Tesla Shows Off Robot; EV Charging Consolidation; Foxconn Earmarks $1bn

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Tesla Shows Off Robot

On Wednesday Tesla [TSLA] showcased improvements it has made to its humanoid robot prototype. A clip posted on X shows the robot picking up and handling an egg, and finishes with two robots raving to electronic music. In other Tesla news, as of December 31, the Model 3 will no longer qualify for tax credits under new government guidelines, while the company has recalled some 2 million vehicles over autopilot concerns.

EV Charging in the Grips of Consolidation

Reuters has found that the EV charging industry is seeing breakneck consolidation, with at least 85 companies having been bought since 2017, either by energy majors such as Shell [SHEL] or Total [TTE], or other, bigger, charging firms like ChargePoint [CHPT]. Meanwhile, firms in the US and EU are battling for locations: “it’s like a land grabbing game now”, Tomi Ristimaki, CEO of Finnish EV charger manufacturer Kempower [KEMPOWR:HE], told Reuters.

Foxconn Pours Another $1bn into India Site

Foxconn [FXCOF], the world’s leading assembler of iPhones, has won approval to invest an extra $1bn in the plant it is building in India to make Apple [AAPL] products. The firm has already set aside $1.6bn for the site near Bengaluru. Meanwhile, following a spate of hacks and a Wall Street Journal investigation, Apple is implementing a new security setting to protect iPhone users’ data.

Netflix Shares Data, Set to Pull Ahead of Rivals

The streaming behemoth will publish a twice-yearly “comprehensive deep dive” into its viewing figures, with the first report having been published on Tuesday. The most-watched show on Netflix [NFLX] was The Night Agent, which logged 812 million hours in the first half of the year. Elsewhere, Insider Intelligence has predicted that Netflix will pull ahead of Disney’s [DIS] Disney+ next year, Reuters reported, with ad revenue jumping 50.3% to some $1bn.

Jacobs Partners on New French Nuclear Project

US-based services provider Jacobs [J] has been selected to support French start-up Naarea on its new nuclear reactor. Naarea is one of the first companies to have received funding under the France 2030 investment plan, a government project to reboot the country's nuclear industry. Jacobs will support the project with nuclear safety as well as control and instrumentation, among other engineering disciplines.