Tesla’s new Berlin factory officially kicked off the production process on Tuesday, with ambitious plans to churn out some 500,000 EVs a year. The $7 billion plant, completed in just 2 years, will focus on Model Y SUV production for the time being - NYTimes and WSJ and Mashable
Speaking of Elon, the SEC pushed back this week on Musk’s recent efforts to scrap a 2018 settlement and consent decree he reached with the agency that required the Tesla CEO’s “tweets to be vetted by a Tesla attorney for potential securities violations,” citing in part the powerful legal maxim “A deal is a deal” – Law360
Delivering the latest blow in its already troubled recent history, China Evergrande announced this week that it “will not be able to publish its annual financial results on time,” citing “drastic changes” to its business in the past year for the delay. The company is the world’s “most indebted property developer,” and its ongoing financial woes have prompted concerns over a “Lehman moment” in China - NYTimes and WSJ
A look at what the recent rounds of sanctions against Russian oligarchs can mean for the future of their companies, with defaults in the offing (despite owners with plenty of funds) thanks to the newfound difficulty these companies are facing in “making payments to their foreign creditors” - WSJ
Those sanctions, by the way, continue to expand - Bloomberg and NYTimes
Despite winning a 2021 Pulitzer for its series on China’s interment of Uyghur minorities, BuzzFeed News revealed that major cuts are coming to its newsroom. The divisions EIC, Mark Schoofs, and other top execs are departing ahead of the broader round of layoffs - NYTimes and WSJ
U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai has reached an agreement with her counterparts in the U.K. that will see the U.S. “allow a certain volume of metals from the United Kingdom to be imported duty-free starting June 1” in exchange for the British lifting tariffs on “more than $500 million worth of American whiskey, blue jeans, motorcycles and other products, removing barriers imposed on U.S. exports during the trade spats” of the last administration - NYTimes and WSJ
Alibaba announced this week that it was adding another $10 billion to its share buyback program. The company will now spend $25B in an effort “to reassure investors about the company’s prospects after a year in which its stock has fallen by more than half” - WSJ
Details on what to expect as the criminal fraud trial of former Theranos #2, Sunny Balwani, kicks off in San Jose federal court - Bloomberg and Law360 and WSJ
A primer on that yield curve inversion you’re hearing about from the markets-obsessed these days - MarketWatch and Bloomberg
On geometry as a potential human singularity—a key differentiator between homo sapiens and our closest relatives in the animal world (and artificial intelligence, for that matter) - NYTimes
Stay safe,
MDR
