• President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on over 180 countries.
• "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban said people should "buy lots of consumables" now before prices go up.
• Cuban said retailers will raise prices and "blame it on tariffs" even if their goods are US made.

Mark Cuban has a suggestion for Americans: "Buy lots of consumables now."

Cuban made a post on Bluesky on Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs that would hit more than 180 countries:

"It's not a bad idea to go to the local Walmart or big box retailer and buy lots of consumables now. From toothpaste to soap, anything you can find storage space for, buy before they have to replenish inventory," Cuban wrote.

"Even if it's made in the USA, they will jack up the price and blame it on tariffs," Cuban added.

Cuban declined to comment further when approached by Business Insider.

On Wednesday, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries that have imposed tariffs on US goods. The tariffs, which Trump said will start at a baseline rate of 10%, will affect 185 countries.

"April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again," Trump said.

While companies might absorb some of the cost increases from tariffs, American consumers are likely to see higher prices on items like cars and groceries.

Last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that "a good part" of the Fed's rising inflation forecast stems from Trump's tariff plans.

Experts BI spoke to, however, said Cuban's concerns that tariffs would raise prices are valid — but panic buying may hurt supply chains and cause prices to go up, too.

"Just as I said during COVID, no one should be panic-buying toilet paper and Clorox, and no one should be doing that now," Margaret Kidd, an associate professor of supply chain and logistics technology at the University of Houston, told BI.

Kidd said consumers need to be "conservative with our resources" since price increases are "happening across the board."

"We don't know how this is going to play out," Kidd said.

Chris Tang, a UCLA professor and expert in global supply chain management, told BI that Cuban's suggestion could result in "bigger problems."

"This kind of shift in demand would actually exacerbate this price increase. If the demand is more stable, then the price is more stable. If everyone starts stocking up toothpaste and toilet paper, the prices go higher," Tang said.

To be sure, this isn't the first time Cuban has been critical of Trump's tariff policies. The "Shark Tank" star endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign last year, calling her a "pro-business" candidate.

In September, Trump said he would impose a 200% tariff on John Deere if the agriculture equipment company moved its manufacturing to Mexico.

"This Lack of Understanding of Business is insane," Cuban wrote in an X post then.

Imposing higher tariffs on American companies than their Chinese counterparts meant that "Chinese products will be cheaper to sell in the US than the American company," Cuban added.

"Good way to destroy a legendary American company and increase costs to American buyers," Cuban wrote.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Donald Trump and Elon Musk endorsed Judge Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
• But the conservative lost to his liberal opponent, Judge Susan Crawford.
• Trump and Musk said they secured a more important win over Wisconsin's requirements for voter ID.

President Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's preferred candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race lost, but both men say they scored a big victory anyway.

The Republican campaign in Wisconsin did result in changes to the state's voter ID laws. On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin approved an amendment to the state's constitution requiring voters to use photo identification.

"Democrats fought hard against this, presumably so they can CHEAT. This is a BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS, MAYBE THE BIGGEST WIN OF THE NIGHT," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

"This was the most important thing," Musk wrote on X on Wednesday morning, referencing the changes to Wisconsin's constitution.

Trump and Musk had endorsed conservative Judge Brad Schimel, who lost to liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.

"I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain," Musk said in a subsequent post on X early on Wednesday.

As of press time, Trump has not commented publicly on the outcome of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Wisconsin's Supreme Court has a 4-3 liberal majority. A Schimel win would have resulted in an ideological realignment of the court's bench.

"For State Supreme Court, make sure to Vote for America First Patriot, Brad Schimel, against Susan Crawford, a Radical Left Liberal, with a History of letting child molesters and rapists off easy," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.

Aside from endorsing Schimel, Musk's super PAC, America PAC, spent over $12 million supporting him. Musk also offered $100 to Wisconsin voters who signed a petition opposing "activist judges."

On Sunday, Musk held a town hall in Wisconsin where he handed $1 million checks to two supporters. Musk initially said the $1 million was a lottery prize for signing his petition. He later said the payment was compensation for the winners to be spokespeople at the event.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election is the most expensive judicial race in US history.

In the run-up to the vote, Trump and Musk both said enshrining voter ID requirements in Wisconsin's constitution is just as important as securing a conservative majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court.

"There is a very important Referendum (Question 1) on the Ballot to amend the State Constitution to require VOTER ID," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, where he asked voters to support the amendment and Schimel.

At Musk's town hall on Sunday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said his personal stake in the vote boiled down to two issues — the judicial majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court bench and whether the state will require voter ID at polls.

Musk said these decisions could "affect the entire destiny of humanity" since they could influence which party controls Congress.

"Whichever party controls the House, you know, to a significant degree, controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization," Musk said on Sunday.

Musk has been a big part of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency — but he's also been campaigning hard for the GOP. During Trump's run, Musk gave rally speeches at GOP events, and spent at least $277 million to support Trump and other GOP candidates.

The White House and Musk did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• OpenAI rolled out a new image generation feature for ChatGPT and it was a hit with users.
• Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, said the company had to introduce rate limits because "our GPUs are melting."
• Altman said the experience reminded him of his early days as a Y Combinator-backed founder.

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman said on Tuesday that handling the ChatGPT maker's new product releases are reminding him of his early days as a Y Combinator-backed founder.

"Lol I feel like a YC founder in 'build in public' mode again," Altman wrote in a post on X.

Altman's remark comes after a busy week for OpenAI. The company released a new image generation feature for ChatGPT on March 25.

The new feature was a hit with users, who flooded social media with AI-generated images in the style of Japanese animation firm Studio Ghibli's films. Altman said in an X post on Monday that OpenAI saw a record spike in users after the feature was rolled out.

But the sudden uptick in users did cause some problems for OpenAI.

On Thursday, just two days after the new feature was released, Altman said that OpenAI's "GPUs are melting" from all the image generation requests they were getting from users.

"It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT. But our GPUs are melting. We are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient," Altman wrote on X.

Then, in a subsequent X post made on Tuesday, Altman said the company was "getting things under control." He added that users "should expect new releases from OpenAI to be delayed, stuff to break, and for service to sometimes be slow as we deal with capacity challenges."

Altman may be best known for his work at OpenAI now, but the entrepreneur cut his teeth in the tech world at Y Combinator. The startup accelerator counts organizations like Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, and Twitch as alumni companies.

Altman's first startup, a social networking application named Loopt was one of the first few companies to be backed by Y Combinator in 2005. Loopt was later acquired by Green Dot, a banking company, in 2012 for over $43 million.

In 2014, Y Combinator's founder Paul Graham named Altman as his successor. Altman replaced Graham as Y Combinator's president, and held the role for five years. Altman stepped down as president in March 2019 to focus on OpenAI.

On Monday, OpenAI announced it had raised $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation. OpenAI's new valuation is nearly double what it was worth in October, when it raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation.

Representatives for Altman at OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• The USIP is now headed by a 28-year-old, per a federal court filing.
• DOGE named Nate Cavanaugh, a tech entrepreneur and college dropout, as the USIP's acting president.
• Lawyers for the USIP said nearly all of the institute's staff in the US have been fired.

Elon Musk's cost-cutting outfit, the Department of Government Efficiency, has installed a 28-year-old as the acting president of the US Institute of Peace, per a federal court filing on Monday.

Lawyers for the USIP wrote in the filing that the White House DOGE office "fired all or nearly all of the Institute's staff employed at its headquarters building" as of Friday.

The filing said State Secretary Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a resolution to appoint Nate Cavanaugh, 28, as the acting president of the USIP in late March. Rubio and Hegseth are both board members of the USIP.

Cavanaugh, a tech entrepreneur and college dropout, is replacing Kenneth Jackson, a former State Department official DOGE installed as acting president just weeks ago.

The resolution also directs Cavanaugh to transfer the USIP's assets and property to the General Services Administration, the filing said.

"If Defendant Cavanaugh executes the transfer of the Institute's assets as directed in the Resolution, that transfer will present a serious risk of gravely impairing this Court's jurisdiction to remedy the Defendant's unlawful seizure of control over the Institute," the USIP's lawyers argued in the filing, calling for the court to suspend the transfers.

Lawyers representing the USIP and Cavanaugh did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

USIP versus DOGE

USIP was founded in 1984. The independent think tank aims to prevent and resolve violent conflicts through its research, analysis, and training programs, as described in a publicly available index of government organizations.

But USIP, like other organizations, has come under DOGE scrutiny. This was after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February, ordering that steps be taken to "dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government."

The USIP was one of the agencies listed in Trump's order that would have its operations and staff reduced "to the minimum presence and function required by law."

On March 17, the institute's then-acting president, George Moose, denied DOGE access when they tried to enter the building again.

Jackson, who was present with DOGE staff, gained entry to the building after the police arrived.

"The only unlawful individual was Mr. Moose, who refused to comply, and even tried to fire USIP's private security team when said security team went to give access to Mr. Jackson," DOGE wrote in an X post on March 17.

Since taking office in January, Trump's administration has moved quickly to cull federal spending. Musk and DOGE have laid off thousands of federal workers and shuttered foreign aid programs, sparking fear and chaos across government.

Trump said at a cabinet meeting on March 24 that his administration would be "pretty much satisfied" with DOGE's cuts over the next two or three months.

Trump added that he only wanted to retain federal workers who are "hardworking and want to be members of the administration and our country."

"We want to keep the good ones, and we want to get rid of the ones that don't exist, and we want to get rid of the ones that do exist but don't work, and we have quite a few of them," Trump said.

Musk, DOGE, Cavanaugh, the State Department, and the Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

• Mark Cuban has repeatedly said he is not interested in running for office.
• But the "Shark Tank" star said he would run as a Republican if he wanted to join politics.
• Running as part of the GOP would be "a whole lot more fun," Cuban said.

Mark Cuban says he's not interested in entering politics — but if he did, he'd run as a Republican.

"I wouldn't run at all, but if I did, it'd be a whole lot more fun to run as a Republican," Cuban said during an appearance on the "Somebody's Gotta Win with Tara Palmeri" podcast, which aired Monday.

"Because in four years, it'll be a different world, and who knows where people's allegiances lie. You know, the Republican Party of 10 years ago was nothing like the Republican Party of today," Cuban added.

Cuban told Palmeri that he is "not a fan of either party," but running as a Republican will be the "path of least resistance" for him.

Cuban declined to comment when approached by Business Insider.

The "Shark Tank" star has considered a presidential bid several times but has held back from mounting one in earnest.

Cuban told CNN in June 2020 that he seriously considered running for president as an independent candidate that year. Cuban said he gave up on the idea after his "family voted it down."

It also isn't the first time Cuban has talked about running as a GOP candidate.

In 2017, Cuban told Fox News that he would probably run as a Republican if he wanted to contest the 2020 presidential elections.

Cuban said then that his party choice was based on his belief that "there is a place for someone who is socially a centrist" but also "very fiscally conservative."

Speculation over Cuban's interest in politics arose again in 2023 after he sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks and announced his departure from "Shark Tank."

Cuban, however, did not contest the 2024 presidential election. He initially endorsed President Joe Biden's reelection bid but switched his support to Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race.

"Who would put themselves through that? I can do more from the private sector," Cuban told Wired in an interview published in September, during which he was asked if he would run for office.

"You can't be president and change healthcare. You've got to get Congress behind you, and this, and that. As an entrepreneur, you can change anything," Cuban added.

Cuban actively campaigned for Harris, giving rally speeches in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He also volunteered to serve in her administration if she won.

"I told her team, look, put my name in for the SEC," Cuban told CNBC in September, referencing the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cuban's highly visible role on the Harris campaign paralleled what Elon Musk was doing for President Donald Trump. During Trump's 2024 run, Musk gave rally speeches at GOP events and actively campaigned for him on social media.

In the run-up to the 2024 vote, Musk and Cuban also faced off on X, trading barbs and advocating for their candidate of choice.

• Elon Musk's DOGE asked federal workers to send in a list of their weekly accomplishments.
• The "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban thinks Musk may have forgotten about the request.
• "Already forgotten. Typical. Ready Fire Aim," Cuban wrote in a Bluesky post.

Mark Cuban thinks Elon Musk may have forgotten about the productivity emails the White House DOGE office sent to federal workers last month.

"Whatever happened to the '5 things' DoGe emails? Talked to someone really smart who just left gov, who said all the emails bounced back as inbox full," Cuban wrote in a Bluesky post on Wednesday.

"Already forgotten. Typical. Ready Fire Aim," he added.

As of press time, Musk hadn't publicly responded to Cuban's post.

On February 22, the Office of Personnel Management emailed federal workers and asked them to submit a list of their accomplishments by 11:59 p.m. ET on February 24. Musk said then that failure to respond by the deadline "will be taken as a resignation."

The email request sparked confusion across government, with at least eight agencies, including the Defense Department and State Department, telling workers not to reply to OPM's email.

The White House said in February that about a million federal employees had responded to the email, less than half of the entire federal workforce. Federal workers were later told to send in their list of work accomplishments every week.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that federal employees couldn't submit their weekly list because OPM's email inbox was full.

To be sure, Cuban isn't a fan of Musk or President Donald Trump.

The "Shark Tank" star initially endorsed President Joe Biden's reelection campaign. He switched his support to Vice President Kamala Harris after she replaced Biden on the ballot.

While campaigning for Harris, Cuban criticized Trump's views on tax cuts and tariffs. He also slammed tech and business titans as viewing Trump as a means to achieve their interests and agendas.

"They want Trump to be the CEO of the United States of America, and they want to be the board of directors that makes him listen to them," Cuban told the "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart in an interview in August.

"They've gotten to the point now where they feel like they should control the world," Cuban added.

Cuban, Musk, and the DOGE office didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• President Donald Trump is threatening the European Union with more tariffs.
• Trump said the US could impose more "large scale Tariffs" on the EU and Canada.
• Trump said this would "protect" the US, the "best friend that each of these two countries has ever had."

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he plans to impose additional tariffs on the European Union and Canada if they work together to do "economic harm" to the US.

"If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday morning.

Trump's remarks come just after he signed an executive order to impose a 25% tariff on auto imports on Wednesday, which will likely affect European carmakers.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has also introduced sweeping 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum. His administration has placed a 25% tariff on almost all imports from Canada and Mexico and raised tariffs to 20% for China.

Canada announced in early March that it was retaliating with a 25% tariff on $155 billion of American goods.

In March, freshly sworn-in Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney chose to make his first overseas visits to France and the UK instead of the US.

During his trip to France earlier this month, Carney called Canada the "most European of non-European countries."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

US-European ties are already turning frosty

The threat of tariffs comes as Washington's relations with its European allies already face strain from Trump's public position on defense cooperation. The president has repeatedly raised doubts about US commitments to defending Europe, saying that its countries were taking advantage of the US and not pulling their weight.

"It's common sense, right?" Trump told reporters earlier this month. "If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them."

Europe heavily relies on the US military, which stations key bases throughout the continent, while many of the continent's armed forces buy advanced American weapons.

Several key capabilities, such as Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II, form the pillars of many European militaries and depend on American parts and maintenance workers.

Leaders in several countries, such as Portugal and Denmark, have expressed concerns about that exposure, indicating they may no longer view the F-35 as the best option for their countries. Canada's defense minister has also signaled similar apprehension, saying Ottawa was looking at "other alternatives" after Trump commented that Canada could be the 51st US state.

The fate of the aircraft's foreign sales could belie a larger shift in Europe's long-standing trust in the American system — once thought to be a near-impregnable relationship in the post-World War II era.

The rest of the European Union, largely in response to Trump's rhetoric, has proposed a plan to massively increase domestic defense spending by $840 billion in an "era of rearmament."

• Tesla says it'll be entering the Saudi market in April.
• The company said its launch event in Riyadh will "showcase what's next in AI and robotics."
• This comes at a crucial time — Tesla is reeling from declining sales and a falling stock price.

Elon Musk's Tesla has been admitted into the Gulf's largest economy, Saudi Arabia, at a crucial time for the electric vehicle producer.

On Wednesday, Tesla announced it will be holding a launch event in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, on April 10.

"You and your family are warmly invited to our launch event at the Bujairi Terrace on April 10," the announcement on Tesla's website read.

"Experience the future of autonomous driving with Cybercab, and meet Optimus, our humanoid robot, as we showcase what's next in AI and robotics," it added.

The announcement said a Tesla team will be on hand to answer questions regarding Tesla ownership, home charging, and more.

Musk has had a testy relationship with Saudi Arabia.

In August 2018, Musk wrote on Twitter — now X — that he would be taking Tesla private.

"Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured," Musk wrote.

In a company blog at the time, Musk wrote that he had met with representatives from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. The meetings started in early 2017 after he expressed interest in taking Tesla private, Musk added.

The deal did not take place after the PIF did not commit any funding.

Musk and Tesla were sued by Tesla investors, who said Musk's premature announcement caused them to lose money. During the trial, Musk blamed the PIF for "backpedaling" on their plans.

Then, in 2018, the PIF announced a $1 billion investment into Tesla's rival, Lucid Motors.

Saudi Arabia opening its doors to Tesla comes at a critical time for the EV maker, which has seen its stock price plunge by over 40% from its record highs in mid-December.

Tesla's shares closed at about $272 on Wednesday, down from a peak closing price of $479 in December.

The company has lost its spot as the world's top EV manufacturer, with Chinese EV giant BYD's revenue outpacing Tesla's in 2024.

BYD recently unveiled chargers that it says are four times more powerful than Tesla's and can charge an EV in five minutes.

On Tuesday, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said Tesla's sales in Europe have fallen by 42% in the first two months of the year.

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Trump said he might reduce tariffs on China to cut a deal on TikTok.
• "Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done," he said.
• Trump's comments come as trade tensions between China and the US have escalated recently.

President Donald Trump said he might lower tariffs on China to incentivize the country to close a deal on TikTok.

In a press conference on Wednesday in the Oval Office, Trump said China will have to "play a role" in TikTok's sale, "possibly in the form of an approval."

"Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done, you know, because every point in tariffs is worth more money than TikTok," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

Trump said he could extend TikTok's sale deadline again because it is "very popular" and there is a "lot of interest" in the company.

Under the divest-or-ban law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to stop operating in the US on January 19 if it did not divest itself from its parent company, ByteDance.

The ban on TikTok was paused for 75 days after Trump signed an executive order on January 20. TikTok has until April 5 to find a new owner in the US.

Several buyers, including Trump's former treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, have said they want to acquire TikTok.

Trump's comments on reducing tariffs on China come as trade tensions between the US and China escalated recently.

Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods in February, just weeks after entering office, saying this would help curb the flow of fentanyl into the US. Trump said during his campaign that he would impose tariffs of more than 60% on Chinese goods if he won the presidency.

China retaliated soon after with its own set of tariffs on agricultural equipment, crude oil, coal and liquefied natural gas.

On March 4, Trump doubled the tariffs on China to 20%. China responded with a 10% tariff on US soybeans, pork, and beef imports and a 15% tariff on chicken and cotton imports.

Representatives for Trump, TikTok, and the Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Zhang Yiming has built a $57.5 billion fortune since cofounding ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok.
• Zhang is highly private and little is publicly known about his personal life.
• He recently became the richest person in China. Here's a look at his career and life.

The widespread popularity of TikTok has created not only a new generation of social media stars — it's also helped mint China's wealthiest person.

Zhang Yiming, the 41-year-old software engineer who founded the app's parent company, ByteDance, now has a net worth of $57.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

This makes Zhang the richest person in China, edging ahead of Pony Ma, the founder and CEO of Tencent. Ma has a net worth of $56.5 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhang is a highly private person and little is publicly known about his personal life.

After running ByteDance for nearly a decade, Zhang stepped down as CEO in 2021, reportedly telling employees that he's "not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and contemplating what may be possible."

"The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager," Zhang said at the time, according to Reuters, saying he would be a better help to the company in a role that didn't involve managing people directly.

Here's what we know about his career rise and life:

Zhang was born in 1983 in China's Fujian province.

Zhang's parents worked as civil servants, according to Bloomberg.

His name is based on a Chinese proverb about "surprising everyone with a first attempt," the South China Morning Post reported.

He married his college sweetheart.

Zhang graduated from Nankai University in 2005, where he started off studying microelectronics before switching his major to software engineering, according to the South China Morning Post.

Zhang's first job out of college was at a digital travel booking startup called Kuxun.

Zhang said he was an engineer at first but came to be in charge of 40 to 50 people by his second year at the company, according to SCMP. He credits that job with teaching him sales skills that he later used to grow ByteDance, including learning "what sales are good sales."

Zhang learned the value of pursuing excellence while still in his first job at Kuxun, he told ByteDance employees, according to the report.

"At that time, I was responsible for the technology, but when the product had problems, and I would actively participate in the discussion of [the] product plan," Zhang said, according to the newspaper. "A lot of people say this is not what I should be doing. But I want to say: your sense of responsibility and your desire to do things well, will drive you to do more things and to gain experience."

Zhang also worked at Microsoft before founding ByteDance, the South China Morning Post reported.

Zhang founded TikTok's parent company in 2012.

The company owns several social networking apps that operate within China. It released a WeChat rival called FlipChat, and a video-messaging app called Duoshan in 2019.

Zhang and ByteDance's first product was a news aggregator app called Toutiao.

Zhang wanted to create a news platform whose results were powered by artificial intelligence, separate from China's search engine Baidu.

"We push information, not by queries, by news recommendations," Zhang told Bloomberg in 2017.

Despite its focus on news, Zhang told Bloomberg's Lulu Yilun Chen and Mark Bergen in 2017 that ByteDance does not have any journalists on its staff like many other social networks.

"The most important thing is that we are not a news business," Zhang told Bloomberg. "We are more like a search business or a social media platform. We are doing very innovative work. We are not a copycat of a U.S. company, both in product and technology."

Zhang launched ByteDance's most successful app — TikTok — under the name Douyin in September 2016.

TikTok is one of the most popular social networks among American teens and has more than 170 million US users as of September 2024, the company says.

Zhang was known for making his own TikToks — and requiring his senior employees to do so as well.

"For a very long time, I was merely watching TikTok videos without making any of them myself, because it's a product mainly for young people," Zhang said, according to the South China Morning Post. "But later on we made it compulsory for all management team members to make their own TikTok videos, and they must win a certain number of 'likes'. Otherwise, they have to do push-ups. It was a big step for me."

Zhang's leadership style is "soft-spoken yet charismatic, logical yet passionate, young yet wise," according to Time Magazine's Kai-Fu Lee.

Zhang stepped down as ByteDance's CEO in 2021.

Zhang stepped down as CEO in 2021, saying that he "lack[s] some of the skills that make an ideal manager" and would be a greater asset to the company in a non-management role.

Zhang wants the app to continue to grow abroad, saying that he hopes his ByteDance will be "as borderless as Google," according to the South China Morning Post.

"We must work harder, we must also be more perfectionist," Zhang said, according to SCMP. "Just like there was an international division of labor in the industrial age, in today's information age there's also an international division of labor. Chinese entrepreneurs must also improve their own capabilities as they go global," he said.

However, TikTok's ownership by a Chinese parent company and its growing influence in the US has raised concerns among US regulators.

In April, the Senate passed a divest-or-ban law on TikTok, requiring the company to stop operations in the US on January 19 if it did not divest from ByteDance.

However, the ban on TikTok was paused for 75 days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20. TikTok has until April 5 to find a new owner in the US.

Several big-name buyers like Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok.

Zhang has become a billionaire owing to the success of TikTok and ByteDance more broadly.

Forbes first declared Zhang a billionaire in March 2018, estimating that Zhang was worth $4 billion.

On the annual Hurun China Rich List for 2024, he was listed as the country's richest person, with an estimated net worth of $49.3 billion.

In March, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index recognized Zhang as China's richest person, with a net worth of $57.5 billion.

• Ray Dalio met with House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington and House Republicans on Tuesday.
• Dalio told lawmakers to cut the budget deficit to about 3% of GDP.
• Dalio has repeatedly warned of the economic dangers that come with soaring deficits.

Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said he had a discussion with House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington and other House Republicans about the national debt on Tuesday.

"I appreciate our ability to have a frank apolitical discussion about the mechanics behind how countries go broke as it applies to the circumstances at hand," Dalio said in a statement about the meeting on Tuesday.

Arrington thanked Dalio for meeting with them, adding that Dalio had "sounded the alarm to Members of Congress on the urgent need to address our unsustainable and exponentially growing borrowing and spending."

Dalio said in his statement that there was a "pretty broad recognition" among attendees that the budget deficit needs to be cut to around 3% of the country's GDP.

Dalio added that this cut will ensure that debt servicing costs do not "squeeze out the government's ability to spend."

"I look forward to staying in touch about these issues and having similar discussions with others so that there are realistic assessments of the issues and what might be done to deal with them," Dalio said.

Dalio has previously sounded warnings about the economic dangers of soaring debt levels.

Last month, Dalio said in an interview at the World Governments Summit in Dubai that America could suffer the financial equivalent of a "heart attack" if it didn't reduce its deficit spending.

"Waiting too long is like ignoring plaque buildup until a heart attack occurs," Dalio said in February.

The federal government collected $4.92 trillion in revenue in the 2024 fiscal year but spent about $6.75 trillion. That created a deficit of $1.83 trillion — a $138 billion increase in debt from the previous fiscal year.

Dalio said in an interview on Bloomberg's "Odd Lots" podcast, which aired earlier this month that the US could face a debt crisis in the next three years if it didn't act fast.

"If you don't do that, then you own it, OK? You have to take responsibility for the consequences," Dalio told Bloomberg.

"When the economy and this heart attack of sorts comes along, then you're going to find yourself that the voters are not going to be very happy. So you own it," he continued.

A representative for Dalio did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Signal's founder, Moxie Marlinspike, poked fun at the military group-chat leak in a post on X.
• He used the incident as an opportunity to ironically promote the platform.
• US officials, however, have expressed alarm over the security breach.

A major security leak involving the secure messaging platform Signal sparked widespread alarm throughout the country — but the platform's founder didn't appear very concerned.

In a post on X on Monday afternoon, Moxie Marlinspike, whose real name is Matthew Rosenfeld, poked fun at the group message leak and used it to ironically promote the "many great reasons to be on Signal."

"Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations," the founder of the platform and its former CEO wrote in the post.

Marlinspike was referring to Monday's news that The Atlantic's editor in chief was accidentally added to a Signal group chat called "Houthi PC small group."

"PC" referred to the principal committee, and the chat was primarily made up of senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The chat's participants were discussing forthcoming strikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor in chief, revealed in an article.

Marlinspike's reaction is in sharp contrast to that of that of Democratic and Republican officials, many of whom expressed alarm at the security leak.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters the incident "sounds like a huge screwup" and that "somebody dropped the ball." Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said Tuesday there will be an investigation into the incident, The Hill reported.

Marlinspike wasn't the only social media user to poke fun at the snafu. However, comments on his post were mixed, with some blaming the officials who made the mistake and others saying that the platform should improve its security.

On Tuesday, Signal wrote in an X post that there has been "misinfo flying around that might drive people away from Signal and private communications."

Signal cited a Tuesday report from NPR in its post. In its report, NPR said it obtained a Pentagon email from March 18, warning employees about a potential Signal vulnerability.

"The memo used the term 'vulnerability' in relation to Signal—but it had nothing to do with Signal's core tech. It was warning against phishing scams targeting Signal users," Signal wrote on X.

"Phishing isn't new, and it's not a flaw in our encryption or any of Signal's underlying technology. Phishing attacks are a constant threat for popular apps and websites," the company continued.

Signal is a nonprofit, open-sourced, end-to-end encrypted messaging platform that has emerged as one of the most popular messaging apps over the last few years. Only recipients can see messages, so it's commonly used by journalists, government officials, and tech giants.

Signal and Marlinspike did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

• President Donald Trump said what DOGE is doing is "not necessarily a popular thing."
• "I have no idea how it plays out in the public," Trump said at a cabinet meeting.
• Trump said his administration will be "satisfied" with DOGE's cuts in two to three months.

President Donald Trump said his administration will be "pretty much satisfied" with the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts to the federal government in two or three months.

"We think probably over the next two or three months, we will be pretty much satisfied with the people that are working hard and want to be members of the administration and our country," Trump said at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

"We want to keep the good ones, and we want to get rid of the ones that don't exist, and we want to get rid of the ones that do exist but don't work, and we have quite a few of them," Trump said of federal workers.

On Monday, Trump said that what DOGE is trying to do is "not necessarily a very popular thing," but he thinks it has to be done to "save our country."

"I have no idea how it plays out in the public. I guess you see poll numbers that are very good numbers, but I don't know what that means long-term," Trump added.

In November, Trump announced the formation of DOGE and said Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Vivek Ramaswamy would helm it. Ramaswamy left DOGE in January.

Since Trump was sworn in, DOGE has moved quickly to slash federal spending by laying off thousands of federal workers and shuttering foreign aid programs. However, the way these broad cuts have been carried out has sparked chaos.

Musk and DOGE are facing legal challenges to their work, too. Since the start of Trump's second term, DOGE has been hit with nearly two dozen lawsuits.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Musk and DOGE to hand over records and answer questions about DOGE's plans to cull federal agencies. Federal courts have also ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the federal workers they fired.

Representatives for the White House and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Cathie Wood said Tesla's cars are "still very competitive, if not the most competitive."
• Wood said Tesla still wins in "metrics like range and power for a given price."
• Chinese automaker BYD's revenue outpaced Tesla's last year.

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood says she's confident in Tesla's ability to fend off rivals like BYD in the EV race.

"So we're looking at the BYD cars, and they are fabulous, from what we can see — fit, finish, design," Wood told Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday at the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong.

"If you look at metrics like range and power for a given price, Tesla is still very competitive, if not the most competitive, depending on the model of car," Wood added.

Chinese automaker BYD's performance has put a spanner in Tesla's plans to remain the world's biggest EV manufacturer. The company's revenue outpaced Tesla's in 2024, and it recently unveiled chargers that are four times more powerful than Tesla's and can charge an EV in 5 minutes.

But Wood told Bloomberg investors need to consider the additional value Tesla can get from its work in autonomous driving.

Tesla's robotaxis will "account for 90% of the value of the company in five years" because of the relatively higher margins that come from selling self-driving software instead of EVs, Wood added.

"So we think Tesla and BYD are both in the lead from an EV point of view alone. If you layer in robotaxi, of course, BYD is not seizing the moment there, at least not yet," Wood said.

In the interview, Wood said she still stood by Ark Invest's $2,600 price target for Tesla. Her investment management firm issued the price target in June.

"And that's not even including humanoid robots, which are now moving into the Tesla ecosystem much faster than even we expected. So more than a tenfold increase just from robotaxis," Wood said, referencing Tesla's Optimus robots.

Tesla's stock price has plunged by over 40% from its record highs in mid-December. The company's shares closed at about $278 on Monday, down from a peak closing price of $479 in December.

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk name-dropped Wood during an all-hands meeting on Thursday when he told employees autonomous vehicles would increase the company's value.

"It's so profound and there's no comparison with anything in the past. It just does not compute. But it will compute in the future. And some people, like Cathie Wood at Ark Invest, do see the future," Musk told employees on Thursday.

"So what I am saying is, 'Hang on to your stock,'" Musk added.

To be sure, Wood isn't the only investor who believes that Tesla can withstand competition from BYD.

Christopher Tsai, the president and chief investment officer of Tsai Capital, told Business Insider last week that the EV market's potential for growth means Tesla and BYD can coexist.

"We're talking about almost a hundred million vehicles a year, and there's room for more than one player," Tsai, who has millions in Tesla, said.

"History shows that people will pay for something that is superior, even if there is a competing option that is free," Tsai added.

Tesla and BYD did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

• The editor in chief of The Atlantic was mistakenly added to a group chat with security officials.
• Jeffrey Goldberg said he was privy to the Trump administration's planned strikes on Yemen.
• The apparent breach has drawn alarm and criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

In an explosive new report, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg says he was mistakenly added to a group chat on the messaging platform Signal in which top US leaders discussed sensitive military operations, including the Trump administration's strikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels.

The story — which details what appears to be a massive security breach at the highest levels of the government — sent shockwaves through Washington on Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a full investigation into the incident.

"Amateur behavior. This kind of security breach is how people get killed. How our enemies take advantage. How our national security falls into danger," he wrote on X on Monday.

President Donald Trump told reporters he hadn't heard about the incident.

"I don't know anything about it," he said on Monday.

'Sounds like a huge screwup'

In the story, Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, said Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and State Secretary Marco Rubio were all in the Signal group.

The group chat was called "Houthi PC small group," with "PC" standing for "principals committee," Goldberg wrote. The National Security Council confirmed to multiple news organizations that the chat group was authentic. Business Insider could not immediately reach the agency for comment.

Hegseth disputed Goldberg's report.

"Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that," he told reporters.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Trump administration was addressing the incident.

"Apparently, an inadvertent phone number made it onto that thread. They are going to track that down and make sure that doesn't happen again," Johnson said.

"What you did see, though, I think, was top-level officials doing their job, doing it well, and executing on a plan with precision," Johnson added. "That mission was a success, no one was jeopardized because of it, we're grateful for that. But they will certainly, I'm sure, make sure that won't happen again."

Other top Republicans, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, expressed alarm at the incident.

"Sounds like a huge screw-up," Cornyn told reporters, adding that he hoped the government would further investigate and that "somebody dropped the ball." He sits on the intelligence committee.

Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Hill the panel is "very concerned" and intends to investigate.

The strikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels discussed in the chat were carried out on March 16.

Democratic lawmakers slam Trump administration

The leaked war plans drew swift condemnation from Democratic leaders.

On Monday night, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X that his party "will grill several national security officials under oath this week."

"The arrogance and incompetence of the Trump administration is stunning," Jeffries wrote.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement on Monday that the leak "represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen."

"Classified war plans don't belong in the group chat. The carelessness of Pres. Trump's national security team is stunning & dangerous. I'm seeking answers & accountability," Reed wrote on X on Monday.

The events described in Goldberg's reporting present serious implications for operational security in the Trump administration and potentially the Pentagon. Signal, an encrypted messaging app, is not an approved government platform for disseminating intelligence or classified information.

Representatives for the White House, the Defense Department, and Signal did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Amazon shared Andy Jassy's top five career tips in a recent blog post.
• Jassy said people should be experimental and driven in how they approach their careers.
• Jassy said learning from mistakes and having a strong work ethic is important, too.

Build trust, find your passion, and try new stuff: These just might be some of the secrets to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's success.

In a blog post published on Friday, Amazon rounded up five of Jassy's career tips for staffers who want to build successful careers. His tips largely boil down to being experimental, driven, and open to learning.

Jassy's first piece of advice is to seek out work that builds on your passions, which will allow you to do work you find fulfilling.

"You spend a lot of your waking hours thinking about and at work, and you want to work on something that really is fulfilling to you and that you can be great at and makes you feel good about how you spend your days," Jassy said.

Next, Jassy said it's important to adopt an experimental approach to your career by trying out different fields.

"Before I got to Amazon, I had tried sportscasting and sports production, I coached a soccer team, I worked in a retail golf store, I did product management, I tried investment banking, I tried sales, I tried a lot of things," Jassy said.

Jassy's third tip is to not fear failure. Instead, he advises being self-aware and learning from mistakes.

"Every important lesson I've ever had as a professional, or in my life, frankly, have been mistakes that I've made or been a part of," Jassy said.

Jassy's fourth piece of advice for succeeding in the workplace is to have a strong work ethic and be a good team player. Position yourself as someone people can trust, he said.

Lastly, Jassy said one needs to be a "great learner" to excel.

"The truth is, if you work in an active, dynamic area, like all of us do, you should be learning all the time," Jassy said.

Jassy's tips in Amazon's blog post align with the advice he's given in the past.

Last year, Jassy told Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn, during a video interview that a person's success often hinges on their attitude to work.

"Do you work hard? Are you more can do than nay saying? Do you do what you said you were going to do? Can you work on a team?" Jassy told Roslansky.

"You know, those things seem so simple, and there's so many things you can't control in your work life, but you can control your attitude," he added.

Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and became CEO in 2021 when founder Jeff Bezos stepped down. He was the CEO of Amazon Web Services from 2016 to 2021.

Jassy is executing a push to keep Amazon nimble by eliminating red tape.

In September, Jassy said in a memo to staff that he wants to operate Amazon "like the world's largest startup" by empowering employees to act fast and independently.

On Tuesday, Jassy told employees during an all-hands meeting that he wanted them to "move fast and act like owners," BI reported.

"One of the strengths of Amazon over the first 29 years is that we've hired really smart, motivated, inventive, ambitious people who have been great owners," Jassy said.

"What would I do if this was my company? And by the way, it is your company. This is all of our company," he continued.

Representatives for Jassy at Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• China's Premier, Li Qiang, told top executives that the country is still open for business.
• He said with rising "instability and uncertainty," it was important for countries to open their markets.
• This comes as trade tensions escalate between China and the US.

China assured top multinational executives on Sunday that it's still open for business, even as it grapples with increasing trade tensions with the US.

Speaking to over 80 executives during the China Development Forum 2025 in Beijing on Sunday, China's Premier Li Qiang spoke about receiving "unexpected shocks from other countries."

"Today, global economic fragmentation is intensifying, and instability and uncertainty are on the rise," Li said in his speech.

Li said, at present, it's "even more important for each of our countries to open up their markets more, and our companies, our businesses, should be sharing their resources more."

"Decoupling and breaking the chain will only aggravate the crisis, and suppression and containment will ultimately harm everyone," Li said.

Footage of Li's speech in the Chinese media showed top executives in attendance, including Apple's CEO Tim Cook, Citadel's founder Ken Griffin, and Qualcomm's CEO Cristiano Amon.

Li's speech comes amid escalated trade tensions between the US and China.

In February, just weeks after entering office, President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods in an attempt to curb the flow of fentanyl into the US. While on the campaign trail, Trump said he would introduce tariffs of more than 60% on Chinese goods if he won the presidency.

China retaliated soon after with a 10% tariff on crude oil and agricultural equipment and a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas.

Later, on March 4, Trump doubled the tariffs on China to 20%. China, in turn, responded with a 10% tariff on US soybeans, pork, and beef imports, as well as a 15% tariff on chicken and cotton imports.

It's not just with the US that trade tensions are brewing — there's bad blood between China and Canada, too.

On March 8, China said it would impose tariffs on Canadian agricultural and food imports. This included a 100% tariff on rapeseed oil, rapeseed meal, and peas, as well as a 25% tariff on some seafood and pork products.

China's finance ministry said the retaliatory tariffs were in response to Canada's levies on Chinese steel, aluminum, and electric vehicles. China's tariffs on Canada came into effect on March 20.

Sunday's meeting comes as China seeks to stimulate its economy with overtures to the private sector.

Last month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with the country's top tech leaders, including Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma, Tencent's CEO, Pony Ma, and Huawei's CEO, Ren Zhengfei.

"It is necessary to resolutely remove all kinds of obstacles to the equal use of production factors and fair participation in market competition," Xi told the executives, per state news agency Xinhua.

China's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• A mother said United Airlines crew members told her to remove her son's ventilator during a flight.
• Melissa Sotomayor said the crew made the request repeatedly, even when she produced medical documents.
• "Do not fly United Airlines. They are very judgmental," Sotomayor said in a TikTok post.

United Airlines said it apologized to a mother after she accused airline crew members of repeatedly asking her to remove her son's ventilator before their flight took off.

Melissa Sotomayor recounted her experience on United Flight 1349 on March 8 in a nearly 10-minute video she posted on TikTok last week.

In her video, she said she traveled with her 21-month-old son from Tampa, Florida, to Newark, New Jersey.

"My son is medically complex. He is dependent upon a trach and ventilator. He has vision problems, and he has hearing problems. He also has a g tube," Sotomayor said in her video.

Sotomayor said she had obtained the necessary documentation before her flight to Tampa "so that my son could safely fly and there would be no issues."

Sotomayor said that before takeoff, she had several negative interactions with cabin crew, including a flight attendant she called "Nora."

The crew members insisted that she remove her son's ventilator, then escalated the matter to the plane's captain when she refused, Sotomayor said.

"Flying home, several flight attendants and the captain tried to demand that I remove my son from his vent and portable oxygen concentrator until we reached a safe altitude. I told them all that those pieces of medical equipment are keeping my son alive," Sotomayor wrote on a GoFundMe page she's started to raise funds for lawyers' fees.

In her video, Sotomayor said that her flight eventually took off an hour later.

"I was really upset by the way we were humiliated in front of others and the way we were talked to," she continued, adding that she got "no apology" from crew members.

Sotomayor said in her video that she'd lodged a complaint with United.

"Do not fly United Airlines. They are very judgmental. They are unwilling to learn, and they treat you like you are less than them if you have a loved one with a disability," Sotomayor said in her TikTok video.

A spokesperson for United Airlines told Business Insider on Sunday that they had contacted Sotomayor to "address her concerns" and "apologized for any frustrations she may have experienced."

Sotomayor told NBC on Sunday that she thought United's apology "was not sincere."

United has also been hit with a separate, discrimination-related complaint.

On Wednesday, two Jewish United Airlines passengers filed a lawsuit against the airline. In the lawsuit, the passengers' lawyers alleged that the pilot forcibly removed one of them from the bathroom and then made discriminatory remarks about their religion.

Sotomayor did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Howard Lutnick was standing beside Elon Musk in October when Musk said DOGE could save $2 trillion.
• Lutnick told the "All-In Podcast" that Musk was supposed to say he could save $1 trillion.
• Musk said in January that cutting $2 trillion would be the "best-case outcome" for DOGE.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Elon Musk's pledge in October to cut $2 trillion from federal spending came from a flub of a scripted moment between the pair.

Speaking on an episode of the "All-In Podcast," which aired Thursday, Lutnick said the two had planned to announce at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden that they would collectively save and earn $2 trillion for the US.

"When I say to him: 'How much are you going to cut?' The deal was he's going to cut $1 trillion. And then he's supposed to say: 'And how much are you going to earn?' And I'm supposed to say $1 trillion," Lutnick said on the podcast.

But Lutnick said Musk didn't execute their script as planned.

"Because we're in front of 22,000 people, and the place is erupting," Lutnick said. "He says: '$2 trillion!' And I'm like, I think I said: 'All righty then.' Or something like that. I mean, what was I supposed to say?" Lutnick continued.

At the rally, Lutnick had asked Musk how much he thought he could "rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget."

"I think we can do at least do $2 trillion," Musk replied.

Their onstage moment became the basis for doubts among some federal budget experts that Musk could truly cut $2 trillion, or nearly a third of the $6.75 trillion spent by the US in the 2024 fiscal year.

In January, Musk told political strategist Mark Penn that saving $2 trillion would be the "best-case outcome" and that his team had a "good shot" at cutting $1 trillion instead.

"If we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome," Musk said in January.

In November, Musk had backed Lutnick to be President Donald Trump's treasury secretary pick.

Musk wrote in an X post then that as treasury secretary, Lutnick "will actually enact change" as opposed to Trump's eventual choice, Scott Bessent. Bessent was the "business-as-usual" option, Musk added.

On Wednesday, Lutnick said in an interview on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" that viewers should buy stock from Musk's EV company, Tesla.

"I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again," Lutnick said.

Before becoming commerce secretary, Lutnick was the chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. The brokerage and investment bank owns Tesla shares, per an SEC filing in February.

Cantor Fitzgerald said in a statement last month, following Lutnick's confirmation as commerce secretary, that he has agreed to divest his business interests in the bank.

Musk and the Commerce Department did not respond to requests from Business Insider.

• Elon Musk held a surprise all-hands meeting with Tesla employees on Thursday night.
• Musk said investors need to "hang on to your stock" while touting the Cybercab and Optimus robots.
• The meeting comes after Musk was criticized by investors for not focusing enough on Tesla.

Elon Musk has a message for his Tesla employees: don't fear the stock's recent sell-off.

In a surprise all-hands meeting with Tesla staffers Thursday night, he said employees should "hang on to your stock" despite it losing roughly half its value since December.

Musk spent the first half of the hourlong meeting giving updates on Tesla's safety record, its delivery figures, and the company's work on autonomous driving and robotics. The rest of the session was open to employees to ask questions.

The meeting, which was held on short notice at Tesla's Texas Gigafactory, was livestreamed on X. It was scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. ET, but the livestream cut out abruptly, sparking confusion among some employees. Tesla then started a new livestream, which displayed a loading screen until the meeting kicked off at 9:58 p.m. ET.

Tesla typically holds its all-hands meetings during regular work hours.

Here are the five biggest takeaways from Tesla's all-hands meeting.

1. Musk said investors need to 'hang on to your stock'

Musk alluded to the turmoil surrounding Tesla's stock price while speaking about the company's autonomous driving ambitions.

"It's very difficult for people in the stock market — especially those that look in the rear-view mirror, which is most people — to imagine a future where suddenly a 10 million vehicle fleet has five to 10 times the usefulness," Musk told employees.

Tesla's stock has declined in the past weeks as the company grapples with falling sales and the controversy surrounding Musk's work with the White House DOGE office. Tesla showrooms have been hit with vandalism and protests nationwide.

"If you read the news, it feels like armageddon. I can't walk past the TV without seeing a Tesla on fire. What's going on?" Musk said on Thursday night.

The company's stock price has dropped by over 50% from its record highs in mid-December. Tesla shares closed at about $236 on Thursday, down from a peak closing price of $479 in December.

Musk says autonomous driving will unlock Tesla's true value.

"It's so profound and there's no comparison with anything in the past. It just does not compute. But it will compute in the future. And some people, like Cathie Wood at ARK Invest, do see the future," Musk said on Thursday. ARK Invest set a $2,600 price target for Tesla's stock in June.

"So what I am saying is, 'Hang on to your stock,'" Musk added.

Tesla shares prices fell by half a percentage point after trading hours.

2. Musk wants Tesla's operations team to focus on the Cybercab line

When an employee asked Musk what Tesla's operations team should focus on in the next couple of years, Musk pointed to the robotaxi, also known as the Cybercab.

"Well, we do want to scale up production to new heights, obviously, with the Cybercab. The Cybercab is not just a revolutionary car design, it's also a revolutionary manufacturing process," Musk said.

Musk said the production process for the Cybercab wasn't like a "normal car manufacturing line" but instead resembled a "high-speed consumer electronics line."

"In fact, the line will move so fast that actually, people can't even get close to it. I think it'll be able to produce a car, ultimately, in less than five seconds," Musk added.

Producing Cybercabs at such speeds would require Tesla to scale up its casting process, Musk said.

"Let's see what is the limit of physics, of how big can a casting machine be. Let's find out. I'm game. I'm down," Musk continued.

Musk unveiled Tesla's Cybercab at the company's "We, Robot" event in Los Angeles in October. During that presentation, Musk said the Cybercab would be in production before 2027.

During a Tesla earnings call in October, Musk told investors the Cybercab will cost "roughly $25,000." Musk said at the "We, Robot" event that he expects to sell the Cybercab for "below $30,000."

"We are aiming for at least 2 million units a year of Cybercab. That will be in more than one factory, but I think it's at least 2 million units a year, maybe 4 million ultimately," Musk said then, adding that the numbers were his "best guesses."

3. Tesla to build Optimus robots by the 'legion'

Musk said he expects Tesla to ramp up its production of Optimus robots this year.

"This year, we hopefully will be able to make about 5,000 Optimus robots," Musk said in response to an employee's question about when the robots will be available to the public.

Musk said Tesla aims to have enough parts to produce "10,000, maybe 12,000" robots.

"But since it's a totally new product. Everything is totally new. I will say we are succeeding if we get half of the 10,000. But even 5,000 robots, that's the size of a Roman legion," Musk said.

"I think we will literally build a legion, at least one legion of robots this year and then probably 10 legions next year," he added.

In April, Musk said during an earnings call that the Optimus robots are Tesla's most valuable asset.

"Because if you've got a sentient humanoid robot that is able to navigate reality and do tasks at request, there is no meaningful limit to the size of the economy," Musk told investors.

4. No Tesla employees asked about politics

Employees did not ask Musk questions about politics during his question-and-answer session, which lasted around 30 minutes.

Some Tesla investors have criticized Musk's political involvement, saying it is weighing the company down.

Last week, Ross Gerber, a longtime Tesla investor, told BI that he doesn't expect Tesla's stock to rebound this year. He added that Musk had alienated Tesla's customers with his political activities and positions.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, who has consistently been bullish on Tesla, warned on Wednesday that Musk's work with the White House DOGE office is turning Tesla into a "political symbol," and urged Musk to "take a step back and balance his DOGE and Tesla CEO roles."

Despite the lack of questions on politics, Ives praised the all-hands in a note Friday, saying, "Leaders lead in times of trouble and crisis....and last night Elon Musk took a major and much-needed step forward."

"This was a key moment for Musk and Tesla to show leadership and he did. We applaud Musk for 'reading the room' and showing important hand holding at this key time for employees and investors," the note added.

Ives added that "challenges clearly remain" for the company. He urged Musk to take a "small step back" from DOGE and focus more on Tesla.

5. Musk said he's 'stretched pretty thin'

Musk told his workers on Thursday that he is "stretched pretty thin," after one employee asked him if he is keen on making other products like airplanes or trains.

"I have like 17 jobs, at this point. I just go to sleep, work, go to sleep, work, and then do that seven days a week pretty much," Musk said.

"I guess I like being productive. I like getting things done," he added.

Musk runs half a dozen companies. Aside from Tesla, Musk splits his time between his rocket company, SpaceX, the social media platform X, tunneling company The Boring Co., neural-interface-technology startup Neuralink, and AI startup xAI.

This is in addition to his involvement with the White House DOGE office, where he's spearheaded government spending cuts.

Musk said in an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, which aired on March 10, that he was balancing his political and business work "with great difficulty."

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from BI.