Daily Brief: Tesla’s layoffs, Reddit's new low, and OpenAI's Asia move

Plus, Trump Media stock plummets again

Image for article titled Daily Brief: Tesla’s layoffs, Reddit's new low, and OpenAI's Asia move
Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon (Reuters)

Good morning, Quartz readers!


Here’s what you need to know

OpenAI is expanding into Asia. Its first office on the continent will be in Tokyo, and Japanese businesses will get early access to a custom GPT-4 model.

Hong Kong is behind Bitcoin’s latest revival. The cryptocurrency rebounded yesterday after Hong Kong approved its first spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Advertisement

Trump Media stock is plummeting as it plans to issue millions of more shares. The audit firm of the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social is also under new scrutiny.

Advertisement

In other stock news, Salesforce and Informatica investors aren’t thrilled about the companies’ potential tie up. Shares of both organizations were down yesterday. Big bank stocks, on the other hand, had a dandy day.

Advertisement

Everything you need to know about Tesla’s layoffs

Tesla decided Mondays aren’t already hard enough and dished out lots of bad news to employees and investors yesterday.

Advertisement

Three of the most important takeaways:

👋 More than 10% of Tesla’s global workers (14,000 people) are being laid off

👋👋 Key Tesla leaders are calling it quits, raising succession concerns

🤤 Tesla is “lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle,” CEO Elon Musk said in a leaked memo to staff

Advertisement

And if that wasn’t a big enough day for Musk, he also said all new X users may have to pay to post.


Charted: Wall Street’s Reddit expectations aren’t reality

Reddit’s stock price fell to a new low yesterday.

Image for article titled Daily Brief: Tesla’s layoffs, Reddit's new low, and OpenAI's Asia move
Graphic: Quartz
Advertisement

But Wall Street has much, much higher ambitions.

Image for article titled Daily Brief: Tesla’s layoffs, Reddit's new low, and OpenAI's Asia move
Graphic: Quartz
Advertisement

What’s going on? Quartz’s Laura Bratton looked at the growing discrepancy.


More from Quartz

🫧 The AI craze is no dot-com bubble. Here’s why

🍗 Bojangles is coming to California for the first time

🎵 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway keeps buying up Liberty Sirius XM stock

🥾 L.L. Bean is laying off employees as customers move toward online shopping

✈️ The 10 busiest airports in the world — including 1 airport new to the list

🕵️ Microsoft is ‘ground zero’ for foreign state-sponsored hackers, executive says

Advertisement

Surprising discoveries

A million returns are sent to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service every hour on Tax Day. That’s with 70% of the country’s expected returns having already been submitted as of April 5.

Advertisement

An orbital garbage truck is trying to get rid of space debris from 2009. An idea for a new TV show: Space junk hunters.

Pyrite, known as fool’s gold, is actually worth something. The metal may contain lithium, which is in high demand.

Advertisement

Believe it or not, scientists are still looking for a ninth planet. They haven’t found it in 78% of the places it could be, but there’s still a chance it’s in hiding.


Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the week’s news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift!

Advertisement

Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, orbital trash bins, and celestial hiding places to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.