General Motors’ self-driving car unit, Cruise, admitted on Thursday to submitting a false report to influence a federal investigation and will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, the justice department said.The department said Cruise failed to disclose key details of an October 2023 crash to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in which one of its robotaxis in San Francisco struck a pedestrian after she was hit by another vehicle and dragged her 20 ...

Walt Disney is trying to roll the credits on its years-long battle to reassure Wall Street and Hollywood that it can dominate a new era of entertainment.The Magic Kingdom, which rarely issues guidance on future profits, told shareholders it expects an acceleration over the coming years – with “double-digit percentage growth” in adjusted earnings in 2026 and 2027.Shares in Disney rallied more than 9% during pre-market trading on Wednesday after it beat analysts’ expectations in the fourth quarter, with sales ...

Tesla’s market value breached the $1tn mark in a sharp rally on Friday, on growing bets of a favorable treatment for CEO Elon Musk’s companies in return for his support for President-elect Donald Trump in his poll campaign.The electric automaker’s shares rose more than 6% to a more than two-year high of $315.56, after having gained 19.3% up to Thursday’s close. The company crossed the $1tn valuation for the first time in more than two years.The billionaire could push for favorable regulation of autonomous v ...

The US supreme court grappled on Wednesday with a bid by Meta’s Facebook to scuttle a federal securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders who accused the social media platform of misleading them about the misuse of user data.The justices heard arguments in Facebook’s appeal of a lower court’s decision allowing the 2018 class action suit led by Amalgamated Bank to proceed. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages in part to recoup the lost value of the Facebook stock held by the investors. It is one ...

Meta announced Monday that it would allow US national security agencies and defense contractors to use its open-source artificial intelligence model, Llama. The announcement came days after Reuters reported an older version of Llama had been used by researchers to develop defense applications for the military wing of the Chinese government.Meta’s policies typically prohibit the use of its open-source large language model for “military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, [and] espionage”. The compa ...

Boeing workers will vote on a third contract agreement on Monday that could end a seven-week strike that has halted production at the troubled planemaker.Results are expected late Monday and workers could return to work as early as Wednesday following the approval of the new contract.The 33,000 workers, represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 and District W24, have been on strike since 13 September after rejecting Boeing’s final offer by 94% before their ...

Apple reported strong demand for the iPhone 16 in its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, though sales in China slightly decreased year-over-year. The company reported $94.9bn in revenue, up 6% year-over-year, and $1.64 in earnings per share (EPS). The company’s earnings slightly beat Wall Street projections of $94.4bn in sales and an EPS of $1.60.The company saw $46.2bn in revenue from iPhone sales, up from $43.8bn year-over-year. Fourth-quarter revenue from its services division, which include subscrip ...

Amazon became the latest of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants to report quarterly earnings on Thursday, with all eyes once again on cloud computing and any sign of a return on vast AI investments. Shares in the e-commerce giant rose in after-hours trading.The company reported revenue of $158.9bn against analyst expectations of $157.2bn, and earnings per share of $1.43, compared to $1.16 expected by Bloomberg analysts.Amazon reported $27.5bn for the previous three months, a 19% increase, in line with analy ...

Meta’s blowout year continues after the company reported another stellar financial quarter on Wednesday. Shares fell in after-hours trading.Wall Street analysts had high expectations for the Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, projecting an 18% jump in sales year over year. The company reported $40.6bn in sales, a 19% increase year over year that outpaced investor expectations of $40.19bn. Meta, which saw a 25% jump in its share price over the past two months, reported $6.03 in earnings per share (EPS), ...

Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday fueled by growth in its Azure cloud business, as five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech megacaps roll out quarterly earnings this week.“AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, function, and business process,” the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said in a press release. “We are expanding our opportunity and winning new customers as we help them apply our AI platforms and tools to drive new growth and ...