Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | Apr 20 2026 | VIEW ONLINE

Entry valuations are critical to venture capitalists (VCs) because they directly impact potential returns on investment.

The valuation at which a VC enters an investment sets the foundation for their upside potential and risk exposure. |

LINK

What We're Reading:

🚗

Automotive

For generations, working- and middle-class Americans could find an inexpensive, reliable set of wheels to get around. In the 1970s oil crisis, such modest models came to be known as “econoboxes” and surged in popularity, particularly among a large and vibrant middle class. That era is over. The average transaction price for a new car now sits around $50,000. In December, it became just about impossible to find one for less than $20,000. A Honda Civic Hatchback? Most start at $28,000. The Touring Hybrid costs more than $32,000. How about the Chevrolet Trailblazer? On most lots, its price tag approaches $25,000. The Toyota Corolla? The Hybrid trims start around $26,000. Forget the Chevy Malibu; it was discontinued last year. While politicians and economists scratch their heads at voters upset about affordability in a decent economy, they seem to somehow miss the fact that for most Americans, the purchase of a car has become a debt sentence. To fix the problem, policymakers must overturn what has been for decades the third rail in American politics. It is time to stop coddling Detroit automakers and accept that “tariff” is not, as President Trump would say, “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” by opening the American market to cars made in China and elsewhere. | The New York Times ($)

A senior executive who led Ford Motor Company’s push into electric vehicles and software will leave the company next month, Ford said on Wednesday. The executive, Doug Field, joined the automaker in 2021 after serving in top jobs at Apple and Tesla. At Ford, he worked on electric vehicles that the company said would be affordable and technologically sophisticated enough to compete with Chinese models that dominate the market for such cars in most of the world. His departure was unexpected and could force Ford to again rejigger its faltering electric vehicle operation, which has racked up billions of dollars in losses. Last year, the company said it would cancel some models and write off around $20 billion in investments in the technology. In recent months, Mr. Field often spoke publicly about the technical progress that Ford was making. He created and led a small engineering group in California that developed components for a new family of electric cars and trucks. The first of those vehicles, a pickup truck, is expected to go on sale next year at a starting price around $30,000. Before Ford, Mr. Field worked on Apple’s secretive project to build a self-driving electric car. He also held senior roles at Tesla when it was trying to establish itself as a viable automaker. Mr. Field started his career as an engineer at Ford decades earlier. | The New York Times ($)

As fuel prices rise, a new technique of gas theft is spreading. With simple tools, thieves are “drilling and draining" fuel from vehicles, leaving drivers with costly repair bills. Thieves have found a newly popular way to steal gas: just drilling a hole. All the thief would have required was a few minutes alone with a handheld electric drill and a gas can — or even some milk jugs. This sort of drilling-and-draining thievery appears to be increasingly common as the war with Iran has pushed gasoline prices to their highest level in four years, and as older — and less-destructive — methods of stealing fuel have gotten harder to pull off. | The Washington Post ($)

The Pentagon has met with senior executives of Ford and General Motors to gauge whether the auto industry could help the military acquire vehicles, munitions or other hardware more quickly and at lower costs, according to three people familiar with the talks. The conversations are in the very early stages, and relate to the possible production of components by the companies, not entire weapons systems. No specific projects are currently being negotiated, the people said. The discussions with automakers underscore Trump administration efforts to revamp military procurement as the war in Iran and U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia deplete supplies. The idea is reminiscent of World War II, when G.M., Ford and other automakers supplied the military. | The New York Times ($)

After President Trump’s auto tariffs took effect a year ago, General Motors pledged about $5 billion in new U.S. investments to boost domestic production to more than two million vehicles a year. Chief Executive Mary Barra has praised Trump’s levies as a tool to level the playing field. But the tariff math still works for GM to build plenty of vehicles halfway around the world in South Korea. The biggest U.S. automaker by sales volume has greenlighted roughly $600 million in new investments to bring Korean production back to full capacity of nearly half a million vehicles. Roughly 90% of the Chevrolet and Buick subcompact sport-utility vehicles made in South Korea get exported to the U.S., analysts say. The current 15% U.S. tariff on South Korean autos alone adds roughly $2,000 to the cost of each vehicle, according to HSBC estimates. That is a considerable hit because the base models of these vehicles start at around $22,000 to $32,000 in the U.S. and margins tend to be slim. Yet GM’s doubling down on South Korea shows that it still can be cost-effective to manufacture overseas in the era of Trump’s tariffs. GM Korea directly employs roughly 12,000 workers and operates three factories in the country. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The more than 3 million U.S. truckers who move goods for everything from grocery stores to factories to construction sites are grappling with the highest diesel prices in years, compounding pressure on the industry as Iran war-related oil price spikes also threaten to weaken freight demand. Diesel is the second-largest operating expense for truckers and the national average retail price has jumped $1.89, or 50%, since the start of the ‌Iran war effectively halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global energy flows. Crude oil prices, which underpin diesel and gasoline, also surged, driving up transportation costs and prices for many consumer goods. Trucking is a barometer of how the U.S. economy is doing. In 2024, the industry moved 11.3 billion tons of freight - nearly three-quarters of the national total, including manufactured and retail goods - and generated $906 billion in revenue, according to American Trucking Associations. As of Monday, U.S. fleets on average spent $5.52 per gallon on diesel, surpassing the prior all-time high of $5.50 set in June 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to data from fleet management technology provider Samsara. The firm's fuel spend data, which ⁠accounts for discounts and surcharges, is from more than 5,500 fleets of all sizes across the entire U.S. and represents nearly 1 billion gallons of fuel purchases. | Reuters ($)

For four months during the 1970s oil crisis, a country synonymous with powerful engines and driving freedoms did the unthinkable: West Germany (as it was then) imposed a 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) speed limit on the Autobahn to conserve fuel. Today, with the Strait of Hormuz oil route still effectively closed by the Iran war and prices at the pump soaring, should it do so again? Environmental groups and leftist politicians think it’s time Germany abandoned its attachment to fast driving. The International Energy Agency (IEA) agrees. Germany isn’t at immediate risk of running out of petrol or diesel, but its laissez-faire approach toward speeding feels outdated. It’s the only major economy that lets people drive as fast as they like on the highway. Slowing down would save lives and lower fuel consumption, thereby reducing planet-heating pollution and the country’s dependence on imported hydrocarbons. | Bloomberg ($)Aito vehicles’ manufacturer Seres has officially been granted a utility model patent for an “in-vehicle toilet and vehicle,” with authorization announcement number CN224104011U. According to the patent abstract, the device consists primarily of a toilet body and a sliding rail assembly. The sliding rail assembly includes a fixed track installed on the upper portion of the toilet body, while the sliding track features a structure for connecting to the vehicle seat. When needed, the toilet can be pulled out from beneath the seat and pushed back for concealment after use, occupying minimal interior space. | Car News China

⚡️

EVs

New electric vehicle registrations fell 37% in February from a year earlier, pushing share below 5%, as the loss of tax incentives continued to ripple across the U.S. light-vehicle market. EV registrations totaled 56,726 in February and their share of the light-vehicle market dipped to 4.8% from 7.2% a year earlier. The data does not include hybrids.Without the federal tax credit that expired Sept. 30, the EV market better reflects organic demand for new technology consumers are warming up to slowly, analysts said. | Automotive News ($)

Extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) are the car industry’s new hope for quieting the doubts of American drivers who are wary of going electric. “It takes away the range anxiety,” Jeremy Michalek, the director of the Vehicle Electrification Group at Carnegie Mellon University, says. “When you want to go on a long trip, you can still put liquid fuel in it and continue to drive for longer distances.” But for all the upside, gas-burning electric cars are not quite the future that we were promised. Just last year, the new Ram 1500 REV was slated to be fully electric, with no gas engine to be found. Ford Motor Company recently killed the electric F-150 pickup truck and is now promising to bring it back as—you guessed it—an EREV. These new hybrids are the latest sign that the electric revolution has not exactly gone according to plan. Sales of EVs, true electric vehicles, had been growing slowly in the United States, but they’ve slid in the past six months, plagued by high prices and attacks from the Trump administration. Automakers have responded by canceling and delaying new EV models. Last month, for example, Honda announced that it would halt the development of three new EVs; a few days later, Volvo Cars said it would discontinue its affordable electric SUV, citing “shifting market conditions.” Other car companies, having invested billions into building EVs, are trying to find new ways to persuade Americans to take a chance on big batteries and electric motors. That’s where extended-range EVs come in. By throwing in a backup generator, the car industry hopes that it can finally appeal to pickup drivers, who have been especially resistant to going electric. Of the 16 EREVs that are set to hit the market within the next three years, all are trucks or SUVs. “For American brands at the moment, I think it’s an admission that maybe, especially for big trucks and SUVs, EVs can’t deliver the type of utility and the performance that their customers demand,” Joseph Yoon, a consumer-insights analyst at the car-buying site Edmunds, says. Indeed, electrifying the full-size American pickup truck has proved to be a particularly tough problem. Because these vehicles are so big and heavy, electric versions need colossal batteries to move them. That raises the price, and drivers are still sometimes left with subpar performance: Towing a boat or trailer severely dings their battery range. | The Atlantic ($)

Jeff Bezos-backed electric vehicle startup Slate Auto has raised another $650 million as the company prepares to put its first affordable pickup trucks into production by the end of 2026. The carmaker said Monday that the Series C funding round was led by TWG Global, a firm run by Guggenheim Partners chief executive (and Los Angeles Dodgers owner) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull. Slate Auto’s press release thanked “visionary investors” but the company did not name any others who were involved in the fundraise. The new round means Slate Auto has raised roughly $1.4 billion to date. Previous investors have included General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co., and former Amazon executive Diego Piacentini, as TechCrunch first reported last year. | TechCrunch ($)

Carmakers and battery companies facing a weak U.S. market for electric vehicles are scrambling to repurpose battery factories to make energy-storage systems to fuel AI's thirst for power instead. But converting plants to new types of batteries won’t be easy, nor will the demand for energy storage materialize fast enough to absorb a glut of unused factory space for EV batteries. The expected surge in demand for electricity and energy storage comes at ‌an opportune time for automakers like General Motors and Ford Motor Company and their battery suppliers -- Asian manufacturers that include Japan's Panasonic Holdings, and South Korea's Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution. These companies over the past decade spent or earmarked more than $100 billion toward battery factories to feed a U.S. electric-vehicle market that has been decimated by the Trump administration’s pro-fossil-fuel policies. Stationary storage systems use lithium-ion battery cells – similar to those in EVs – that store power often generated by renewable sources like solar and wind, and release it during times of high demand or grid stress. U.S. demand is expected to grow partly to support data centers and cloud computing, which draw gobs of electricity. | Reuters ($)

🇨🇳

China

Ford's Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley says allowing Chinese automakers to sell their cars in the U.S. would be "devastating" to American manufacturing. Farley contends that Chinese carmakers have an unfair advantage due to "huge direct support" from their government, which enables them to slash prices and potentially decimate domestic automakers in the U.S. Farley also warns of national security risks from allowing technology-laden Chinese vehicles to navigate U.S. roads, citing their ability to collect a lot of data with features such as cameras. | Bloomberg ($)

The countries that prevail in great-power rivalries are those that adapt. Athens and Sparta and their allies constantly innovated so their navies could outperform one another. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union spent nearly two decades engaged in a space race. Now, technology is the central front in U.S.-Chinese competition and in the broader contest to shape the world, and the United States must adapt again. This rivalry is playing out across frontier sectors including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy. To prevail, Washington needs a clear definition of success and a clear and consistent strategy for how to achieve it. For decades, U.S. policy toward China rested on a quiet but powerful assumption: Beijing was essentially running the same race as the United States, just a few steps behind. China was seen as a copycat—adept at imitation, lagging on innovation, and ultimately dependent on access to Western technology. The American lead was assumed to be durable, perhaps even self-sustaining. That assumption has not been borne out. China has moved beyond simply chasing American innovation. It is pursuing a different theory of power: one that places production, scale, and control of critical inputs at the center of its national strategy. As the United States has focused more narrowly on maintaining its lead in innovation breakthroughs, confident that these would cascade naturally into economic, military, and soft power, China has focused on the cascade—aiming to translate technological advances into applied capabilities across its economy and national security enterprise. In other words, while the United States has been running one race, China has been running another. Although this shift unfolded gradually, its consequences are now impossible to ignore. In sector after sector, China has built or is building dominant positions in many of the foundational layers that underpin the modern economy. Americans tend to see the competition as a race to a finish line—a contest to see which country reaches the next exciting innovation first. But that framing is misleading and counterproductive. This contest has no end date. Success will not manifest as a single moment of triumph with one side declaring victory. Nor will it come from running fast in a single lane. Instead, this competition will extend indefinitely, across a wide variety of sectors. It is no longer enough to be the first to discover new advancements if others are faster at deploying them, or to lead in design if the inputs and capacity vital to production sit beyond the control of the United States or its allies. Washington’s goal must be to establish all these forms of advantage at once. | Foreign Affairs ($)

Twenty years ago the global economy was shaken by a first “China shock” as a wave of low-cost goods destroyed the business models of manufacturers in advanced economies, displacing millions of workers and feeding discontent that fuelled populist politicians including U.S. President Donald Trump. Now a second shock is under way — one that is even more threatening to China’s trading partners: an assault on high-end manufacturing. Vicious domestic competition, coupled with vast industrial scale, ample pools of engineering talent and some of the highest subsidies in the world, has generated world-beating Chinese champions in EVs, solar panels, batteries, wind turbines and a lengthening list of advanced manufacturing sectors. But the same forces that forge those companies also tend to generate overcapacity, crushing margins at home while flooding global markets and fuelling trade tensions. Aided by an undervalued exchange rate, Chinese groups are cutting a swath through the most advanced industries around the planet. | Financial Times ($)

Western automakers are ceding control of software-defined vehicle development to external partners while Chinese rivals build critical in-house capabilities, creating a competitive gap that widens each quarter, according to an AlixPartners survey of around 1,000 automotive executives in Europe, North America and Asia. “SDVs are the very future of the global auto industry, and right now that future is being controlled to a much greater degree than many people know by Chinese automakers and technology companies,” Himanshu Khandelwal, a partner and managing director in the automotive and industrial practice at global consulting firm AlixPartners, told journalists in a webinar. “This isn’t a technology race anymore,” Khandelwal said. “This is about control. Western automakers are outsourcing control to external partners, while Chinese competitors build in-house capability where it matters most.” Mainland Chinese automakers are making faster and more consistent strides in SDV development and software scalability than most global automakers because they possess a unique combination of cultural, structural, technological and market advantages that favor rapid software-driven innovation, according to S&P Global Mobility. | Automotive News ($)

Renault will cut up to 2,400 engineering jobs over the next two years, slashing its engineering workforce by as much as 20 percent as it races to match Chinese rivals’ lower costs and faster development times. Like other European automakers, Renault is facing increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers such as BYD. Chinese players are known for their low costs and faster development times. Renault CEO Francois Provost has said the group should mirror the Chinese methods. Renault relied on Chinese parts and its research and development operations in Shanghai to help cut the development time of its new Twingo to 21 months. Provost has pledged to apply the lessons learned in China at its R&D hubs in France, notably at the the sprawling Technocentre complex near Paris. | Automotive News ($)

Stellantis is discussing reviving a partnership with Dongfeng Automobile that would involve joint car production in Europe and China, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies are in talks about giving Dongfeng access to underused Stellantis factories in Europe, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Dongfeng may, in turn, make cars in China from selected Stellantis brands, some of the people said. Representatives for the state-owned automaker visited sites in Germany and Italy recently, some of the people said. The deliberations include Dongfeng possibly acquiring or investing in one or more European plants at a later stage, they added. The talks with Dongfeng are part of a bigger push by Stellantis to bolster its business, which is grappling with uneven demand and intensifying competition from rivals including Volkswagen Group and BYD. Stellantis executives also previously met with China’s Xiaomi Technology and XPENG to discuss overhaul options, Bloomberg reported last month. While those talks have not yet produced an agreement, Stellantis may still make deals with more than one Chinese company, the people said. The automaker has been working with Leapmotor on sales in Europe and is considering using more of that partner’s technology to strengthen its mass-market brands such as Fiat and Opel. | Automotive News ($)

Nissan has held talks with China’s CHERY about building cars at the Japanese automaker’s plant in Britain, the Financial Times reported. Nissan discussed a partnership with Chery to increase the utilization rate of its Sunderland factory, which is currently operating at about 50 percent capacity, the report said, citing four people with knowledge of the talks. Nissan has also held discussions with numerous other companies about using the plant, the newspaper said in an April 16 report, adding that talks with the Chinese state-owned automaker may not materialize in a deal. | Automotive News ($)

A worker-rights group said it found evidence of labor violations at BYD’s new plant in Hungary, where the Chinese electric-vehicle maker plans to start mass-producing cars this quarter. China Labor Watch, a New York-based nonprofit organization, said its investigation discovered practices amounting to debt bondage, illegal visa use and grueling working hours affecting some Chinese migrant workers hired by subcontractors and recruiters, according to a report published on the organization’s website on April 14.China Labor Watch said it conducted field investigations, engaging with 50 workers, in October and November after receiving a complaint from a whistleblower at BYD’s Hungarian plant. | Automotive News ($)

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil rose to power by fighting for the rights of workers. Now, in an awkward twist, his government is being accused of stifling concerns about labor abuses by a major Chinese carmaker. The crisis comes after Mr. Lula’s government dismissed a top labor ministry official just days after he added the Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD to a national registry of employers accused of subjecting workers to conditions similar to slavery. The episode has placed the government of Mr. Lula, a former union leader who co-founded the leftist Workers’ Party, in an uncomfortable position. And it has highlighted the growing prominence of Chinese automakers in Brazil, where they have made an aggressive push by pouring billions into building plants and expanding EV sales. Brazil’s labor minister, Luiz Marinho, said the dismissal of his top labor inspection official, Luiz Felipe Brandão de Mello, was a routine personnel change but declined to say whether it was related to BYD. | The New York Times ($)

Geely Auto Group is unifying its European R&D operations and plans to double its European vehicle projects by 2027. The aim of the moves is to reduce the development time gap between China and European launches to less than six months from a year or more. Geely will combine its engineering teams in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Frankfurt, Germany, to create Geely Technology Europe, which will support Chinese brands Zeekr Europe, Lynk & Co and Geely Auto via closer integration with Geely Auto’s China-based research teams. Creating a unified, capable R&D organization represents a “strategic evolution” rather than a fix for organizational problems, Geely Technology Europe CEO Giovanni Lanfranchi told Automotive News Europe. This is driven by Geely Auto’s goal of establishing Europe as a key strategic market alongside China. Geely’s goal of compressing the time between model launches in China and Europe to less than half a year is “ambitious,” Lanfranchi said. Currently, it takes 18 to 24 months to do this. For example, the BYD Dolphin Surf that debuted at the 2023 Shanghai auto show made its Europe debut last summer. | Automotive News ($)

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) accounts for more than 40 percent of the world’s electric vehicle battery market and, amid competitive pressure, has managed to maintain relatively strong profitability, with an operating margin of 18 percent. But that much is not new. What may be changing is how investors view its expanding presence in sectors outside EVs. One of them is energy storage systems where demand for grid scale storage and data centre backup power has been growing. Demand is also supported by rising volatility in energy markets. That increases the value of storage: users can load batteries up when prices are low and discharge when prices are high. Unlike EV batteries, these systems involve long-term contracts and closer integration with ongoing customer operations. Profitability is typically lower than that available on EV batteries, as engineering and connections are costlier, but they are more stable and less exposed to the cycles that affect the car industry. A more nascent area for growth lies in shipping. CATL has pledged to electrify parts of the global maritime fleet and has already deployed batteries on around 900 vessels. Electrification is best suited to smaller craft operating close to the coastline, where batteries can compete economically. Long-distance shipping remains dominated by alternative fuels such as methanol and hydrogen. Regulatory pressure related to the International Maritime Organization’s target of a 50 percent cut in shipping emissions by 2050 should add a tailwind. While unlikely to match the scale of EVs, maritime electrification offers CATL exposure to another reliable source of demand. As with energy storage systems, clients in this segment also require integrated systems. That means more stable and ongoing servicing-related revenues. | Financial Times ($)

🚖

Autonomy & Robotics

Uber has committed more than $10bn to buying thousands of autonomous vehicles and taking stakes in their developers, breaking from its asset-light “gig economy” business model to avoid disruption from robotaxis. The ride-hailing app has aggressively increased its dealmaking over the past year, announcing partnerships with more than a dozen providers, including China’s Baidu, Inc., and U.S.-based Rivian, as well as plans to launch robotaxi services in at least 15 cities in 2026. These deals put Uber on track to invest more than $2.5bn in equity stakes and spend over $7.5bn on robotaxi fleets in the next few years, according to Financial Times calculations based on analyst estimates and people familiar with Uber’s deals. The agreements are contingent on its partners hitting certain deployment milestones. Uber’s investments mark a striking reversal for a company synonymous with the gig economy model that emerged from Silicon Valley more than a decade ago. The group upended the taxi industry by pioneering an asset-light approach that relied on drivers using their own vehicles to ferry passengers. | Financial Times ($)

Why the economics of commercial robotics favor purpose-built machines over bipedal generalists. | Siddharth Ramakrishnan

🤖 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Should a handful of men be entrusted with the world’s most potent new technology? Five geeks so famous that they can be identified by their first names—Dario, Demis, Elon, Mark and Sam—exercise almost godlike command over the artificial-intelligence models that will shape the future. The Trump administration has stood aside even as those models have gained jaw-dropping capabilities, convinced that unfettered competition between private firms is the best way to ensure America wins the AI race against China. Until now. Suddenly, America’s free-wheeling treatment of AI looks as if it is coming to an end. The reason is that the models’ dizzying progress also poses a threat to America’s own national security, unnerving members of the Trump administration previously more inclined to worry about overregulation. At the same time, growing resentment among American voters is turning AI into a political lightning-rod. A laissez-faire approach is no longer politically tenable or strategically wise. | The Economist ($)

Dario, Demis, Elon, Mark and Sam. The five most important people in artificial intelligence are so famous that first names alone are enough to identify them. Politicians and journalists hang on their every word. ChatGPT, run by Sam Altman’s OpenAI, has more than 900m weekly users. Dario Amodei’s Anthropic has developed an AI model so good at hacking it has caused panic among policymakers. Demis Hassabis, head of Google’s AI efforts, has won a Nobel prize for his scientific research. Elon Musk, who runs xAI, among other businesses, is the richest person alive. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has created the West’s most popular family of open-source models, and is spending enormous sums on AI researchers in an attempt to catch up to the technology’s frontier. In a very real sense, these five men hold the fate of Western civilization in their hands. Already the American military uses their AI tools, with some of the tycoons (Mr Altman and Mr Musk) showing more enthusiasm for this than others (Mr Amodei). Some economists believe that AI will eventually supercharge economic growth. Others say it will put millions out of work. Plenty of people fret that it might end humanity altogether. Not since the splitting of the atom has a new technology created such angst. It is unnerving that so few men wield such awesome power, particularly men as opportunistic as Mr Altman or as volatile as Mr Musk. But it is hardly unprecedented. AI’s famous five are but the latest example of a common phenomenon in the history of Western capitalism. There are many examples where a small cluster of men has pushed new technologies forward—not necessarily by inventing them, but by bringing them to the masses. In the process, they have accrued enormous power. | The Economist ($)

OpenAI plans to start pricing some ChatGPT ads based on whether people click on the ads rather than just how many people see them, an agency executive who spoke with OpenAI employees and works with ChatGPT advertisers said. At the same time, OpenAI has also indicated it plans to introduce ads aimed at getting people to take a specific action, like making a purchase or downloading an app, the agency executive said, though it hasn’t put a firm timeline on when that could happen. The discussions reflect OpenAI’s efforts to make ChatGPT more appealing for marketers as it chases its ambitious growth targets and looks to challenge Meta Platforms Ltd and Google. | The Information ($)

Chatbots are employed every day as teachers, counsellors, coders and escorts. Now they are taking on another role: salesmen. Advertisements are popping up ever more frequently in users’ conversations with large language models, punctuating chats with promotions. Consumers’ search queries, editing sessions and even intimate moments are increasingly at risk of interruption by sponsored messages. As chatbots become adbots, the future of two industries is at stake. For the artificial-intelligence business, ads represent a way to monetise a wildly expensive invention that most people currently use free of charge. For the ad industry, adbots are a possible answer to the existential question of how advertising will work if users move away from conventional search engines. Although it is early days, the outlines of a new kind of marketing are emerging. | The Economist ($)

Stanford University has published their "2026 AI Index Report," and it shows that the U.S.-China AI model performance gap has effectively closed. U.S. and Chinese models have traded the lead multiple times since early 2025. In February 2025, DeepSeek AI-R1 briefly matched the top U.S. model, and as of March 2026 Anthropic’s top model leads by just 2.7%. The U.S. still produces more top-tier AI models and higher-impact patents, while China leads in publication volume, citations, patent output, and industrial robot installations. U.S. private AI investment reached $285.9 billion in 2025, more than 23 times the $12.4 billion invested in China—though looking at just private investment figures likely understates China’s total AI spending, given its government guidance funds. The U.S. also led in entrepreneurial activity with 1,953 newly funded AI companies in 2025, more than 10 times the next closest country. However, the number of AI researchers and developers moving to the U.S. has dropped 89% since 2017, with an 80% decline in the last year alone. | Stanford University

The software bug was capable of crashing an operating system used by firewalls, servers and network appliances. It went undetected for over 27 years. Last month, it was caught by Mythos, the latest AI model from Anthropic that has spooked the White House, banking executives and cybersecurity professionals around the world. Welcome to the bug armageddon. AI models like Mythos and others are finding bugs in older software at a rate never seen before. While most of the coding issues may be minor, their sheer volume has amplified the risk that smaller software developers will become overwhelmed with reports of bugs such as the one Mythos found. Thanks to AI, hackers will be able to leverage those bugs more quickly than ever before. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

In recent years, many nations have quietly engaged in a contest of one-upmanship over A.I.-backed autonomous weapons and defense systems, including drones that identify and strike targets without human command, self-flying fighter jets that coordinate attacks at speeds and altitudes that few human pilots can reach, and central systems run by A.I. that analyze intelligence to recommend airstrike targets quickly. The United States and China, the world’s largest military powers, are at the center of the competition. But the race has widened. Russia and Ukraine, now in their fifth year of war, are looking for every technological advantage. India, Israel, Iran and others are investing in military A.I., while France, Germany, Britain and Poland are rearming amid doubts about the Trump administration’s commitment to NATO. Each nation is aiming to amass the most advanced technological stockpile in case they need to fight drone against drone and algorithm against algorithm in ways that people cannot match, defense and intelligence officials said. Russia, China and the United States are all building A.I. arms as a deterrent and for “mutually assured destruction,” Palmer Luckey, Anduril Industries’ founder, said in an interview in February. | The New York Times ($)

✈️

Aviation & Space

A new set of numbers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX makes it clear that the success of its potential initial public offering will depend on investors embracing the growth of the company’s Starlink satellite internet business. The other two businesses inside SpaceX—rocket launches and AI—are burning cash and not generating the kind of growth that makes investors willing to pay the staggering valuation Musk is seeking, according to previously unreported financial figures viewed by The Information. SpaceX’s Starlink internet connectivity business generated $11.4 billion in revenue, growing 50% from the prior year and generating 61% of the company’s overall sales, according to the financial figures. The business line was the only one generating cash, the figures indicate. Starlink’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization as well as stock-based compensation were $7.2 billion last year, meaning the adjusted Ebitda margin on those sales was 63%, rising from 41% in 2023 and 50% in 2024. SpaceX’s space and AI businesses have shrinking margins and are burning cash as the company invests in its next rocket and in data centers. | The Information ($)

One of the biggest takeaways of the war with Iran is that it has proven itself to be a surprisingly capable adversary against the United States. In addition to its willingness to go on the offensive, Iran has forced the U.S. and its regional allies to confront the rise of cheap drones on the battlefield. Iranian drones, made with commercial-grade technology, cost roughly $35,000 to produce. That is a fraction of the cost of the high-tech military interceptors sometimes used to shoot them down. Cheap drones changed the war in Ukraine, and they have enabled Iranians to exploit a gap in American defense investments, which have historically prioritized accurate but expensive solutions. Countering drones has been a major priority for the Pentagon for years, according to Michael C. Horowitz, who was a Pentagon official in the Biden administration. “But there has not been the impetus to scale a solution,” he said. | The New York Times ($)

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Car of the Week": a 1957 Porsche 550 Spyder. | duPont Registry

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

Forwarded this email and not yet a subscriber?

Subscribe Now

📰 In The News

📢

Steve was quoted in China Daily News. | China Daily News

📢

On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News, we discuss a recent John Deere settlement related to "Right to Repair" and implications on the wider automotive industry. | CBT News ($)

Enjoying this newsletter? Please share with others!

👀 Automotive Ventures Company to Watch

CarGenius - AI is reshaping every step of the car-buying journey. Smart dealers are acting now to own the conversation - feeding AI agents the right data while bringing AI power to their own sites. | CarGenius

🎪 Upcoming Industry Events

ETI ToolTech 2026Apr 20-23 | Palm Harbor, FLSpeaker(Link)Commercial Vehicle Business SummitApr 22-23 | Virtual EventSpeaker(Link)Fixed Ops RoundtableMay 11-15 | Virtual EventSpeaker(Link)FIS Emerald VelocityMay 4-7 | Orlando, FLSpeaker(Link)ASOTU-CONMay 12-14 | Hanover, MDSpeaker(Link)