SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle a dispute with four former Twitter executives over their dismissal on the day he acquired the social network, now known as X, a court filing said on Wednesday. When the world&#39;s richest man purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, he immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and top legal officers Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett, accusing them of gross negligence and willful misconduct. &lsquo;Rushing the acquisition&rsquo;The four executives sued in federal court in San Francisco in March 2024, seeking $128 million. They alleged they were dismissed without cause and that Musk then tried unsuccessfully to fabricate grievances against them. They also accused him of rushing the Twitter acquisition to deprive them of $200 million in stock options due the following day. The settlement amount Musk is not specified in the provisional agreement submitted to a judge. Subject to conditions&nbsp;It remains subject to several conditions. If those conditions are not met, the lawsuit will resume on October 31. The turbulent 2022 acquisition saw nearly two-thirds of Twitter&#39;s workforce laid off and triggered multiple lawsuits from former employees, clients and contractors. In late August, Musk and X agreed to settle a class action and individual lawsuits filed by thousands of employees seeking severance payments. In March, the billionaire transferred ownership of X to his generative artificial intelligence startup, xAI.

Viral

The world’s richest man settles with four former Twitter executives, fired during his 2022 acquisition, for an undisclosed amount. They sued for $128 million, alleging wrongful termination. The agreement is provisional, pending court conditions.

Musk settles with fired Twitter execs for undisclosed sum

Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday became the first person ever to achieve a net worth of nearly $500 billion, propelled by a rebound in the EV company&#39;s shares and surging valuations of the tech entrepreneur&#39;s other startups this year. His net worth stood at $500.1 billion as of 4:15 p.m. ET, according to Forbes&#39; billionaires index. Musk&#39;s fortunes are closely tied to Tesla, where he held a stake of more than 12.4% as of September 15. The stock has risen more than 14% so far this year and closed 3.3% higher on Wednesday, adding more than $6 billion to Musk&#39;s net worth. After a turbulent start to the year, Tesla shares have trended higher as investor sentiment improved on Musk bringing his focus back to his companies. Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm said last month Musk was back &quot;front and center&quot; at the company after several months at the White House. Just days later, Musk disclosed his purchase of approximately $1 billion worth of the shares, a massive vote of confidence in the future of Tesla as it races to transition from an automaker to an AI and robotics powerhouse. Still, sagging car sales and persistent margin pressures have hurt the stock, making it one of the worst performers in the &quot;Magnificent Seven&quot; group of megacap tech stocks. The Tesla board proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk last month, outlining ambitious financial and operational targets for the CEO while also addressing his demands for a larger stake in the company. Musk&#39;s AI startup xAI and rocket company SpaceX have also scaled their valuations this year. xAI last had a valuation of $75 billion as of July, according to data from Pitchbook. CNBC in September reported the company was eyeing a valuation of $200 billion after a fundraise, but Musk said it was not raising any capital at the time. Bloomberg News reported in July that SpaceX was discussing plans to raise money and sell insider shares in a deal valuing the firm at around $400 billion. Oracle founder Larry Ellison follows Musk as the second-richest person on Forbes&#39; list, with a net worth of about $350.7 billion as of Wednesday.

Business

Elon Musk became the first person to reach a $500 billion net worth, driven by Tesla’s stock rebound and rising valuations of his startups, including SpaceX and xAI, despite ongoing challenges in Tesla’s performance. 

Musk becomes first person to hit $500 billion net worth, Forbes list shows

NEW YORK: YouTube has agreed to pay $22 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump after it suspended his account over the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, according to a court document released Monday. The online video platform, a Google subsidiary, is the latest Big Tech firm to settle with Trump after he went to court in July 2021 over his suspension. Major platforms removed Trump at the time due to concerns he would promote further violence with bogus claims that voter fraud caused his loss to former president Joe Biden in 2020. Wrongfully censored&nbsp;The 79-year-old Republican took social media companies and YouTube to court, claiming he was wrongfully censored. The settlement will go toward Trump&#39;s latest construction project at the White House, through a nonprofit called Trust for the National Mall, which is &quot;dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall, to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom,&quot; per the filing. Trump&#39;s posting privileges were curbed after more than 140 police officers were injured in hours of clashes with pro-Trump rioters wielding flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks and other makeshift weapons, along with Tasers and canisters of bear spray. Lawsuit against X&nbsp;In February, Elon Musk&#39;s X settled for about $10 million, in a lawsuit against the company and its former chief executive Jack Dorsey. In January, days after Trump&#39;s inauguration, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle the 79-year-old Republican&#39;s complaint, with $22 million of the payment going toward funding Trump&#39;s future presidential library. Over $36 billion in revenue&nbsp;Parent company Alphabet reported the online video platform&#39;s ad sales alone accounted for more than $36 billion in revenue in 2024, per its 2025 annual report filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.&nbsp;


YouTube will pay $22 million to settle Donald Trump’s lawsuit over his January 6, 2021 account suspension. The settlement funds will support Trump’s White House construction project via a nonprofit dedicated to the National Mall.


YouTube to pay $22 million in settlement with Trump

US Congressional Democrats released on Friday daily schedules belonging to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2014 to 2019, which show Epstein had plans to meet with Republican donors Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and conservative commentator Steve Bannon. The documents, which Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said came from Epstein&#39;s estate in response to a congressional subpoena, also showed Britain&#39;s Prince Andrew flew on Epstein&#39;s private jet in 2000. No accusations of wrongdoing&nbsp;There were no accusations of any wrongdoing by Musk, Thiel, Bannon or Andrew in the documents released on Friday. The daily calendars do not indicate whether Epstein&#39;s meetings with Musk, Thiel and Bannon in fact took place. In an X post on Friday referencing a news story about the documents&#39; release, Musk wrote: &quot;This is false.&quot;<div class="fr-embed responsive-video"><div class="video-wrapper aspect-video"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1971681164248470018&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=dbafae434be1ef7b8c60e40ab05433b3cc723e4c&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 876px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" data-tweet-id="1971681164248470018"></iframe></div></div></div>A spokesperson for Thiel and lawyers who have represented Bannon and Andrew did not immediately respond to requests for comment. President Donald Trump has been facing criticism in recent months from his conservative base and congressional Democrats over his administration&#39;s handling of the Epstein case. Call for release&nbsp;The Justice Department in early July said it would not make public files from its sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, reneging on earlier promises from Trump and his allies to do so. The Democrats said the documents showed Epstein was friends with &quot;some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world,&quot; and called on the Justice Department to release all the documents from its probe. &quot;Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein&#39;s heinous crimes,&quot; Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for the committee, said in a press release accompanying the documents. &lsquo;No credible information&rsquo;FBI Director Kash Patel said in congressional testimony earlier this month that there was no credible information that Epstein trafficked women and underage girls to anyone but himself. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, to which he had pleaded not guilty. The calendar entries for Epstein&#39;s meetings with Musk, Thiel and Bannon referenced periods that came after he pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution charges in 2008 but before he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. A calendar entry&nbsp;One calendar entry dated December 6, 2014, reads: &quot;Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?).&quot; Epstein at the time owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where many women say Epstein abused them. The documents released on Friday included a passenger list showing Britain&#39;s Prince Andrew flew on Epstein&#39;s private jet from the New York area to Palm Beach, Florida, on May 12, 2000, with Epstein and his longtime partner Ghislaine Maxwell. Flight logs presented as evidence during Maxwell&#39;s 2021 sex trafficking trial showed Andrew had flown on Epstein&#39;s plane on other occasions. Andrew&rsquo;s association&nbsp;Andrew in 2022 settled a US lawsuit brought by the late Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein&#39;s most prominent accusers. In the lawsuit, Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Andrew has denied wrongdoing and said he regrets his past association with Epstein. Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse, and is serving a 20-year sentence. She had pleaded not guilty and is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.

Americas

Democrats release daily calendars provided by Epstein estate. No wrongdoing by Musk, Thiel, Bannon, or Prince Andrew in documents. Authorities say no evidence Epstein trafficked victims to others.

US House Democrats release Epstein schedules showing plans to meet Musk, Bannon

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration on Friday to freeze for now more than $4 billion in foreign assistance appropriated by Congress. The conservative-dominated court said upholding the president&#39;s authority to conduct foreign affairs appears to &quot;outweigh the potential harm&quot; faced by the intended recipients of the aid money. The court said its emergency order was not a final determination on the merits of the case, but it allows for a temporary freeze on disbursement of the funds while the case continues in lower courts. Stakes are &lsquo;high&rsquo;The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Elena Kagan saying the stakes in the case are &quot;high.&quot; &quot;At issue is the allocation of power between the Executive and Congress over the expenditure of public monies,&quot; Kagan said. But Friday&#39;s emergency order was issued with &quot;scant briefing, no oral argument, and no opportunity to deliberate in conference,&quot; she added. The effect of the decision, Kagan said, &quot;is to allow the Executive to cease obligating $4 billion in funds that Congress appropriated for foreign aid, and that will now never reach its intended recipients. &quot;Because that result conflicts with the separation of powers, I respectfully dissent,&quot; she said. Federal spending&nbsp;President Donald Trump, since taking office in January, has sought to exert greater control over federal spending and tasked Elon Musk, the world&#39;s richest person, with downsizing swaths of the US government. Among the chief targets was USAID, the primary organization for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in some 120 countries.

The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to temporarily freeze over $4 billion in foreign aid appropriated by Congress, prioritizing executive foreign affairs power. The decision was opposed by liberal justices.

US apex court allows Trump admin freeze of $4 billion in foreign aid

MIAMI: Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk&#39;s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work. The General Services Administration has given the employees &mdash; who managed government workspaces &mdash; until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on October 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs &mdash; passed along to taxpayers &mdash; to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire. &ldquo;Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,&rdquo; said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.&rdquo; Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA has been in a &ldquo;triage mode&rdquo; for months. He said the sudden reversal of the downsizing reflects how Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had gone too far, too fast. Rehiring of purged federal employee GSA was established in the 1940s to centralize the acquisition and management of thousands of federal workplaces. Its return to work request mirrors rehiring efforts at in several agencies targeted by DOGE. Last month, the IRS said it would allow some employees who took a resignation offer to remain on the job. The Labor Department has also brought back some employees who took buyouts, while the National Park Service earlier reinstated a number of purged employees. Critical to the work of such agencies is the GSA, which manages many of the buildings. Starting in March, thousands of GSA employees left the agency as part of programs that encouraged them to resign or take early retirement. Hundreds of others &mdash; those subject to the recall notice &mdash; were dismissed as part of an aggressive push to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Though those employees did not show up for work, some continue to get paid. GSA representatives didn&rsquo;t respond to detailed questions about the return-to-work notice, which the agency issued Friday. They also declined to discuss the agency&#39;s headcount, staffing decisions or the potential cost overruns generated by reversing its plans to terminate leases. &ldquo;GSA&rsquo;s leadership team has reviewed workforce actions and is making adjustments in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and the American taxpayers,&rdquo; an agency spokesman said in an email. Democrats have assailed the Trump administration&#39;s indiscriminate approach to slashing costs and jobs. Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, the top Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing the GSA, told AP there is no evidence that reductions at the agency &ldquo;delivered any savings.&rdquo; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s created costly confusion while undermining the very services taxpayers depend on,&rdquo; he said. DOGE identified the agency, which had about 12,000 employees at the start of the Trump administration, as a chief target of its campaign to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government. A small cohort of Musk&#39;s trusted aides embedded in GSA&rsquo;s headquarters, sometimes sleeping on cots on the agency&rsquo;s sixth floor, and pursued plans to abruptly cancel nearly half of the 7,500 leases in the federal portfolio. DOGE also wanted GSA to sell hundreds of federally owned buildings with the goal of generating billions in savings. GSA started by sending more than 800 lease cancellation notices to landlords, in many cases without informing the government tenants. The agency also published a list of hundreds of government buildings that were targeted for sale. DOGE&#39;s massive job cuts produced little savings Pushback to GSA&#39;s dumping of its portfolio was swift, and both initiatives have been dialed back. More than 480 leases slated for termination by DOGE have since been spared. Those leases were for offices scattered around the country that are occupied by such agencies as the IRS, Social Security Administration and Food and Drug Administration. DOGE&#39;s &ldquo;Wall of Receipts,&rdquo; which once boasted that the lease cancellations alone would save nearly $460 million, has since reduced that estimate to $140 million by the end of July, according to Becker, the former GSA real estate official. Meanwhile, GSA embarked on massive job cuts. The administration slashed GSA&rsquo;s headquarters staff by 79%, its portfolio managers by 65% and facilities managers by 35%, according to a federal official briefed on the situation. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, provided the statistics on condition of anonymity. As a result of the internal turmoil, 131 leases expired without the government actually vacating the properties, the official said. The situation has exposed the agencies to steep fees because property owners have not been able to rent out those spaces to other tenants. The public may soon get a clearer picture of what transpired at the agency. The Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog, is examining the GSA&rsquo;s management of its workforce, lease terminations and planned building disposals and expects to issue findings in the coming months, said David Marroni, a senior GAO official.

US President Donald Trump gestures, as he boards Air Force One to depart for a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US (Reuters)

The General Services Administration is bringing back hundreds of employees after major job cuts and expensive lease cancellations caused staff shortages and extra costs. The Government Accountability Office is now reviewing the agency’s decisions.

Trump administration rehires hundreds of federal employees laid off by DOGE

NEW YORK: Chipmaker&nbsp;<a href="https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/openai-and-nvidia-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deploy-10gw-of-nvidia-systems" style="color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">Nvidia</a>&nbsp;will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership announced Monday that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centers to ramp up the computing power for the owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. Per the letter of intent signed by the companies, the first gigawatt of Nvidia systems will be deployed in the second half of 2026. Nvidia and OpenAI said they would be finalizing the details of the arrangement in the coming weeks. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1970160403029033286&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Flogin%2F&sessionId=b23bf05197d79a6bca5195207989a0c0a10965b4&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 650px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;"></iframe></div></div>&ldquo;This partnership complements the deep work OpenAI and Nvidia are already doing with a broad network of collaborators, including Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and Stargate partners, focused on building the world&rsquo;s most advanced AI infrastructure,&rdquo; the companies said in a release. Those companies pledged to invest at least $100 billion in building data centers for OpenAI in January. $100B equity stake&nbsp;The Nvidia-OpenAI partnership also comes about 10 days after OpenAI said it had reached a new tentative agreement that will give Microsoft a $100 billion equity stake in its for-profit corporation. OpenAI is technically controlled by its nonprofit. Speaking on CNBC, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the new data centers that Nvidia will build are in addition to the previously announced projects. &ldquo;Building this infrastructure is critical to everything we want to do,&rdquo; Altman said. &ldquo;Without doing this, we cannot deliver the services people want. We can&rsquo;t keep making better models.&rdquo; He said both Nvidia and Microsoft are &ldquo;passive investors,&rdquo; and OpenAI&#39;s nonprofit and board controls the company. Lawsuit&nbsp;OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, and its nonprofit board has continued to control the for-profit subsidiary that now develops and sells its AI products. OpenAI&rsquo;s corporate structure and nonprofit mission are the subject of a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk, who helped found the nonprofit research lab and provided initial funding. Musk&rsquo;s suit seeks to stop OpenAI from taking control of the company away from its nonprofit and alleges it has betrayed its promise to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. Earlier this month, the attorneys general of California and Delaware warned OpenAI that they have &ldquo;serious concerns&rdquo; about the safety of ChatGPT, especially for children and teens. &nbsp;&#39;Deeply troubling&#39;The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, noted &ldquo;deeply troubling reports of dangerous interactions between&rdquo; chatbots and their users, including the suicide of one young Californian after he had prolonged interactions with an OpenAI chatbot. The parents of the 16-year-old California boy, who died in April, sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, last month. OpenAI says it has 700 million weekly active users. Also, just last week, Nvidia announced that it was investing $5 billion in fellow chipmaker Intel, which has struggled to keep up with the frenzied demand for artificial intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence

Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI to expand its AI computing infrastructure, including at least 10 gigawatts of data centers, starting in 2026. This partnership, alongside investments from Microsoft and others, aims to enhance ChatGPT’s capabilities.

Nvidia to invest $100 billion in OpenAI 

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk as the world&rsquo;s richest individual, according to Bloomberg, following a dramatic surge in Oracle&rsquo;s stock fueled by booming demand for artificial intelligence solutions.Oracle&rsquo;s co-founder Ellison wrested the title from Musk early Wednesday as shares in his software giant soared more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading, the Associated Press (AP) reported.At 81 years old, the college dropout is now worth approximately $393 billion, several billion more than Musk, who first became the world&rsquo;s richest person four years ago. Meanwhile, Tesla, one of Musk&rsquo;s largest holdings, has seen its stock decline by 14% so far this year.This shift in rankings followed Oracle&rsquo;s blockbuster earnings report, powered by multibillion-dollar contracts tied to the AI race. The company revealed more than $300 billion in new deals and forecasted a 77% revenue jump from its cloud infrastructure business to $18 billion this fiscal year, with projections soaring to $144 billion within four years.Ellison, who owns about 40% of Oracle, saw his net worth increase by nearly $100 billion within just over half an hour after markets opened.Musk Still Tops Forbes&rsquo; ListWhile Bloomberg lists Ellison as the richest, Forbes still ranks Musk at the top, estimating his net worth at $439 billion compared to Bloomberg&rsquo;s $385 billion. The discrepancy largely stems from different valuations of Musk&rsquo;s private holdings, which include SpaceX and the social media company formerly known as Twitter, now called X.BBC notes Musk held the world&rsquo;s richest title for nearly a year. Tesla&rsquo;s board recently proposed a compensation package that could be worth over $1 trillion if Musk meets ambitious performance targets over the next decade.&lsquo;AI Changes Everything&rsquo;Ellison described Oracle&rsquo;s bold AI-driven projections by stating, &ldquo;AI changes everything.&rdquo;Musk hopes for a similar transformation at Tesla, but he&rsquo;s struggled to reassure investors. Tesla had promised a rebound in electric car sales after sharp declines earlier this year, but the recovery has yet to materialize.Instead, Musk has tried to shift focus to Tesla&rsquo;s robotics and AI technologies behind its cars and robotaxis, downplaying disappointing sales figures.Tesla Sales DeclineTesla&rsquo;s sales in the European Union plunged 40% earlier this summer, marking the seventh consecutive month of declines as customers reacted negatively to Musk&rsquo;s public support of extreme right-wing politicians on X.The company has also been losing market share in the United States, where some buyers have boycotted Tesla showrooms due to Musk&rsquo;s controversial political stances, according to AP.Impact and PerspectiveWith Ellison&rsquo;s soaring fortune, it&rsquo;s estimated he could fund the annual lifestyles of 5 million American families&mdash;roughly the entire population of Florida&mdash;allowing them all to quit their jobs, based on median U.S. household income. Alternatively, his wealth could finance a year-long economic pause for all of South Africa, according to its GDP.

Larry Ellison became the world’s richest person after Oracle’s stock soared on massive AI-driven contracts, while Elon Musk’s net worth declined due to Tesla’s falling sales and controversial public behavior.

Articles tagged with "Elon Musk"