Bussiness
đ Trump Media falls, Buffett gives and Musk goes spatial
Good morning, Quartz readers!
Hereâs what you need to know
President Joe Biden wasnât the only apparent loser of Thursday nightâs presidential campaign debate. Donald Trumpâs Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the former presidentâs far-right social media site Truth Social, fell 10.9% on Friday but still finished the week up more than 18%.
EV startup Fisker is recalling the Ocean SUV â again â after filing for bankruptcy protection. Outer door handles may get stuck, preventing customers from getting into or leaving their vehicles, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Warren Buffett said heâll donate another $5.3 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to charity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust will get $4 billion, and the rest will go to foundations run by Buffettâs kids Susie, Howie and Peter.
Since unveiling its AI strategy in early June, Appleâs stock price has been on the rise. The question is: will its good fortunes continue?
Of course Elon Musk won the contract to crash the International Space Station into the sea. SpaceX will be given $843 million to complete the job of deorbiting the aging space station.
AI âRâ Us
Toys âRâ Us has released one of the âfirst-everâ artificial intelligence-generated brand ads â leaving consumers both impressed and skeptical. Ad agency Native Foreign made the ad using OpenAIâs text-to-video tool, Sora, which is not yet widely available to the public. The ad shows the toy companyâs late founder, Charles Lazarus, as a child dreaming of the store, and features the companyâs mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe.
Nik Kleverov, chief creative officer at Native Foreign, said Sora allowed the teams to make the ad in just a few weeks, condensing hundreds of iterative shots down to a couple dozen. The video generator still needs to fix how it shows hands, and Lazarusâs depictions were different throughout the ad. Viewers who caught the ad on X had mixed reactions, from calling the ad âawesomeâ and âdope,â to âTerrible and bad and awfulâ and âbrand murder.â
Boeing bashed over comments on crash probe
Comments by top Boeing officials on the federal safety investigation into the door that blew out on an Alaskan Airlines 737 may cost the company its access to the probe. âThis disregard of the federal regulations and rules governing NTSB investigations cannot be tolerated,â the National Transportation Safety Board wrote to Boeing. On Tuesday, Boeing described the NTSBâs investigation as a âsearch to locate the individual responsibleâ for the door plugâs failure, prompting the Fedsâ response.
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đGM is reviving self-driving startup Cruise, with an ex-Amazon exec.
Surprising discoveries
The Copa Americas soccer championship has turned into a major mess of mismarketing. Despite some absorbing action on the pitch, this yearâs Copa has largely been a dud, hurt by overheated stadiums, poor ticket sales general lack of interest among U.S. sports fans.
The city that gave us Sleater-Kinney and the Decemberists may lose its status as the last Great American Rock & Roll City without a Live Nation venue. The Ticketmaster-twinned music promoter, accused by the Feds of anti-competitive practices, is eyeing a site along the Wilamette River.
Tractor Supply, a kind of Home Depot for the rural set that sells American Flag mud boots, put the brakes on its admirable diversity, equity and inclusion efforts last month, after a one-time movie producer turned conservative activist jumped into action. The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating tale for our times.
Did Microsoft track what consumers were buying at adult toy stores? Thatâs the allegation contained in a lawsuit brought in federal court by San Francisco resident Stella Tatola against Microsoft and two major U.S. sex toy retailers, claiming their websites are tracking users without their consent.
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