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Elon Musk, looking for backers, is reportedly willing to boost personal Twitter investment to $15B

Credit: @Gf4Tesla/Twitter

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reportedly willing to boost his investment into social media platform Twitter to as high as $15 billion while continuing to look for financial backers who could help perform a traditional buyout. Musk’s $43 billion bid to take over Twitter last week was effectively stagnated as the company announced its intentions to use a “poison pill” to foil the Tesla CEO’s bid.

The New York Post said in a report citing two people close to the situation that Musk is willing to invest between $10 billion and $15 billion of his own money to take Twitter private. Musk, who disclosed ownership in Twitter in a filing with the SEC earlier this month, has a 9.1 percent ownership stake in the platform, which is worth $3.4 billion currently. He is the largest individual shareholder of Twitter, as Vanguard overtook Musk as the largest shareholder of the social media platform on April 8.

Musk is also considering bringing on partners and may use other strategies to up his offer to buy Twitter. The CEO “may also be willing to borrow against his current stake” in the company, which could add several billion dollars to his offer. Other strategies include combining cash with co-investors, which would establish “a giant cash equity infusion,” making the bid near impossible to decline. However, the report states that some investors appear to be hesitant to move into the deal because of “his pattern of unpredictable behavior and taste for controversy.”

“The co-investors will combined have more equity than Musk, but he will be the biggest single holder,” one of the sources said in the report. Sources also said Musk had tapped Morgan Stanley to raise an additional $10 billion in debt against Twitter to perform a traditional leveraged buyout.

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LIVESTREAM: Tesla CEO Elon Musk to speak at TED2022

About $20 billion, the bulk of the money, will come from co-investors who will finance a tender offer directly to Twitter shareholders, the New York Post reported last week. Musk may have hinted at this over the weekend when he randomly Tweeted the name of a mid-1960s hit from Elvis Presley.

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The tender offer could come in the next ten days as a rough estimate, the sources said. However, the report said Musk is having trouble finding private equity firms to back the bid, as they would rather stay away from possible political controversies and are perhaps shying away from their inability to control Musk, who is the world’s richest person with a net worth of over $273 billion, according to Forbes.

Musk’s potential Twitter takeover has highlighted the CEO’s focus on the crucial nature of free speech. Musk, during a TED Talk interview last week, said the buyout attempt was inspired by the need for an “inclusive arena for free speech.”

LIVESTREAM: Tesla CEO Elon Musk to speak at TED2022

“The civilizational risk is decreased more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform,” he added.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Ford is charging for a basic EV feature on the Mustang Mach-E

When ordering a new Ford Mustang Mach-E, you’ll now be hit with an additional fee for one basic EV feature: the frunk.

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Credit: Ford Motor Company

Ford is charging an additional fee for a basic EV feature on its Mustang Mach-E, its most popular electric vehicle offering.

Ford has shuttered its initial Model e program, but is venturing into a more controlled and refined effort, and it is abandoning the F-150 Lightning in favor of a new pickup that is currently under design, but appears to have some favorable features.

However, ordering a new Mustang Mach-E now comes with an additional fee for one basic EV feature: the frunk.

The frunk is the front trunk, and due to the lack of a large engine in the front of an electric vehicle, OEMs are able to offer additional storage space under the hood. There’s one problem, though, and that is that companies appear to be recognizing that they can remove it for free while offering the function for a fee.

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Ford is charging $495 for the frunk.

Interestingly, the frunk size varies by vehicle, but the Mustang Mach-E features a 4.7 to 4.8 cubic-foot-sized frunk, which measures approximately 9 inches deep, 26 inches wide, and 14 inches high.

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When the vehicle was first released, Ford marketed the frunk as the ultimate tailgating feature, showing it off as a perfect place to store and serve cold shrimp cocktail.

Ford Mach-E frunk is perfect for chowders and chicken wings, and we’re not even joking

It appears the decision to charge for what is a simple advantage of an EV is not going over well, as even Ford loyal customers say the frunk is a “basic expectation” of an EV. Without it, it seems as if fans feel the company is nickel-and-diming its customers.

It will be pretty interesting to see the Mach-E without a frunk, and while it should not be enough to turn people away from potentially buying the vehicle, it seems the decision to add an additional charge to include one will definitely annoy some customers.

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Tesla to improve one of its best features, coding shows

According to the update, Tesla will work on improving the headlights when coming into contact with highly reflective objects, including road signs, traffic signs, and street lights. Additionally, pixel-level dimming will happen in two stages, whereas it currently performs with just one, meaning on or off.

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

Tesla is looking to upgrade its Matrix Headlights, a unique and high-tech feature that is available on several of its vehicles. The headlights aim to maximize visibility for Tesla drivers while being considerate of oncoming traffic.

The Matrix Headlights Tesla offers utilize dimming of individual light pixels to ensure that visibility stays high for those behind the wheel, while also being considerate of other cars by decreasing the brightness in areas where other cars are traveling.

Here’s what they look like in action:

As you can see, the Matrix headlight system intentionally dims the area where oncoming cars would be impacted by high beams. This keeps visibility at a maximum for everyone on the road, including those who could be hit with bright lights in their eyes.

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There are still a handful of complaints from owners, however, but Tesla appears to be looking to resolve these with the coming updates in a Software Version that is currently labeled 2026.2.xxx. The coding was spotted by X user BERKANT:

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According to the update, Tesla will work on improving the headlights when coming into contact with highly reflective objects, including road signs, traffic signs, and street lights. Additionally, pixel-level dimming will happen in two stages, whereas it currently performs with just one, meaning on or off.

Finally, the new system will prevent the high beams from glaring back at the driver. The system is made to dim when it recognizes oncoming cars, but not necessarily objects that could produce glaring issues back at the driver.

Tesla’s revolutionary Matrix headlights are coming to the U.S.

This upgrade is software-focused, so there will not need to be any physical changes or upgrades made to Tesla vehicles that utilize the Matrix headlights currently.

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xAI’s Grok approved for Pentagon classified systems: report

Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations. 

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Credit: xAI

Elon Musk’s xAI has signed an agreement with the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to allow Grok to be used in classified military systems.

Previously, Anthropic’s Claude had been the only AI system approved for the most sensitive military work, but a dispute over usage safeguards has reportedly prompted the Pentagon to broaden its options, as noted in a report from Axios.

Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations. 

The publication reported that xAI agreed to the Pentagon’s requirement that its technology be usable for “all lawful purposes,” a standard Anthropic has reportedly resisted due to alleged ethical restrictions tied to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons use.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to meet with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in what sources expect to be a tense meeting, with the publication hinting that the Pentagon could designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” if the company does not lift its safeguards. 

Axios stated that replacing Claude fully might be technically challenging even if xAI or other alternative AI systems take its place. That being said, other AI systems are already in use by the DoD. 

Grok already operates in the Pentagon’s unclassified systems alongside Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google is reportedly close to an agreement that will result in Gemini being used for classified use, while OpenAI’s progress toward classified deployment is described as slower but still feasible. 

The publication noted that the Pentagon continues talks with several AI companies as it prepares for potential changes in classified AI sourcing.

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