Business Insider

The Lucid Motors boss Peter Rawlinson is fluent in the language of the new breed of electric carmaker: he wants to save the planet and he wants to do it fast.

The California carmaker is only starting production of its hotly anticipated first model in the second half of this year but it has quickly come to be seen as one of the leaders in the pack of would-be rivals to Tesla. A recent $24bn (17bn) deal to list on US stock markets will give it $4.6bn in funds to play with.

Such is the urgency of the impending environmental crisis facing the world, according to Rawlinson, that Lucid is hoping to work with mass-market carmakers to get its technology into production as soon as possible.

Lucid has been approached by a few car companies this year over licensing deals, Rawlinson told the Guardian. Those talks have yielded nothing tangible yet and the prospect of earning revenues from partnerships with other carmakers, he says, remains very speculative. However, there is mouthwatering potential, and the right partner could yield an affordable electric car within four years, he says.

He declined to comment when asked if Lucid had been approached by Apple, the iPhone maker that is considering making an electric car.

The big picture is, Ive got this dichotomy, Rawlinson said, speaking via video call from California. The dichotomy is we need to get millions of $25,000 cars into production fast to save the planet. Weve got the right technology but as a company I cant get there for about eight, nine years, and its too late.

A deal with carmakers such as Honda, Hyundai or Toyota (named by Rawlinson) would be the icing on the cake for a company still without a single car sale which has become one of the flagbearers of the US electric car Spac boom (or bubble, according to taste). Rivals that are also using special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) to list in the US include the UKs Arrival and the USs Canoo, Fisker, Lordstown and Rivian on top of Chinese contenders such as Li Auto, Nio and Xpeng.

What sets Lucids Spac apart is its size. The $4.6bn funding it will get from the listing, if completed, will include $2.1bn directly from the Spac cash shell and another $2.5bn from investors led by Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund, which is its biggest shareholder.

That arguably makes Rawlinson Britains most influential carmaker albeit one firmly based in California.

Rawlinson grew up in south Wales, going to school in Cowbridge, near Cardiff. He considered art school but instead studied mechanical engineering at Imperial College London. He worked at Jaguar and Lotus in the UK before joining an ambitious new electric carmaker. That company was Elon Musks Tesla, and Rawlinson ended up as chief engineer for Teslas Model S.

In 2013, Rawlinson moved to Atieva, which made batteries for the electric Formula E race series. Atieva eventually decided to move into car production, and Rawlinson persuaded it to change its name to Lucid.

Rawlinson is following the Tesla business model closely, from targeting its first cars at wealthier buyers through to starting a home battery business on the side. Rawlinson is complimentary about his former employer, saying it has the best electric technology in production today.

Tomorrow might be a different matter. Lucids claims for its cars have not yet been proven but they are extraordinary.

The Lucid Air, with production starting in the second half of this year, is aiming for a range of 517 miles for its $161,000 flagship model. Such a long driving distance between recharging would put a stop to the range anxiety, which so many motorists cite as a drawback to buying electric.

The Airs promised acceleration of 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds would also outpace a Ferrari but with zero exhaust carbon emissions.

There is not one big technological reveal for how this grand aim will be achieved. Instead, Lucid is slicing off inefficiencies wherever it can find them, with battery, gears, power electronics and motor all developed in-house. Examples of important developments are batteries that have a simpler manufacturing process, or a motor that can have coolant pumped directly through it, allowing more efficient heat management.

Lucid employs almost 2,000 people, with 3,000 workers expected to be added in the US by the end of 2022. The factory it has built in Arizona can theoretically make 34,000 cars a year. By 2023 it is hoping for about 90,000 units when it will be selling a seven-seater SUV that currently has the moniker Project Gravity.

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By 2025 it speculates it will have revenues of $14bn which would represent an astonishing growth rate. Five years after that it hopes to produce 500,000 cars a year, possibly with factories in China and the Middle East. That would still only be a fraction of mass-volume carmakers with similar valuations but it would not be for a lack of ambition on Lucids part.

All mankind will benefit from the technology we bring in this high-end product, Rawlinson said, because it will cascade down to more affordable cars that were going to make in the future.

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Meet the Briton leading a Tesla rival who wants to save the planet - The Guardian

HyperChanges Gali Russell (aka @GFilche on Twitter) released a video on why he thinks Tesla will be the worlds biggest company. Just last month, Elon Musk tweeted that there was a >0% chance that Tesla could become the biggest company, as an obvious joke. While that seemed to just be a joke (theres a greater than 0% chance of basically everything), Gali wanted to make the point that Tesla really could become the worlds largest company, and I agree with him. (Note: Im a small shareholder in Tesla and fully believe in its mission.)

Tesla is poised to be the worlds largest company. Its not an exaggeration. Im not joking. I truly think that is about to be whats gonna happen, Gali said at the beginning of his video. Gali explained that although you see a few Teslas in every city, in a couple of years its going to be a combination of the 3, Y, and a cheaper Model 2 which could also be a robotaxi.

He also mentioned the Tesla ridesharing app, where you will be able to request a clean swag sustainable ride wherever you go, if all goes according to plan.

This is going to be an absolute game changer for many cities in the economy and unlock trillions of value for Tesla.

Gali explained how a $45 billion run rate in revenue justifies $520 trillion within the next few years. Tesla has two mega financial tailwinds, he explained.

1. Tesla is producing its vehicles at a rapid pace that is compounding from 1 million this year to what Gali estimates will be 10 million in about 5 years.

2. Teslas profit per vehicle can go from around $10,000 to a range of $50,000 to $70,000.

Gali pointed out that this is a double trifecta not only are vehicles produced going up quickly, but also the profit per vehicle produced is increasing significantly. This is just the FSD, robotaxi business that were talking about, he pointed out. Gali believes that this financial tailwind will take Tesla to $3050 billion in earnings extremely quickly and noted that the math justifies itself. As proof, Gali mentioned Teslas Q4 2020 figures. In that quarter, Tesla was selling FSD (Full Self-Driving) at $10,000 and Tesla delivered over 500,000 EVs. (Remember that impossible milestone?)

Were looking at a $2 billion operating cash flow in a single quarter. Thats $12 billion a year, he pointed out, adding that he thinks Tesla will not just double or triple that but actually multiply that by 10 times. In a nutshell, Tesla will within the next 5 years be building 8 as many cars and be 4 as profitable per car produced. Gali also noted in the video that Teslas annual operating cash flow run-rate could go from $12 billion (Q4 2020) to $420 billion at around or less than 10 million cars per year.

One of the largest things in the market that people do not understand is that Teslas FSD and robotaxi plan is such a big deal or just dont believe in it. The fact that FSD exists, its in the wild. People can use it. Theyre training it and making it better every single day, Gali explained.

Theres 2,000 that have this software, but theyre on the cusp of rolling it out to a million vehicles and I think this why Elon let it slip that Tesla might become the worlds most valuable company, because the bottom line is once people realize this game-changing feature is not some pie in the sky thing, its not insanely far away but its literally here you can literally self-drive your Tesla today theyre going to roll this out. This is going to immediately justify a price increase of FSD from $10,000 to I think $25,000 is what I would say its worth right now with the FSD at the current level assuming it doesnt get better.

In the video, Gali showed a document that detailed the revenue in 2019 of state-owned oil companies and noted the peak oil revenue for 2019 from the worlds nine largest state-owned oil companies was $1.5 trillion.

These nine companies that are listed in the document (in the video) are:

Gali explained why companies like Ford and GM have only $50 billion market caps. They dont really extract a lot of the value. A lot of thats going to part suppliers. A lot of thats going to dealers. A lot of thats going to the oil companies. Automakers, in comparison to Tesla, are not making that much money on each vehicle sale.

Tesla, Gali explained, is vertically integrating charging for both energy creation and energy consumption, among other things. Tesla has its own Supercharger network and does not have dealerships. Teslas soaking up the market capitalization of not just automotive companies, but truly all sorts of energy companies. When you add up the revenue of all of this, its trillions of dollars in revenue.

Being the propulsion technology of humanity is multi trillions of dollars in revenue.

Gali points to what Tesla is doing in Texas. Instead of having a peaker plant to supply energy to the grid in Texas, Tesla is using its battery technology to do it better and cheaper while making it financially viable.

Gambit Energy Storage, a subsidiary of Tesla, is working on a massive energy storage project near Houston which will have a capacity of 100 megawatts enough to power about 20,000 homes and should go into operation this June. You can read more about that here.

This is just the start of another multi-trillion dollar problem that Teslas going to fix. Because once were charging 8 million Teslas on the grid, the grids going to break. Its already super unstable. Gali explained that much like what is happening in the financial markets, everything is going into this decentralized future (think Bitcoin) the energy markets are going from centralization to decentralization as well.

This is just the first half of Galis video. I encourage you to watch the full thing for yourself. Its exciting to think about the future and know that clean energy and sustainability are the focus of that bright future. You can watch Galis video here or via the embed above.

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HyperChange: Tesla Will Be The Worlds Biggest Company - CleanTechnica

While Covid-19 ravaged the broader American economy, the largest U.S. employers added more jobs than they cut.

Overall, global employment rose by about 370,000 people among the 286 members of the S&P 500 that filed annual reports between July 1 and March 31, a Wall Street Journal analysis of securities filings shows.

Those gains masked wrenching changes and job losses for workers in many companies and industries. And the net gain in jobs for 2020 wouldnt have happened without a single company: Amazon . com Inc.

The giant internet retailer added 500,000 workers around the world during the yearmore than 400,000 of them in the U.S. Amazon created nearly as many jobs last year as the 136 other companies in the Journal analysis that added workers.

By hiring that many people, we were not only able to deliver essential items for our customers during a critical time, but also provide an opportunity to those who lost their jobs or saw their hours cut because of Covid, said Beth Galetti, Amazons senior vice president for human resources. Amazon became an employment beacon for hundreds of American communities. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama are voting on whether to unionize.

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Tesla, Facebook, FedEx Hired Through the Pandemic as GE, Marriott, Others Shed Jobs - The Wall Street Journal

In its March 25decision, the NLRB unanimously held that: (1) Tesla violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) after prohibiting employees from talking to the media; (2) Tesla did not violate the Act by calling employees into a meeting to discuss their potential unionization; and (3) Tesla must order CEO Elon Musk to delete his tweet about the employees attempt to unionize, as it was unlawfully coercive in violation of the Act.

Media Contact Provision of Confidentiality Agreement Violated the Act

In 2016, Tesla required its employees to sign a confidentiality agreement in response to leaks of confidential company information. As part of the agreement, Tesla reminded its employees that it is never OK to communicate with the media or someone closely related to the media about Tesla, unless [the employee has] been specifically authorized in writing to do so.

Here, the Administrative Law Judge found that the confidentiality agreement was lawful because considering that it was sent in response to leaks of confidential information, employees would reasonably interpret the agreement to apply only to proprietary information. Further, the Judge found that any potential interference with Section 7 rights was outweighed by Teslas interest in protecting such confidential information.

In 2017, the NLRB set a new standard for determining whether facially neutral work rules or policies would unlawfully interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in violation of Section 7 of the NLRA. In Boeing Co., 365 NLRB No. 154 (2017), the Board held that: [W]hen evaluating a facially neutral policy, rule or handbook provision that, when reasonably interpreted, would potentially interfere with the exercise of NLRA rights, the Board will evaluate two things: (i) the nature and extent of the potential impact on NLRA rights, and (ii) legitimate justifications associated with the rule. In conducting this balancing test, the Board considers the rule or policy from the employees perspective. If the balance favors general employer interests, the rule or policy will be deemed lawful, but if the potential interference with Section 7 rights outweighs any possible employer justification, the rule will be deemed unlawful.

The Board applied the Boeing standard for facially-neutral work rules and reversed the ALJ, and held that the provision in the agreement that prohibited employees from talking to the media without permission was unlawful in violation of Section 8(a)(1). The Board applied prior precedent and found that the language in the media-contact provision applied to information beyond what the confidentiality agreement defined to be confidential information, even if read in conjunction with the introduction explaining that the policy was created in response to leaked information.

The Board held that [t]hat general statement d[id] not change the meaning of the plain language of the media-contact provision, which employees would reasonably interpret to apply to communications with the media about any matter regarding [Tesla], including working conditions, labor disputes, or other terms and conditions of employment.

Additionally, because the provision did not include language limiting the restrictions to statements made to the media on behalf of Tesla, and required prior approval for any statements whatsoever, it clearly infringed on the employees Section 7 rights. Teslas justification for attempting such restriction did not outweigh the right of its employees to communicate with the media about labor disputes and their terms and conditions of employmenta concept central to the Actand, as such, Tesla violated Section 8(a)(1) by maintaining such a provision.

Tesla Did Not Violate the Act for its Conduct when Its Employees Attempted to Unionize

In 2017, a Tesla employee sent a petition to HR and to CEO Elon Musk, discussing the safety concerns of many employees and noting their intent to form a union in order to protect themselves and ensure their safety. Shortly after circulating the petition, HR brought the employee to a conference room with Musk, seeking to directly discuss the employees safety concerns. During the meeting, the employee noted that he thought a union would help give the employees a voice. Musk responded, [Y]ou dont really have a voice. The [Union] is a secondlike two-class system where [the Union] is the only one that has a voice and not the workers.

First, the Board found that the meeting with Musk did not violate Section 8(a)(1), as Tesla did not unlawfully solicit the employees safety concerns and impliedly promise to remedy them. The meeting was a result of the employees petition that had been sent directly to HR and Musk, and was an attempt to understandably learn more about the serious safety concerns alleged in the petition. Further, the petition did not detail any specific hazards and there was no explicit or implicit promise to remedy the safety concerns. As such, the meeting could not be categorized as an unlawful solicitation of grievances.

Second, the Board concluded that Musks statement was lawful because an employer may criticize, disparage, or denigrate a union without running afoul of Section 8(a)(1), as long as the employer does not threaten an employees Section 7 rights. Musk did not imply that Tesla would use unlawful means to ensure the employees were unable to unionize, and simply explained one effect of unionizationthat employees would take up any grievances with Tesla through the Union, who would speak on their behalf.

Elon Musks Tweet Violated the Act

Even though the Board found that Tesla did not violate the act by calling an employee into a meeting to discuss unionization, the Board affirmed the ALJs finding that Musks subsequent tweet on May 20, 2018to approximately 22 million of his followerswas unlawfully coercive: Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare. The Board agreed that Musks commentary lost the protection of the Act because it amounted to a threat that employees would lose their stock options if they unionized; it was not a prediction carefully phrased based on objective fact[s] of what may occur as the result of good-faith collective bargaining. As part of its decision, the Board ordered Tesla to have Musk delete his unlawful tweet and take steps to ensure he complies.

Takeaways

This decision instructively highlights the pitfalls with public communications on social media by the employer and supervisors in response to unionization, reaffirming the principle that while employers have a right to free speech during an organizing campaign, that right must be exercised in a manner that is not overly coercive. The Board held that Musks tweet, to his 22 million followers, was unlawful principally because of the reference to the fact that Tesla employees would give up stock options for nothing. This was construed as a threatwhich is unlawfulrather than a potential consequence of good-faith collective bargaining negotiations if a Union were selected by the employees, which could have been lawful. A fine distinction can be drawn based on the manner in which the statement is phrased and the surrounding context.

In addition, this decision reinforces that employers may lawfully restrict employees from talking to the media about proprietary information, but such provisions must be carefully crafted to ensure that they do not infringe on employees Section 7 rights. Employers should take care in ensuring that they do not categorically restrict employees from talking to the media without prior authorization.

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Tesla and Musk Get a Shock from the NLRB Tesla CEO Ordered to Delete Union Tweet and Eliminate Overly Broad Confidentiality Policy - JD Supra

After renaming Boca Chica as Starbase, Elon Musk now wants to hire you at a Tesla factory in Austin if youre willing to move there on an immediate basis. Days after posting a tweet urging people to move to Boca Chica, Musk is now urging people to move to Austin. The Tesla CEO and SpaceX boss took to his Twitter account to share that a Tesla manufacturing plant being built near Austin will hire more than 10,000 people through 2022 adding that that student dont need a college degree to work with the brand. Students can apply for jobs at the plant right after high school.

According to Financial Times, the upcoming $1.1 billion Tesla Gigafactory at Austin, Texas, which would produce Cybertruck, Semi truck, Model 3 sedan, and Model Y mid-size SUV, is looking to hire more than 10,000 people through 2022. Musk had earlier announced in July that the construction work is proceeding rapidly on the companys newest manufacturing facility. According to a report by Austin American-Statesman, if Tesla will hire 10,000 workers then it will be double the minimum number of hires the company had promised earlier, which was 5,000.

In a new tweet, he urged people to move and also the need to build more housing for his potential employees.

Musk in his earlier tweet further listed the benefits of joining the new Giga Texas. He revealed the job site is situated just five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown and right on the Colorado River. However, no extra details were provided by Musk via the tweet.Also, on Tuesday Musk had urged people to move to South Texas for his aerospace company SpaceX and encourage friends to do so.

While Austin was an urban area already developed, Boca Chica was far from it. People living in the calm location of Boca Chica, a remote beach community in the southernmost part of Texas, had a life filled with tranquillity. Then Elon Musk came up with his SpaceX company there. Tesla CEO and SpaceX boss, billionaire Elon Musk had fixated on Boca Chica in Texas, US almost a year ago. In March, he announced that he wants to rename it as Starbase. SpaceX is currently building a new factory in Texas for its satellite-based broadband service Starlink, according to a job posting from the company, as a billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk continues to invest in the southern US state.

Boca Chica isnt the ideal place to construct a base for a space exploration company, reports Esquire. The nearest grocery store is a 30-minute drive away, the cell service is poor and there is very little fresh water. But it was quiet, which it isnt anymore.

Most of the Boca Chica were retirees and loved spending their time in peace. But all that changed when Musk decided to start his SpaceX company in the area. Now, loud thuds and sounds of trucks are all common there.

SpaceX was growing at a rapid pace and Boca Chica residents soon got to know that that meant trouble for them. At the end of last year, the private space company offered to buy their homes.

Expansion of spaceflight activities will make it increasingly more challenging to minimize disruption, SpaceX had said in a letter to the residents. The residents have been vocal about what its like to have the experience of being Musks neighbour and it was all negative.

In August last year, SpaceX hinted at a resort also being set up in Boca Chica, in a post mentioning the search for a candidate to fill up the job of a talented Resort Development Manager to oversee the development of SpaceXs first resort.

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Elon Musk's Tesla Will Hire You Without a College Degree If You Move to Austin, Texas Right Away - News18