News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Tesla-SpaceX merger speculation kept alive
AUSTIN: Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has left the door open to the electric vehicle (EV) maker merging with his other trillion-dollar-plus-valued firm SpaceX, declining to dismiss the possibility and citing growing overlap between the companies. "As you can tell from the many collaborations on so many fronts with SpaceX, there's more and more overlap," Musk said on Tesla's earnings call. "We can't talk about, you know, combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call," he added. "It's got to be done with the appropriate process." Investors and analysts have long speculated about the possibility of combining Musk's EV and space firms, with the discussion intensifying during SpaceX's record US$75bil initial public offering process. After Musk's comments, he called on Tesla General Counsel Brandon Ehrhart, who stuck to boilerplate language calling SpaceX a "great partner" that provides "numerous beneficial transactions". Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, said the call left him more convinced the companies were destined to be joined over the next few years. "I would put the odds that these two will combine at 90% today," he said in a video posted on social media. "If you were going to ask me yesterday I would have said it's 80%." Tesla already supplies batteries and manufacturing technologies for some SpaceX projects, while the companies are jointly developing Terafab. Terafab is a semiconductor manufacturing facility designed to produce artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Proponents argued that combining the companies could simplify Musk's corporate empire and create a more integrated company spanning AI, robotics, manufacturing, energy and space infrastructure. JPMorgan analysts said this month that "operational integration between the two entities is already deep". They cited shared engineering talent, AI infrastructure, Terafab and Musk's leadership as factors that "would facilitate an eventual combination". Stifel analysts struck an even more bullish note, writing that "many investors consider it inevitable that Musk will move to combine SpaceX with Tesla - for them the question is not if but when." SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell has also acknowledged potential benefits, telling CNBC in June that folding the companies together "might make Elon's life a little easier" by streamlining management across his businesses. Others, however, caution that any transaction could face formidable hurdles. In the same research note, JPMorgan pointed to the "practical bottleneck" of getting regulatory approvals for both companies. This is particularly in China, where national security concerns over SpaceX's US government ties could pose problems. Analysts also noted that Musk controls a much larger voting stake in SpaceX than in Tesla, complicating governance considerations for Tesla's public shareholders. -- Reuters
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
July 19 (Reuters) - SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X later on Sunday that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday, contradicting the earlier statement from his company. He did not say whether the original Thursday date was wrong. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. On Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Musk's SpaceX in talks to supply the Pentagon with computing power, WSJ reports
July 17 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX is in talks to providethe U.S. Department of Defense with access to data center capacity worth billions of dollars to run AI models, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Such an agreement would extend the Pentagon's existing relationship with SpaceX, a key partner for rocket launches and satellite-based communications and missile tracking. According to the report, SpaceX employees have discussed plans to compete more directly with neocloud firms such as CoreWeave by selling computing capacityto AI customers at lower prices. Like many large enterprises, the Defense Department is moving to secure additional cloud-computing capacity to support intelligence agencies and military AI applications. Amazon said late last year it would invest up to $50 billion to expand AI and supercomputing capacity for U.S. government customers through its Amazon Web Services cloud business. Discussions between SpaceX and the Pentagon are ongoing and could still fall apart, WSJ reported. SpaceX and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report. The space firm has made similar deals in recent months. In June, SpaceX signed a multi-year cloud services agreement with Alphabet's Google, providing access to about 110,000 Nvidia chips and related computing infrastructure. Anthropic said in May it had struck a deal to use the full computing power of SpaceX's Colossus 1 facility in Memphis, gaining 300 megawatts of new capacity. (Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
SpaceX IPO earns millions for US Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler
WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler multiplied the value of her investment in Elon Musk's SpaceX after she was nominated for the job, earning millions of dollars from the company's record initial public offering, a Reuters review of her financial disclosures showed. Loeffler investedbetween $1 million and $5 million as of January 3, 2025, in xAI, Musk's AI and social media firm that has since merged with SpaceX, according to a required financial disclosure submitted before she became SBA's administrator. Later in 2025, Loeffler invested again in SpaceX and xAI between $1 million and $5 million, according to a separate financial disclosure covering her investments for all of 2025 that she signed on May 14, 2026. Reuters obtained the form from the SBA on June 12. Loeffler's second investment has not been previously reported. Two independent government ethics attorneys agreed with Reuters' assessment of Loeffler's disclosure. Cabinet members use ranges to declare the value of their assets on their required financial disclosure forms, and they do not disclose the dates of their investments before taking office. SpaceX is a military contractor for the U.S. government. Federal law prohibits cabinet members from participating in decisions involving a company in which they have a financial interest. Public records do not show a financial relationship between SBA and xAI or SpaceX. xAI was not included on the public list of AI toolsused by SBA employees in 2025. Loeffler and her team did not respond to multiple requests for comment about her SpaceX investment. VALUE OF SPACEX INVESTMENT SOARS Loeffler's bet on SpaceX paid off. The company priced the biggest-ever U.S. IPO on June 12, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at $1.77 trillion. Her first investment in xAI would have been worth between $7 million and $2.6 billion on the day of the IPO, depending on the exact amount she invested and the date she made it, said Franco Granda, analyst at data provider PitchBook. The second investment would have been worth between $2.2 million and $25.4 million that day, he said. The earlier the investment, the more it would have been worth at the IPO, he said. xAI's valuation increased by more than 7,000% between its first investment round and January 5, 2025. SpaceX's valuation more than doubled in 2025. At least 10 Trump administration officials listed investments in SpaceX or xAI on their 2025 financial disclosure forms. None of those officials works for the Defense Department. Billionaire Musk, a former Trump adviser, is the founder and CEO of SpaceX. Loeffler initially invested in xAI via a private placement, according to her disclosure form. Private placements are typically open to select individuals and institutions with significant financial resources. Loeffler is a wealthy businesswoman. She was the founding chief executive at Bakkt, a bitcoin trading platform, and spent 16 years working at Intercontinental Exchange, the firm that owns the New York Stock Exchange, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is married to Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher. Loeffler briefly represented Georgia in the Senate. The SBA helps entrepreneurs start and build their small businesses, according to the agency website. It connects business owners with lenders and funding to help them recover from natural disasters, among other responsibilities. The Senate confirmed Loeffler as SBA administrator on February 19, 2025. (Reporting by Courtney RozenEditing by Chris Sanders and Rod Nickel)
SpaceX's Starship rocket aborts before liftoff, Musk says launch probable next week
WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas on Thursday as some of its 33 engines failed to start, with CEO Elon Musk saying it will likely try to launch again early next week. Shares of SpaceX, which went public last month, fell about 3% in aftermarket trading following the scrubbed launch. The stock ended at $131.11 on Thursday, closing below its IPO price of $135 for the first time since listing. "Some of the engines didn't start, triggering an automatic launch abort," Musk said in a post on X, without disclosing the number of engines on the Super Heavy rocket that did not start. "To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week." The launch abort came less than a second before Starship's planned liftoff from Starbase, SpaceX's company town in south Texas, at 5:45 p.m. CT (2245 GMT). The rocket's engines ignited but cut off shortly after. "We did trigger a hold on the booster that aborted our liftoff as we were starting to light those Raptor engines," said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot, speaking on the company's live stream after the launch was scrubbed. (Reporting by Joey Roulette and Chris Thomas; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)
Pollution from Musk's unpermitted xAI power project hits hardest in Black communities
July 14 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has installed 59 natural gas turbines for its Colossus 2 data center project in Tennessee without securing federal clean air permits, according to communications between regulators and xAI representatives. Potential emissions from the turbines are far beyond the threshold that would require a federal permit, and would be released near predominantly Black communities already estimated to be suffering disproportionately high rates of lung disease, according to a Reuters analysis based on government data and information in the correspondence with regulators. The findings, which have not been previously reported, reflect how exploding electricity demand from AI data centers is driving companies to build off-grid power plants at a pace outstripping environmental oversight, with potentially big risks to public health. The number of unpermitted turbines identified by Reuters is about double what xAI has publicly acknowledged. The company previously said it was running 27 unpermitted turbines for Colossus 2 as of January and has argued the permits are not required. At least 57 of the 59 turbines are located in Mississippi, just over the state line from Tennessee where the data center is located. The xAI turbines are among scores of off-grid power plants for data centers proposed or under construction around the country. Local authorities often fast-track approvals in just weeks or months, without the years of environmental studies and public hearings typically required for such power generation projects that connect to the grid,Reuters has reported. Mississippi regulators in March issued a permit for permanent turbines for Colossus 2, allowing construction of 41 gas-fired turbines. The approval came three weeks after the state's only public hearing on the project. The xAI cluster of temporary turbines in Mississippi is already among the biggest off-grid data center power projects, according to Ben King, an analyst with think tank Rhodium Group, who reviewed the Reuters analysis. "This looks to be an unprecedented level of behind-the-meter gas being installed in one place," he said, referring to off-grid natural gas plants serving just one customer. The communications reviewed by Reuters show xAI, now owned by trillionaire Musk's SpaceX, has installed 57 off-grid turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, just across the state line from its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, a facility supporting the Grok chatbot and other AI systems. The records show the company has also installed two other unpermitted turbines for the project on a different site. Reuters could not determine the location. The communications, obtained through a Reuters public records request, included emails between Trinity Consultants, representing xAI and subsidiary MZX Tech, and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). xAI did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. xAI's turbines are part of a widening environmental justice battle over whether the AI boom is adding disproportionate pollution burdens to communities of color. Civil rights groups including the NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center sued xAI in April to halt their operations, arguing the turbines produce emissions subject to the federal Clean Air Act and shouldn't be operated without permits. They contend the turbines are polluting homes, schools and churches in historically Black communities. "The scale of it is astonishing," said Patrick Anderson, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. "This is an absolutely huge Clean Air Act violation that threatens public health." Securing a Clean Air Act permit would have exposed xAI's project to extensive review and public comment, potentially taking years. Mississippi environmental regulators and xAI have argued in court filings that the turbines are exempt because they are "mobile" and intended to operate onsite for less than a year. "MDEQ has determined that portable/temporary turbines do not require an air permit," the agency said in a statement to Reuters. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in January 2026 that even temporary turbines exceeding emissions thresholds must obtain permits. The agency, however, told Reuters it's considering changes allowing "regulatory flexibilities" for portable units while continuing to protect public health. xAI, the MDEQ and the EPA did not answer questions from Reuters about pollution impacts on communities of color from power generation to serve data centers. The U.S. Justice Departmentweighed in on the lawsuit in a June 15 filing, saying that restricting the turbines could threaten national security interests because xAI's systems support U.S. military operations, including operations involving Iran. The outcome of the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups could help define how environmental laws apply to the fast-growing AI sector, where companies are scrambling to bring power supplies online to support energy-intensive computing. "This sets up scenarios where the government can create sacrifice zones and tell communities they have to breathe illegal air pollution," said Mary Rock, a senior attorney for Earthjustice which is representing the NAACP and SELC. The dispute echoes the findings of a2022 study by researchers from UCLA and Columbia University and published in the Nature Energy journal that found that previously redlined communities - where banks historically discriminated against Black mortgage applicants - now face disproportionately high exposure to pollutants from fossil fuel facilities. "Air pollution from these and other sources contributes to systemic racial disparities in chronic disease and ultimately shorter lives," Lara Cushing, a UCLA public health professor who co-authored the study, told Reuters. BIG EMISSIONS The emails reviewed by Reuters included the manufacturer emissions profiles for 32 of the 59 turbines, including 30 at the Southaven site. A Reuters analysis based on that information found that those 30 turbines alone could emit nearly 2,500 short tons of nitrogen oxide, 4,000 short tons of carbon monoxide and 22 short tons of formaldehyde annually, assuming they operate continuously at 80% of capacity. According to the EPA, gas turbines are typically operated at loads of 80% or more to achieve efficiency. Nitrogen oxides contribute to smog and respiratory inflammation, according to the American Lung Association. Carbon monoxide deprives the body of oxygen, and formaldehyde is a carcinogen. The xAI site's potential emissions far exceed a Clean Air Act threshold that requires permitting for facilities capable of more than 100 short tons annually of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide. "This is a massive amount of turbines and an unfathomable amount of air pollution," Southaven resident Shannon Samsa said in an interview. "It's not a hypothetical," she said, "that air pollution is bad for you." The nitrogen oxide emissions calculated by Reuters for about half the plant's turbines would put the facility "up there with some of the heaviest polluting natural gas power plants across the entire country," said Nicholas Mailloux, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies air quality and health benefits of the clean-energy transition. He said the facility would be on par with the top 25 U.S. gas plants for nitrogen oxide emissions, citingEPA data for actual emissions. THE PEOPLE AFFECTED In the Colonial Hills neighborhood of Southaven, the turbines serving Colossus 2 can be heard around the clock, often firing off noisy bursts that residents compare to jet engines. Ervin Laws, a Colonial Hills resident in his 20s, said the noise wakes him up at night. "I can't do anything about it, because he's got more money than me," he said, referring to Musk. The turbines were installed in communities already estimated to be facing relatively high respiratory disease burdens, according to a Reuters analysis of CDC data. In 27 of 28 census tracts within five miles of the site - spanning both Mississippi and Tennessee - the estimated asthma rates were higher than their respective countywide figures. In 24 tracts, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease rates were also higher. Five miles is a distance commonly used in environmental health research to capture populations likely to be exposed to air pollution from a stationary source. A separate Reuters analysis of Census Bureau data found that the residents living near the facility are disproportionately Black. Because the five-mile radius crosses state lines, Reuters compared each side against its own county baseline. Within five miles of the facility in DeSoto county, Mississippi - where the turbines are located - about 46% of residents are Black, compared with 33% countywide, according to census data. Across the state line in Tennessee, where residents have no say in Mississippi's permitting process, about 94% of residents within five miles of the facility are Black, compared to 52% in surrounding Shelby County. Jayajit Chakraborty, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the Reuters analysis was consistent with research that shows communities of color face higher exposure to fossil fuel pollution. Shelby County and portions of DeSoto County have also previously failed to meet federal ozone standards and remain subject to EPA-approved plans to ensure they do not slip back into violation, according to regulatory documents. Nitrogen oxide is a key precursor to ozone formation, which the EPA says can harm respiratory health. "Given this community struggles with high asthma rates, additional NOx exposure at such high rates could exacerbate public health issues in a community that is already seeing more than its fair share of exposure to toxic air pollution," said Victoria Nelson, an independent environmental engineer, formerly at EPA. Sarah Gladney, 72, has watched the rapid expansion of xAI's Memphis-area presence from her home in the historically Black neighborhood of Boxtown, a few miles from where the company built its Colossus 1 data center in 2024. "Once they got their foot in the door in Memphis, I feel like it's going to be a continuous movement of xAI into these other communities," she said. "It's all about the money, and it's not about the health or wellness of the people that live in or near these communities." (Reporting by Disha Raychaudhuri and Valerie Volcovici; photos by Kevin Wurm; editing by David Gaffen, Kat Stafford, Ben Lesser and Richard Valdmanis)
Canada regulator cited Anthropic's Claude Mythos in warning to banks on cyber risks, email shows
TORONTO, July 13 (Reuters) - Canada's federal banking regulator warned the country's largest financial institutions about the risks of Anthropic's Claude Mythos and other advanced AI models, saying the new technology could increase cyber threats and reduce the time institutions have to identify and fix vulnerabilities, according to an email sent in April. The regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, sent the email to chief technology officers, chief information security officers, and chief risk officers across the financial industry, including the big banks and insurers, according to documents Reuters obtained through an access-to-information request. Regulators globally are trying to assess cybersecurity risks such as Anthropic's frontier AI model Mythos. Cybersecurity experts say Mythos, an AI model described as extremely capable at finding and exploiting cybersecurity vulnerabilities, poses significant challenges to the banking industry and its legacy technology systems. "Advanced artificial intelligence models, such as Anthropic Claude Mythos, significantly compress the timeframe for effective risk mitigation," OSFI said in the email. "Accordingly, this bulletin is grounded in our existing guidance and outlines sound practices that institutions can adopt to enhance the speed and effectiveness of risk identification, mitigation and response." Additional contents of the email were redacted due to some sections of the Access to Information Act. An acknowledgment of the risks of Mythos from OSFI could ensure Canadian banks, insurers and other regulated institutions invest in technology to protect clients from cyber risks. After Reuters sent questions to OSFI last week, the regulator on Monday posted a public bulletin on generative and agentic artificial intelligence online. "OSFI takes a technology‑neutral, risk‑focused approach to emerging technologies, including advanced artificial intelligence models such as Mythos. Our focus is not the technology itself, but how federally regulated financial institutions govern and manage the risks associated with its use," the regulator said in an emailed response to Reuters questions. In early April, Canadian bank executives met with regulators to discuss the risks posed by Mythos shortly after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell convened an urgent meeting with bank CEOs to warn of cyber risks posed by Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence model. OSFI sent the email to company executives on April 29. RAPIDLY CHANGING LANDSCAPE OSFI is responsible for regulating and maintaining the stability of Canada's financial sector, from banks to pension funds, and identifying risks emerging from foreign interference, geopolitics and new technology. The cyber capabilities of some frontier AI systems are considered so powerful that access has been restricted, with euro zone banks currently excluded from Mythos. Anthropic has also had a tumultuous relationship with the U.S. government.A judge blocked its initial blacklisting by the Pentagon in March, and the conflict has eased following the private release of Anthropic's Mythos. Three of Canada's big six banks - Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank and BMO - have outlined a plan to earn millions from their investments in AI as the banks moved from experimental AI projects to applying them in chatbots, building internal tools and lowering their reliance on third-party tools. Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC and National Bank have also disclosed several AI initiatives. The Canadian government has said it has access to Anthropic's Project Glasswing, which allows companies to have access to Mythos. It is not clear which, if any, banks in Canada are using it.Some banks deferred comments to the Canadian Bankers Association, which said banks have invested heavily to protect the financial system and are complying with robust requirements from OSFI on cyber risk management and incident reporting.In an interview in June, RBC's chief technology officer Bruce Ross said Mythos underscored a shift in the cyberattack landscape, making it imperative for organizations to respond rapidly since attack methods can emerge as soon as new vulnerabilities are identified. "The way we're (the industry) dealing with it is, building our own AI defenses... we'll continue to do that," Ross said. (Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Deepa Babington)
China warns of 'security backdoor' in Anthropic AI coding tool
BEIJING: A Chinese industry regulator warned users on July 8 of a "security backdoor" embedded in versions of US artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic's coding tool, Claude Code. The alleged backdoor could allow the software to "transmit sensitive information", including users' locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic's servers without users' consent, said China's National Vulnerability Database (NVDB), a cybersecurity platform. Claude Code is an AI coding agent that can generate computer code, debug software and review code based on user prompts. San Francisco startup Anthropic blocks users and companies in China and other nations it deems adversarial from accessing its products, but it is still possible to use them in the country through VPN or third-party proxy services. The NVDB, which is affiliated with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on its website it had recently "detected that the AI coding tool Claude Code contains security backdoor risks, posing a severe threat". Anthropic has not responded to AFP requests for comment on the allegations, which first emerged in specialist tech media. The NVDB advised relevant institutions and users "to conduct a comprehensive check immediately" and "promptly uninstall or upgrade to the latest secure version from which the relevant backdoor code has been removed". It also urged organisations to strengthen network traffic monitoring to prevent the unauthorised leakage of sensitive data. Chinese tech giant Alibaba told employees that the use of Claude Code would be banned from July 10 due to security concerns, people familiar with the matter said. Anthropic has previously accused Alibaba of reverse-engineering its AI models to mimic their abilities in a process known as "distillation". Claude Code engineer Thariq Shihipar responded in an X post last week to reports alleging that the tool was tracking certain data from Chinese users. "This is an experiment we launched in March that was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorised resellers and protect against distillation," Shihipar wrote. "The team has landed stronger mitigations since then and we've actually been meaning to take this down for a while... this should be fully rolled back in tomorrow's (July 2) release." -- AFP
