🌏 Walmart’s Costco plan

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Elon Musk warned Tesla (TSLA) staff of “Armageddon” but urged them to hold onto stock. Despite a 33% drop in Tesla stock, Musk pushed back against political backlash.

… Meanwhile, Tesla owners continue to flee as the backlash intensifies. Trade-ins for Teslas more than doubled in March compared to last year.

Nvidia’s (NVDA) CEO says sorry. Jensen Haung says he didn’t know about the publicly traded quantum computing companies that took a hit.

Walmart (WMT) is following Costco’s (COST) lead on gas stations. The retail giant is stepping up its gas station game to take on Costco’s fuel empire.

Investors aren’t buying the trade war doom. Despite fears of a recession and bear market, “Monster” stock inflows are keeping investors optimistic, says a Bank of America analyst.

Boeing’s (BA) got a big order. The aerospace company was awarded $20 billion by President Donald Trump to make “a lot” of new fighter jets.

Temu snagged Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart employees in a massive U.S. expansion push. Temu’s hiring blitz signals big moves as it sets its sights on dominating the American market.

Nike’s (NKE) trying to “Just Do It,” but it’s struggling to play ball. The apparel giant warned that looming tariffs, soft consumer spending, and a volatile market could prevent it from reaching the top spot.

Google’s OpenAI scramble

After OpenAI’s success with ChatGPT, Google (GOOGL) raced to catch up, giving its AI team just 100 days to build a competitor.

The result, Gemini, is now one of the top chatbots, though the journey has been far from smooth. From a bot launch blunder to problematic AI-generated images, Google has faced several challenges.

Still, with a $75 billion investment planned to accelerate AI innovation, the tech giant remains determined to dominate the AI race. Can Google shake off its setbacks and claim the lead in the AI race? Quartz’s Britney Nguyen has the details.

Johnson & Johnson follows Eli Lilly’s lead

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is following in Eli Lilly’s (LLY) footsteps, making a big play to win over Trump with a $55 billion U.S. investment.

The pharma giant plans to build new manufacturing facilities and expand existing ones, creating thousands of jobs. This move comes just as Trump pushes for more domestic production, with tariffs looming. The investment is a 25% increase from the previous four years, bolstered by the 2017 tax cuts.

Could this new commitment to U.S. manufacturing be a strategic alignment with the Trump administration? Quartz’s Bruce Gil breaks this down.

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, Walmart gas stations or Tesla cyber trucks to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Francisco Velasquez and Audrey McNamara.