The nuclear industry is racing to launch advanced small reactors by the early 2030s, aiming to meet the deep-pocketed technology sector’s growing need for electricity to fuel artificial intelligence. The world has relied largely on the same pressurized-water reactor technology for the past 70 years, but those plants have proven incredibly expensive to build in the U.S. in the 21st century. The first new nuclear plant completed in decades, reactors 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, infamously cost about $18 billion more than expected and opened seven years behind schedule. Each of those reactors can generate 1,114 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than 800,000 homes. “Doing these new builds with that older, high pressure technology is just unaffordable,” Chris Levesque, CEO of TerraPower, an advanced reactor company co-founded and backed by Bill Gates, told CNBC. Despite growing interest in restarting closed reactors, such as Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, as a quicker and cheaper near-term solution, there remains “a whole lot of hesitation about a brand new plant,” Levesque said. The advanced reactors under development promise to have smaller, lighter footprints that could make them cheaper and quicker to build when they are fully commercialized. But the industry is crowded with more than 90 different technologies in various stages of development around the world, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency. The utility and tech sectors need to winnow down the field to five or 10 companies with the right technology, said John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, the largest power company by market capitalization in the U.S. “A lot of them are under capitalized,” Ketchum said of the small nuclear startups designing advanced reactors. “So we’ve got to pick out the ones that we really want to get behind and make the bets,” the CEO said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston earlier this month. Ketchum sees the first advanced reactor coming online around 2031 in the U.S., with more units potentially on the way around 2035. Technology companies will serve as a catalyst, with Levesque saying they are a “huge force” that can drive the industry forward due to their immense demand for electricity coupled with their deep pockets. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft together are worth seven times the value of the entire S&P 500 utility sector. The following are some of the leading players in the U.S. market to revive nuclear power, all three of them private but with significant financial backing — often from tech companies — and customers already lined up. TerraPower TerraPower is the first advanced reactor company in the U.S. to move from design to construction, breaking ground on its first plant near a former coal site in Kemmerer, Wyoming in the summer of 2024. The company aims to start dispatching power by the end of 2030 to Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp. TerraPower’s Natrium reactor operates at atmospheric temperature, a feature that Levesque says will reduce construction costs. The U.S. currently relies on reactors that operate at about 300 Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) and are cooled by water. The system operates under high pressure — water boils at 100 degree Celsius — to keep the coolant liquid, and the plants need heavy, expensive components to contain the pressure, Levesque said. TerraPower uses sodium, rather than water, as a coolant. Liquid sodium boils at 900 Celsius, much higher than the Natrium reactor’s operating temperature of around 500 Celsius. That means the plant does not need to be pressurized, Levesque said. Using a low-pressure, lighter plant to avoid high pressure systems “reduces tons of steel, tons of concrete, labor hours, numbers of systems,” Levesque said. He estimates that Natrium plants will cost about half as much to build as a traditional nuclear plant, with prices coming down as more are built. The Natrium reactor has a power capacity of 345 megawatts, enough for more than 250,000 homes. A plant will have the ability to ramp up to 500 megawatts for several hours by storing heat in a thermal battery made of molten salt, Levesque says. The idea is to be able to dispatch power on demand to the grid when renewable solar and wind power fade because the sun isn’t shinning or winds are slack. TerraPower has the financial backing of its key founder Bill Gates, SK Group, one of South Korea’s largest energy providers, and ArcelorMittal, a steelmaker. Gates and SK Group led TerraPower’s $830 million funding round in 2022. The Wyoming project is backed by $2 billion from the Department of Energy, which TerraPower says it will match dollar for dollar. TerraPower filed its construction license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2024 and expects the regulator will issue a permit in December 2026. “We’re trying to show folks we’re inevitable,” Levesque said. X-Energy Of all the advanced reactor companies, X-Energy is the first to win a direct investment from a tech company, securing hundreds of millions of dollars from Amazon to build its Xe-100 reactor. “What this sector needs is risk capital to invest in plants because U.S. utilities aren’t doing it today,” X-Energy CEO Clay Sell told CNBC. X-Energy’s most recent financing round raised $700 million, led by Amazon and with additional capital from Citadel founder Ken Griffin, Ares Management, Segra Capital Management, Jane Street Capital and the University of Michigan, among others. “One of the largest corporations in America, a company that is in size larger than the entirety of the investor-owned utility sector in the U.S., was stepping forward and saying we want to facilitate the new nuclear future in the United States,” Sell said of Amazon’s investment. The cash will largely go to completing the reactor design so it’s ready for construction, and finishing the first phase of X-Energy’s fuel facility, Sell said. The Xe-100 is an 80 megawatt reactor sold in a pack of four units to construct 320 megawatts in total, the CEO said. The multiple units create redundancy and the small size allows the biggest component, the reactor vessel, to ship from a factory via road to the construction site, Sell said. The reactor uses helium gas as a coolant rather than water. X-Energy has its own proprietary fuel made of graphite pebbles that contain uranium kernels encased in ceramic. Sell said the graphite can’t melt, which makes the plant “intrinsically safe.” Amazon’s investment will finance four Xe-100 reactors in Washington state that will be built, owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a utility, with plants coming online in the early 2030s. The intent is to scale up to a dozen Xe-100s in Washington, Sell said. X-Energy is also working with Dow Inc. to deploy four reactors at the chemical company’s manufacturing facility in Seadrift, Texas. The Department of Energy has awarded X-Energy up to $1.2 billion to develop and deploy its technoloy. X-Energy aims to become the first company to commission an operational advanced reactor in the U.S., Sell said. Kairos Power Kairos Power signed a contract with Alphabet’s Google unit last year to deploy multiple, advanced reactors, aiming to supply the YouTube company with 500 megawatts of power. The first reactor is expected to come online in 2030, with additional deployments through 2035. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the Google contract is “immensely important,” allowing Kairos to “plan the infrastructure not just for one project but for a series of projects,” CEO Mike Laufer told CNBC. “It allows us to scale our infrastructure, production — our manufacturing capabilities,” Laufer said. The 75-megawatt Kairos’ reactor will be deployed in pairs to provide 150 megawatts of total power. Similar to TerraPower, Kairos’ reactor operates at near atmospheric pressure using molten fluoride salt instead of water as coolant. Like X-Energy, Kairos uses fuel that encases uranium kernels in ceramic and graphite pebbles that can’t melt in high-temperature reactors, according to the company. Kairos is building a low-power, demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to showcase its ability “to deliver clean, safe, and affordable nuclear heat.” Oak Ridge, site of a national laboratory about 25 miles west of Knoxville, was where uranium was enriched as part of the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs. Today, there will be a “natural thinning” in the number of advance reactor companies, Kairos CEO Laufer said: “It’s going to be driven by who can actually be in a position to execute projects,” he said.

Originally appeared on E! Online A little bird told us more changes are afoot for the company formerly known as Twitter. Elon Musk—who bought Twitter in 2022 and changed the social media platform’s name to X the following year—revealed that his artificial intelligence startup xAI has acquired the brand in a lucrative, all-stock deal. “The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt),” Musk wrote in a March 28 post to X. “Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale.” He continued, “X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth and, in the last two years, has been transformed into one of the most efficient companies in the world, positioning it to deliver scalable future growth.” More than one year after Grok—an AI-powered chatbot created by xAI that’s similar to ChatGPT—was launched on X, Elon said it was officially time to “take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.” “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” he explained. “The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.” The Tesla CEO ended his message thanking the teams from both companies for their hard work and dedication, noting, “This is just the beginning.” After Musk’s announcement, CEO of X Linda Yaccarino echoed his outlook, reposting his update with her own words, writing, “The future could not be brighter.” As for how X users felt about the business deal? There were chirps all around. “I’m so curious as to why X folded into xAI and not the other way around,” one user wrote. “It seems like X has the broader base as a platform and that xAI would literally just be a medium/small feature on X.” Another simply commented, “Wow. Didn’t see this coming.” While Elon’s business portfolio continues to expand, so does his family. Read on for a deep dive into the many branches of his family tree.

Noted economist Arthur Laffer warns in a new analysis that President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on auto imports could add $4,711 to the cost of a vehicle, adding that the proposed taxes could weaken the ability of U.S. automakers to compete with their foreign counterparts. In the 21-page analysis obtained by The Associated Press, Laffer, whom Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019 for his contributions to economics, says the auto industry would be in a better position if the president preserved the supply chain rules with Canada and Mexico from his own 2019 USMCA trade pact. The White House has temporarily exempted auto and parts imports under the USMCA from the tariffs starting on April 3 so that the Trump administration can put together a process for taxing non-U.S. content in vehicles and parts that fall under the agreement. “Without this exemption, the proposed tariff risks causing irreparable damage to the industry, contradicting the administration’s goals of strengthening U.S. manufacturing and economic stability,” Laffer writes in the analysis. “A 25% tariff would not only shrink, or possibly eliminate, profit margins for U.S. manufacturers but also weaken their ability to compete with international rivals.” While Trump’s tariff plans have frightened the stock market and U.S. consumers, Laffer’s analysis shows the administration has yet to convince even his favored economists that his import taxes would deliver as promised. The paper reminds Trump that it’s not too late to change course, specifically complimenting the USMCA negotiated in his first term as a “significant achievement.” “The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has served as a cornerstone of President Trump’s first term and has quickly become a dominant feature of North American trade policy, fostering economic growth, stabilizing supply chains, and strengthening the U.S. auto industry,” Laffer writes. The analysis says that the per vehicle cost without the USMCA exemption would be $4,711, but that figure would be a lower $2,765 if the exemptions were sustained. Trump honored Laffer with the highest civilian honor 45 years after the economist famously sketched out on a napkin the “Laffer curve” showing that there’s an optimal tax rate for collecting revenue. The bell-shaped curve indicated that there’s a tax rate so high that it could be self-defeating for generating tax revenues. Many Republicans embraced the curve as evidence that lower tax rates could generate stronger growth that would lead to higher tax revenues. “Dr. Laffer helped inspire, guide, and implement extraordinary economic reforms that recognize the power of human freedom and ingenuity to grow our economy and lift families out of poverty and into a really bright future,” Trump said in awarding him the medal. Laffer served on the economic policy advisory board of President Ronald Reagan, in addition to being a university professor. He has his own economic consultancy, Laffer Associates. In 1970, he was the first chief economist of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Laffer also advised Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and co-wrote a flattering book, “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy.” Laffer Associates did not immediately respond to an email from the AP seeking comment Thursday night. Trump maintains that 25% tariffs will cause more foreign and domestic automakers to expand production and open new factories in the United States. On Monday, he celebrated a planned $5.8 billion investment by South Korean automaker Hyundai to build a steel plant in Louisiana as evidence that his strategy would succeed. Trump said the 25% auto tariffs would help to reduce the federal budget deficit while moving more production into the United States. “For the most part, I think it’s going to lead cars to be made in one location,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “For right now, the car would be made here, sent to Canada, sent to Mexico, sent to all over the place. It’s ridiculous.”

Lululemon beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, but issued 2025 guidance that disappointed analysts. On an Thursday earnings call, CEO Calvin McDonald said the athleticwear company conducted a survey earlier this month that found that consumers are spending less due to economic and inflation concerns, resulting in lower U.S. traffic at Lululemon and industry peers. However, he said, guests responded well to innovation at the company. “There continues to be considerable uncertainty driven by macro and geopolitical circumstances. That being said, we remain focused on what we can control,” McDonald said. Shares of the apparel company fell more than 10% in extended trading. Lululemon was only the latest retailer to say it expects slower sales for the rest of this year as concerns grow about a slowing economy and President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Here’s how the company did compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the quarter ended Feb. 2, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $6.14 vs. $5.85 expected
• Revenue: $3.61 billion vs. $3.57 billion expected

Fourth-quarter revenue rose from $3.21 billion during the same period in 2023. Full-year 2024 revenue came in at $10.59 billion, up from $9.62 billion in 2023. Lululemon’s fiscal 2024 contained 53 weeks, one week longer than its fiscal 2023. Excluding the 53rd week, fourth-quarter and full-year revenue both rose 8% year over year for 2024. Lululemon expects first-quarter revenue to total $2.34 billion to $2.36 billion, while Wall Street analysts were expecting $2.39 billion, according to LSEG. The retailer anticipates it will post full-year fiscal 2025 revenue of $11.15 billion to $11.30 billion, compared to the analyst consensus estimate of $11.31 billion. For the first quarter, the company expects to post earnings per share in the range of $2.53 to $2.58, missing Wall Street’s expectation of $2.72, according to LSEG. Full-year earnings per share guidance came in at $14.95 to $15.15 per share, while analysts anticipated $15.31. CFO Meghan Frank said on the Thursday earnings call that gross margin for 2025 is expected to fall 0.6 percentage points due to higher fixed costs, foreign exchange rates and U.S. tariffs on China and Mexico. Lululemon reported a net income for the fourth quarter of $748 million, or $6.14 per share, compared with a net income of $669 million, or $5.29 per share, during the fourth quarter of 2023. Comparable sales, which Lululemon defines as revenue from e-commerce and stores open at least 12 months, rose 3% year over year for the quarter. The comparison excludes the 53rd week of the 2024 fiscal year. Analysts expected the metric to rise 5.1%. Comparable sales in the Americas were flat, while they grew 20% internationally. Lululemon has been facing a sales slowdown in the U.S., although McDonald said its U.S. business stabilized in the second half of the year and partially attributed the improvement to new merchandise. He added that Lululemon will expand its stores to Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Turkey and the Czech Republic this year.

Dollar Tree said Wednesday that it’s gaining market share with higher-income consumers and could raise prices on some products to offset President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The discount retailer’s CEO, Michael Creedon, said the company is seeing “value-seeking behavior across all income groups.” While Dollar Tree has always relied on lower-income shoppers and gets about 50% of its business from middle-income consumers, sustained inflation has led to “stronger demand from higher-income customers,” Creedon said on an analyst call. Dollar Tree’s success with higher-income shoppers follows similar gains from Walmart, which has made inroads with the cohort following the prolonged period of high prices. Trump’s tariffs on certain goods from China, Mexico and Canada — and the potential for broad duties on trading partners around the world — have only added to concerns about stretched household budgets. While Dollar Tree will use tactics like negotiating with suppliers and moving manufacturing to mitigate the effect of the duties, it could also hike the prices of some items, Creedon said. Dollar Tree has rolled out prices higher than its standard $1.25 products at about 2,900 so-called multi-price stores. Certain products can cost anywhere from $1.50 to $7 at those locations. The retailer weighed in on higher-income customers and the potential effect of tariffs as it announced its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Dollar Tree also said it will sell its struggling Family Dollar chain for about $1 billion to a consortium of private equity investors. Dollar Tree said its net sales for continuing operations — its namesake brand — totaled $5 billion for the quarter, while same-stores sales climbed 2%. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.11 for the period. It is unclear how the figures compare with Wall Street estimates. For fiscal 2025, Dollar Tree expects net sales of $18.5 billion to $19.1 billion from continuing operations, with same-store sales growth of 3% to 5%. It anticipates it will post adjusted earnings of $5 to $5.50 per share for the year. Creedon said the expected hit from the first round of 10% tariffs Trump levied on China in February would have been $15 million to $20 million per month, but the company has mitigated about 90% of that effect. Additional 10% duties on China imposed this month, along with 25% levies on Mexico and Canada that have only partly taken effect, would hit Dollar Tree by another $20 million per month, Creedon said. The company is working to offset those duties, but did not include them in its financial guidance due to the confusion over which tariffs will take effect and when.

Robinhood is getting closer to becoming a full-fledged financial service. On Wednesday, the company announced a wholly online banking platform that will offer checking and savings accounts to Robinhood Gold subscribers when it launches this fall.

The platform, called Robinhood Banking, will let users access their accounts, as well as send and receive money through the Robinhood Credit Card app. It even attempts to make up for not having a physical location by having physical cash “delivered on-demand right to your doorstep.” There still aren’t many details about how this will work, but Robinhood says “coverage varies based on geographic location.”

Robinhood Banking promises a 4 percent annual percentage yield (APY) and FDIC insurance of up to $2.5 million on accounts. The company notes that since it’s not an FDIC-insured bank, it’s offering “pass-through” insurance provided by FDIC member Coastal Community Bank. Pass-through insurance involves insuring people’s funds by holding them “at an FDIC-insured bank through a third party,” according to the FDIC.

The service will offer individual and joint banking accounts at launch, along with options to create children’s accounts. Deepak Rao, Robinhood Money’s general manager and vice president, says the platform is designed to “solve many of the challenges presented by legacy banks.”

In addition to a bank account, Robinhood is launching a new wealth management platform called Robinhood Strategies. It will offer access to a mix of single stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which “are actively managed to provide access to more opportunities.” The funds have a 0.25 percent annual management fee, with a yearly cap of $250 for Robinhood Gold members.

Robinhood Strategies is available to Robinhood Gold members today, but it’s coming to all customers next month. Robinhood Gold is the company’s $5 per month (or $50 per year) subscription program that offers features like margin investing and larger instant deposits.

Later this year, Robinhood also plans to launch an AI-powered investment tool called Cortex for Gold subscribers. It will provide analyses and insights about the current market, such as why a particular stock is going up or down, as well as which stocks to consider trading.

Over the years, Robinhood has transformed itself from a simple investing app into an all-in-one hub for users’ finances. The company launched a credit card in 2024 as part of efforts to encourage people to keep their money within the widening Robinhood ecosystem, where they’ll now be able to store and withdraw cash to make investments on the app, too.

Copper (HG=F) prices climbed closer to all-time high levels on Tuesday as indications of more measured Trump administration tariffs extended the industrial metal’s rally this year. Futures on the London Metal Exchange gained after topping $10,000 per metric ton in the prior session, while contracts on New York’s Comex increased to hover near a record. On Monday, President Trump hinted that the reciprocal levies expected on April 2 may not be as widespread as anticipated, easing worries of a global slowdown. Copper, considered a proxy of growth trends, is up more than 24% year to date in the US and 14% higher in London on speculation that Trump’s tariffs could include metal imports. The expectation has created a price difference across the Atlantic, spurring increased shipments to the US. “Front-running the potential tariff has unleashed a wave of near-term demand for copper housed in the US,” LPL Financial chief technical strategist Adam Turnquist said. Anywhere between 100,000 and 150,000 metric tons of copper are expected to reach the US in the coming weeks, according to Bloomberg estimates. The trend to front-run copper isn’t new, as it’s already been happening with gold, which recently hit new highs. White House initiatives to become more independent from sources abroad have also put the spotlight on domestic supplies. In February, the Trump administration said the “United States faces significant vulnerabilities in the copper supply chain, with increasing reliance on foreign sources for mined, smelted, and refined copper.” Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was ordered to investigate “whether imports of copper, scrap copper, and copper’s derivative products threaten to impair national security.” The metal is used in everything from defense weapons to infrastructure, electric vehicles, and electronics. Outside of tariffs, China, the world’s largest importer of copper, has announced plans to stimulate its economy, which would boost demand. “Beijing’s pro-growth agenda is beginning to show up in the economic data, evidenced by recent better-than-expected retail sales, industrial output, and fixed-asset investment,” Turnquist said. The last time copper spiked to new highs was in May 2024. “The brief bump in copper prices from a year ago was based a bit on speculation when the realization of limited supplies became apparent, but this slow-burning rally will be based on real supply and demand fundamentals, especially supply,” Eric Saderholm, managing director of exploration and co-founder of American Pacific Mining, told Yahoo Finance. Goldman Sachs analysts recently reiterated they’re bullish on the commodity. “For now, we also maintain our bullish $10,200/t Q4 2025 forecast, on the back of strong electrification demand, China stimulus offsetting the drag from tariffs, and slower mine supply growth,” Goldman Sachs’ Eoin Dinsmore wrote. Other analysts are even more bullish, with Kostas Bintas of Mercuria Energy Group floating the possibility of $12,000 to $13,000 per ton.

Video game retailer GameStop announced Tuesday its board has unanimously approved a plan to buy bitcoin with its corporate cash, echoing a move made famous by MicroStrategy. The meme stock jumped more than 6% in extended trading Tuesday following the news. The announcement confirmed CNBC’s reporting in February of GameStop’s intention to add bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to its balance sheet. The video game retailer said a portion of its cash or future debt and equity issuances may be invested in bitcoin and U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins. As of Feb. 1, GameStop held nearly $4.8 billion in cash. The firm also said it has not set a ceiling on the amount of bitcoin it may purchase. GameStop will be following in the footsteps of software company MicroStrategy, now known as Strategy, which bought billions of dollars worth of bitcoin in recent years to become the largest corporate holder of the flagship cryptocurrency. That decision prompted a rapid, albeit volatile, rise for Strategy’s stock. GameStop’s foray into cryptocurrencies marks the latest effort by CEO Ryan Cohen to revive the struggling brick-and-mortar business. Under Cohen’s leadership, GameStop has focused on cutting costs and streamlining operations to ensure the business is profitable. The company said the move could expose it to volatility associated with cryptocurrency prices. “Bitcoin, for example, is a highly volatile asset and has experienced significant price fluctuations over time. Our Bitcoin strategy has not been tested and may prove unsuccessful,” GameStop said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has ridden a roller coaster since President Donald Trump won reelection. After shooting up and piercing the $100,000 milestone, bitcoin has declined about 18% from its record high to a recent price of approximately $88,000. In tandem with the cryptocurrency announcement, investors also cheered a rise in GameStop’s fourth-quarter results. The firm reported net income of $131.3 million, more than double the $63.1 million earned in the same quarter last year.

South Korea-based Hyundai and President Donald Trump announced a $20 billion investment in US on-shoring on Monday, which includes a $5 billion steel plant in Louisiana, at the White House Monday. The $5.8 billion Louisiana facility will be the car manufacturers’ first steel manufacturing facility in the US and will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of steel a year and create more than 1,400 jobs. It will supply steel to auto plants in Alabama and Georgia, Trump said in remarks at the White House. The announcement this afternoon at the White House included Trump, Hyundai Chairman Euisun Chung and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. Chung said it was the company’s largest US investment ever. “More investments, more jobs, and more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans – all thanks to President Trump’s economic policies,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media. CNBC first reported the announcement. Hyundai didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. “This investment is a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work,” Trump said Monday afternoon. Chung said the decision to open the plant in the Savannah, Georgia area “was initiated during my meeting with President Trump in Seoul in 2019.” This project “coincides with the beginning of President Trump’s second term, making this moment even more special.” Trade publications reported in early January that Hyundai was considering a steel plant in the US ahead of Trump’s second term, seeking to lower their own production costs and bracing for his protectionist economic policies. Trump has already enacted 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, as well as levies on cars from Asia and Europe set to go into effect next month. The aim is to build more cars in the United States; however, it’s not that simple. For example, Stellantis, which makes cars in North America under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, agreed to re-open a shuttered plant in Illinois as part of a deal to end a 2023 strike by the United Auto Workers. It pointed to those re-opening plans once again in January, soon after Trump took office, to assure him it would increase American car production. But that plant won’t reopen until 2027. And despite Trump’s argument that his tariff threats are needed to “save” the US auto industry, US factories already produce the lion’s share of North American auto production. According to data from S&P Global Mobility, there were 10.2 million cars built at US assembly plants last year, compared to 4 million at Mexican factories and 1.3 million in Canada. There are about 1 million workers at Americanfactories producing cars, trucks and auto parts.

Increased investments

The Hyundai announcement comes ahead of April 2, when even more sweeping tariffs might be enacted, targeting countries with a large trade surplus like South Korea. Trump is encouraging investments in American manufacturing, with similar announcements being made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Japan’s SoftBank. Apple said last month it would invest $500 billion to expand facilities, manufacturing and projects across the United States over the next four years. The announcement appeared to be aimed at helping the company avoid new tariffs on goods imported from China, although some of the investment efforts were likely already underway. Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank also announced in January that they would team up to create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Together, the companies plan to invest $500 billion into the project in the coming years. New presidents and presidents-elect have often held joint announcements with companies about massive US investments to promote American manufacturing. But their track record for success is mixed. Trump and Foxconn announced in 2017 a $10 billion electronics factory in Wisconsin that was expected to create 13,000 jobs. But the company eventually abandoned most of its plans for the facility and the high-tech products it was supposed to build. The company in 2021 said it would invest just $672 million in a revised deal that would create fewer than 1,500 jobs.

Massachusetts regulators are investigating Robinhood over launching a prediction markets hub, a way of letting users bet on March Madness college basketball games on its platform. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bill Galvin sent a subpoena to Robinhood on March 20 over the company’s decision to launch its prediction markets hub, a spokesperson for the secretary confirmed to CNN. The probe was first reported by Reuters. Robinhood on March 17 launched its new hub for prediction markets — basically a form of betting on everything from basketball games in the NCAA tournaments to the chances the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates at a given meeting. Users can buy and trade financial contracts tied to the outcome of a given event, essentially betting on the outcome. The secretary’s office wants information by April 3 about Massachusetts residents requesting to bet on college sports, the spokesperson confirmed, as well as internal company communication about the hub’s launch. The Massachusetts probe is the latest investigation into prediction markets, which have soared in popularity in recent years. The rise of prediction markets has brought a bevy of legal questions about where to draw the line between investing and trading versus online gambling. Galvin said he was concerned that Robinhood was “linking a gambling event on a popular sports event that’s especially popular to young people to a brokerage account,” according to an interview with Reuters. “This is just another gimmick from a company that’s very good at gimmicks to lure investors away from sound investing,” Galvin said in the interview. A spokesperson for Robinhood said in a statement that “the event contracts offered by Robinhood Derivatives are regulated by the CFTC and offered through CFTC-registered entities.” (The CFTC is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a US market regulator.) “Prediction markets have become increasingly relevant for retail and institutional investors alike, and we’re proud to be one of the first platforms to offer these products to retail customers in a safe and regulated manner,” Robinhood’s statement said. The prediction markets hub and its event contracts are offered in the US through Kalshi, an exchange for prediction markets regulated by the CFTC. Kalshi has garnered attention in the past for its event contracts tied to bets on the US presidential election. A spokesperson for the CFTC declined to comment on Galvin’s probe into Robinhood. This isn’t Galvin’s first investigation into Robinhood. In January 2024, the company paid $7.5 million to settle complaints brought in 2020 and 2021 by Galvin over its practices, including strategies to encourage users to trade. Robinhood’s launch of the prediction markets hub comes one month after the company ditched plans to allow users to bet on the outcome of the Super Bowl, scrapping the product at the request of the CFTC. “That review of the company’s risk management procedures and controls applicable to sports-related event contracts has completed, and at this time, the CFTC has no legal justification to prevent Robinhood from offering access to these contracts, which are listed on a CFTC-registered exchange,” a spokesperson for the CFTC said in a statement on Monday. Robinhood’s stock (HOOD) surged 9% on Monday despite the news of Galvin’s probe. Robinhood stock is up 23% this year.