Tesla’s first quarterly sales gain this year comes up short despite China’s subsidies

Tesla posted its first increase in quarterly vehicle sales this year, though the automaker let down investors expecting more of a bump from China boosting electric car subsidies.

The company handed over 462,890 vehicles to customers in the last three months, up 6.4% from a year ago. The deliveries reported in a statement Wednesday came up shy of the roughly 463,900 units that analysts were expecting.

Tesla got a lift during the quarter from China’s government doubling an incentive for drivers to trade in older vehicles for electric models, stoking demand in the world’s largest EV market. This fueled optimism about improving sales and coincided with rising expectations for an Oct. 10 event near Los Angeles, where Musk will unveil self-driving vehicle prototypes.

The jump in deliveries snaps a losing streak for Tesla — vehicle sales slumped in each of the first two quarters of the year. While the Austin-based company has warned it may grow at a notably lower rate this year, it’s teased plans to begin producing cheaper models in the first half of 2025.

OpenAI raises $6.6B in fresh funding

OpenAI said Wednesday it has raised $6.6 billion in venture capital investments as part of a broader shift by the ChatGPT maker away from its nonprofit roots.

Led by venture capital firm Thrive Capital, the funding round was backed by tech giants Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank, according to a source familiar with the funding who was not authorized to speak about it publicly.

The investment represents one of the biggest fundraising rounds in U.S. history, and ranks as the largest in the past 17 years that doesn’t include money coming from a single deep-pocketed company, according to PitchBook, which tracks venture capital investments.

Microsoft pumped up OpenAI last year with a $10 billion investment in exchange for a large stake in the company’s future growth, mirroring a strategy that tobacco giant Altria Group deployed in 2018 when it invested $12.8 billion into the now-beleaguered vaping startup Juul.

Toyota boosts investment in air taxi manufacturer in Santa Cruz by $500M

Toyota Motor Corp. is boosting its investment in air taxi manufacturer Joby Aviation Inc. by $500 million to support plans for commercial production, bringing its total investment in the company to $894 million.

The Japanese automaker said Wednesday it will make the additional funds available to Santa Cruz-based Joby in two tranches, with the first coming later this year and the remainder in 2025.

“With this additional investment, we are excited to see Joby certify their aircraft and shift to commercial production,” Tetsuo Ogawa, head of Toyota’s U.S. operations, said in a statement.

Joby’s shares pared an early gain of as much as 21% to trade up 13% as of 9:53 a.m. in New York. The stock had declined about 28% this year through Tuesday’s close.

The company is one of several eVTOL, or electric vertical take-off and landing, companies that plan to fly customers on short commuter journeys via battery-powered air taxis. Joby said recently it aims to start commercial services in Dubai from late next year.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.