Why Corporate America Didn't Hesitate to Go All-In on AI - Tech News Briefing
Large companies have, in the past, been hesitant to leap onto every tech innovation and trend. But WSJ's Steven Rosenbush says the artificial intelligence boom is different. Plus, Waymo is valued at $45 billion dollars, a far cry from Tesla's $1-trillion valuation. WSJ Heard on the Street columnist Dan Gallagher writes that the launch of Elon Musk's robotaxis actually shows why Google's self-driving car company is worth more.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Last-minute changes to Senate's 'big, beautiful bill' stun clean energy industry (and Elon Musk)
The Senate is making a final push to advance President Trump's signature legislation with a flurry of last-minute changes that stunned Elon Musk and the already besieged clean energy industry while offering new support for fossil fuels. The controversy surrounding the bill's energy approach is just one front in a frenzied final push with plenty of additional attention on the price tag after a new weekend tally found that bill has grown by nearly $1 trillion since the Senate took it up. Meanwhile a grueling final Senate push to approve the package cleared a key procedural hurdle over the weekend, with consideration continuing and an amendment process expected to take up much of Monday before a final vote later Monday or perhaps Tuesday. The energy provisions of the 900-plus page bill have come in for particular scrutiny after last minute changes phased out clean energy tax credits faster than expected and also added new taxes on wind and solar projects. At the same time, new last minute inducements were unveiled for fossil fuels, including one classifying coal as a critical mineral when it comes to a government manufacturing credit. "We're doing coal," Trump said in an interview released over the weekend on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" where he also called solar energy projects "ugly as hell." The mix left fossil fuel advocates celebrating and clean energy advocates slamming the bill at a new higher volume. Tesla (TSLA) CEO Musk — who worked in the White House before his dramatic falling out with the president — was perhaps the loudest voice in the latter group. He issued a series of weekend posts calling the bill "utterly insane and destructive [with] handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future." The energy changes came as top-line costs of the deal remained a key point of contention. A nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tally released over the weekend showed the revised bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt. That assessment, which does not include additional interest costs, comes after a similar analysis of the House package found a $2.4 trillion tab. Trump suggested Republicans look past the deficit implications in one of his weekend posts, urging passage as soon as possible saying he also wants to cut costs but adding to lawmakers: "REMEMBER, you still have to get reelected." He also made a case that White House projections of blockbuster economic growth (dismissed by many economists as fantastical) will make the math add up in the end. The focus on energy comes after weeks of debate over Biden-era energy credits. The initial Senate blueprint had offered a slower rollback of clean energy credits for things like solar panels and electric vehicles but last minute changes to the bill put it more in line with the harder line House version which seeks to eliminate the credits sooner. Some provisions are even more immediate with the Senate version proposing to eliminate EV credits by September 30 of this year. And on top of that, a new tax was unveiled when the bill was released that would not just eliminate government help for renewable energy projects — but add a new cost for wind and solar projects completed after 2027 if a certain amount of supplies came from China. The changes stunned many clean energy advocates — not just Musk — with a statement from the American Clean Power Association saying the effect would be to "strand hundreds of billions of dollars in current investments." What that could means for consumers down the road — some concluded — are higher utility bills as currently under construction AI data centers are set to increase electricity demand in the years ahead. Some are even projecting double digit price increases in some utility bills by 2029. An analysis from the left-leaning Center for American Progress found that the bill would exacerbate existing upward pressure on utility prices, with Democratic Senator Brian Schatz adding "we are literally going to have not enough electricity because Trump is killing solar." Fossil fuels advocates meanwhile were largely ebullient at the last minute changes which saw existing fossil fuel focused provisions — around issues like permitting, lease sales, and methane emissions fees — joined by some new credits for these producers including for coal. Senate Republicans say the bill will generate over $15 billion in new federal revenue through expanded oil, gas, and coal leasing with leaders with Senator John Barasso of Wyoming saying "America is an energy superpower and once again, we are going to act like it." The bill is also set to be even more expensive after weeks of negotiations saw expensive compromises on issues like state and local tax (SALT) deductions, more generous business tax credits, and the adjustment of some cost savings around Medicaid. The fullest accounting came over the weekend when the CBO estimated the Senate bill would increase the debt by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034. The analysis also found that 11.8 million additional Americans would become uninsured by 2034 because of the health care provisions — an increase over the findings for the House-passed version that tallied that 10.9 million people would be without health coverage of that version passed. The bill is projected to be even more expensive after things like interest costs are included, with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget protecting the current total tally as in the neighborhood of $3.5 to $4.2 trillion over the next decade. "The debt impact could rise as high as $4.5 trillion if various rumored adjustments are made," the group added of potential additional changes still to come. The findings also come as Senate Republicans push forward on a budget gimmick that is set to hide $3.8 trillion in red ink using a "current policy baseline" that Democrats say violated Senate rules but appears set to proceed. Either way the sky-high debt findings could imperil the bill politically, with two GOP senators already likely to vote no and others not yet saying they will back Trump's effort to get this over the line in the coming hours. The bill will also need to be approved by the House if the amended package advances and is then considered by a bloc of fiscal conservatives there who say they barely voted in May for that less expensive version. One initial comment from the House Freedom Caucus was negative, with the group writing that the new tally was above "our agreed budget framework." Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Motor Trend
22 minutes ago
- Motor Trend
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter AWD Yearlong Review Verdict: Should Your Next Pickup Be a Van?
If you've been keeping up with our Mercedes Sprinter van saga, you know the backstory: My family's pet roster includes a couple of mules, and for years we've owned a pickup truck expressly for equine chores. In 2023, we tested a Nissan Frontier to see if a midsize could sub for our heavy Chevy. This time around we decided to go continental and use the wheeled tool favored by European equestrians, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. We outfitted it like we would a pickup, with all-wheel drive, back seats (crew cab, meet crew van ), and the biggest box possible. Now, with 12 months and over 16,000 miles behind us, it's time to evaluate whether a van is a viable replacement for a pickup truck. Over a yearlong test, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500 AWD van impressed as a pickup alternative with its hauling capacity, fuel economy, and driving comfort. However, it struggled with towing and build quality issues. Despite these, we are convinced a van could replace their pickup in the future. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next Flexible Hauling, Sure. Towing? Not So Much. Our primary truck chore is hauling hay and feed, and for this job the score is vans 1, pickups 0. Hay bales weigh about 100 pounds apiece, and the quantity that can be hauled in a vehicle is limited not just by weight but also by the volume of the bed. Even with our Chevy's 8-foot box, anything more than 10 or 12 bales requires some skilled Tetrising. Not so with the Sprinter, which has 11 cubic feet space behind its rear bench and a 2,988-pound payload, which is well into heavy-duty pickup capacity. No Tetris skills needed here; any clod with a forklift can get 30 bales in the back with room to spare. We tend to stock up on hay about every three weeks, and with the Sprinter, we could have saved a ton of money on fuel by going for hay every three months; the only problem is that our hay shed isn't big enough, and stacking the bales more than three high would require us to have a forklift of our own. After a few half-ton loads, we settled down to our usual six- to eight-bale runs. All in all, the Sprinter shifted nearly six tons of hay and feed, and even with pickup-size loads, the Sprinter diesel's 20.2-mpg average still saved us money over the 12-mpg Chevy (and the 16.4 mpg Frontier). A diesel-powered 2020 Ram 2500 HD we had in our yearlong review fleet returned 17.5 mpg. We also use our pickup to tow our two-horse trailer, and here the Sprinter disappointed us. We had difficulty getting a brake controller installed, though that's no fault of the nifty RedArc Tow Pro we used, which was an easy (and stealthy) install. No, the problem was the powertrain: Although the Sprinter's 5,000-pound tow rating is (just) enough for our loaded trailer, even with a single mule aboard the engine struggled in the hills, and the lack of an engine brake meant we had to rely on the wheel brakes way more than we wanted to. We decided we'd tow the horses with the Sprinter in a pinch, and in January 2025, a pinch came up. We were well clear of most of the fires that hit Los Angeles, but the Hurst fire could have changed directions and headed for the ranch, so we outfitted the Sprinter as our bug-out (or should we say mule-out) vehicle. We hooked up the trailer, loaded hay and supplies, set up a queen-size air mattress, and camped in the Sprinter, literally waiting to see which way the wind blew. No way we could have done that with a pickup truck. When the danger had passed, we put the Sprinter to work running supplies and donations around for our fellow Angelinos who weren't as lucky as we were. Better to Live With Than a Pickup Truck? One thing I was curious about was the creature comforts I'd give up by opting for a van rather than a pickup truck. Pickups have become common as daily drivers, so automakers have trimmed them out accordingly, but vans still seem to be regarded as commercial-grade vehicles. Ram kindly let us borrow a 2500 HD pickup similar in price and equipment to the Sprinter. No question, the interior of the Ram was a great deal nicer, with soft-touch materials where the Sprinter uses industrial plastics. (They did wear well, as did the wooden panels protecting the cargo floor and walls.) The Ram's stereo sounded better, as well. I discovered early on that the Sprinter's size is a huge inconvenience, but with its cruise-ship-size turning circle, the Ram 2500 had its own set of compromises. In terms of driving qualities, this was more of a toss-up than I expected. The truck had a lot more power, largely because it's meant to tow more than three times as much as the Sprinter. The van is pretty poky—10.7 seconds is its 0–60-mph time, though we managed to reduce that to 10.3 by running the right type of diesel fuel—but that was never much of an issue in daily driving. Still, the pickup got to 60 in seven seconds flat and was able to pass with authority on two-lane roads, something I rarely felt safe doing in the Sprinter. Surprisingly, the truck's fuel economy penalty was very slight considering the truck had two more cylinders and more than three times the displacement compared to the Sprinter's engine. The van was a nicer-driving vehicle than I expected, with responsive steering and surprisingly good directional stability—better than the Ram 2500, in fact. But crosswinds were the van's kryptonite. On a day when a pickup might get blown about a bit, the van was a real handful, to the point that a healthy gust could trigger stability control. Scary. One can blame the pickup's wandering steering on its off-road tires, but it turns out the van was pretty capable off-road, as well. We took it on an outing with a Jeep Wagoneer, and the Sprinter went everywhere the SUV did. Its automatic all-wheel-drive system made off-roading simple; just turn off traction control and feed in power until it figures things out and starts moving. The Sprinter's secret weapon is its massive ground clearance, though that also made getting in and out of it a pain, but truth be told the pickup wasn't much easier. The van's driving position was brilliant, and the short hood meant we could see into the cars ahead. (If a Sprinter van honks at you when the light turns green, it's because they can see you're on your phone.) I was rather surprised by the Sprinter's build quality, and not in a good way. Shortly after the van's arrival, I saw steam coming from under the hood, which turned out to be an improperly fit coolant pipe, which was fixed under warranty. When the parking brake stopped holding, the dealer diagnosed leaky rear axle seals that had allowed oil to seep into the mechanism (a drum setup separate from the rear service brakes) and contaminate the shoes. The fix involved replacing not just the parking brake but also most of the rear axle's components. Just before that trip to the dealer, the Sprinter threw a check engine light, which turned out to be from an improperly routed wire that had chafed and shorted. The passenger door was misaligned, but having it corrected would have required a trip to the body shop, and having been without the Sprinter for well over a week, I couldn't spare it any longer—after all, the mules need their hay. I left the door as-is. My primary reason for visiting the dealer was to troubleshoot our trailer brake controller installation. Turns out the van needed a software update to accommodate trailers with LED lights, which draw less power than incandescent bulbs and, in the case of the Sprinter, not enough for the van to detect the trailer. Trailers have been using LED bulbs for, what, 15 years? 20? You'd think this software would be standard by now. The one reason we didn't visit the dealer was for routine maintenance, because we only ran the van up to 16,358 miles, well short of the Sprinter's 20,000-mile oil change interval. Credit the Sprinter's commercial focus; a van can't make money when it's in the shop, so the goal is to keep it away. The Sprinter's engine holds 10.6 quarts of oil, so there's plenty of capacity for dirt. Even so, the Sprinter did ask for a quart of oil at around 12,000 miles. Yes, it asked; the Sprinter's engine has no dipstick. You check the oil through the dash display, and it lets you know when it's down a quart. We called a couple of dealerships to ask about the cost of the 20,000-mile 'A' service, which includes an oil and filter change, fuel filter change, DEF top-off, and general inspection. One dealer quoted $850, another said 'anywhere between $300 and $1,400' depending on what the van needed. The only other fluid we added was diesel exhaust fluid, a total of 12.5 gallons, which cost us $133.75. That averages out to 1,132 miles per gallon of DEF, just over half the consumption of our 2024 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 diesel, which used a gallon of DEF every 579 miles. (That said, DEF usage does go up with higher loads, and we did more towing with the Silverado.) Like oil, the Sprinter asks for DEF when it needs it, starting when the underhood tank is 2.5 gallons low. DEF is sold in 2.5-gallon jugs, so that worked out perfectly. So Can a Van Replace a Pickup Truck, or What? A year of using the Mercedes Sprinter as my pickup truck has made me a van convert. With the notable exception of towing, everything our pickup can do, our Sprinter van did as well or better, including hauling, daily-driving, and off-roading. Yes, I would have liked a more upscale interior, and a year without drive-throughs did not have the intended effect on my waistline I was hoping for. A little more acceleration would have been nice, too. Of course, towing is a critical part of the equation for my own use case, and if we owned a Sprinter, we'd have to invest in a lighter-weight European-style horse trailer. (Most North American trailers have a tack and storage room at the front. European trailers dispense with the tack room, because if you're towing with a Sprinter van, you already have a storage room—the van. It's worth nothing that even with a 5,000-pound trailer, the Sprinter maintains most of its payload capacity.) Still, there are other vans that can tow more. Properly equipped, a Ford Transit can tow up to 7,500 pounds, and the aging Chevrolet Express can tow a trucklike 10,000 pounds. So my one major complaint about our van can be solved. Would I actually invest my own money in a van? Our old Chevy pickup still has plenty of life left in it, but come the day it needs to be put out to pasture, don't be surprised if you see a van parked in its place. For More on Our Long-Term 2024 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter: Our New Pickup Truck Is... A Van? Off-Roading in the Sprinter—There Is No Turning Back This Van Is a Pretty Great Pickup Truck Our AWD Sprinter is Kind of a Pain in the Ass A Mission From Dog Trial by Fire Towing with the Sprinter: It's No Mule Can Different Fuel Make a Sprinter Van Faster? Would You Rather Daily Drive a Huge Pickup or a Sprinter Van?
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What to Expect From Intuitive Surgical's Next Quarterly Earnings Report
With a market cap of $191.3 billion, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG) designs, manufactures, and markets advanced robotic systems that support minimally invasive surgeries. Its flagship products include the da Vinci Surgical System and the Ion endoluminal system, which enhance surgical precision and expand diagnostic capabilities. The Sunnyvale, California-based company is expected to announce its fiscal Q2 2025 earnings results on Thursday, July 17. Ahead of this event, analysts are expecting ISRG to report a profit of $1.52 per share, up 3.4% from $1.47 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company has exceeded Wall Street's bottom-line estimates in the past four quarters. In Q1 2025, Intuitive Surgical surpassed the consensus EPS estimate by 3.7%. Holiday Trading, Trade Negotiations and Other Key Things to Watch this Week Alphabet's Strong Free Cash Flow Makes GOOG Stock a Value Buy Options Flow Alert: Bulls Making Their Move in GOOGL Stock Get exclusive insights with the FREE Barchart Brief newsletter. Subscribe now for quick, incisive midday market analysis you won't find anywhere else. For fiscal 2025, analysts expect the surgical robot maker to report EPS of $6.23, down 3.9% from $6.48 in fiscal 2024. However, EPS is expected to rebound and grow nearly 18% year-over-year to $7.35 in fiscal 2026. ISRG stock has climbed 19.9% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 12.6% gain and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund's (XLV) 8.2% decline over the same period. Shares of Intuitive Surgical rose 1.9% following its Q1 2025 results on Apr. 22, primarily because the company beat analysts' expectations, reporting adjusted EPS of $1.81 and revenue of $2.3 billion. The company placed 367 da Vinci systems, including 147 of its next-generation da Vinci 5 systems. Additionally, the global procedure growth of 17% and a 15% increase in the installed base to 10,189 systems reinforced investor confidence. Analysts' consensus rating on Intuitive Surgical stock is cautiously optimistic overall, with a "Moderate Buy" rating. Out of 28 analysts covering the stock, 19 recommend a "Strong Buy," two have a "Moderate Buy" rating, six give a "Hold" rating, and one "Strong Sell." This configuration is slightly more bullish than three months ago, with 18 analysts suggesting a "Strong Buy." As of writing, ISRG is trading below the average analyst price target of $589.92. On the date of publication, Sohini Mondal did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
