Good morning. Heard about the new trade war? It’s just like the old trade war.
The President of the United States on Monday again threatened levies of between 25% and 40% for goods imported into the U.S. from more than a dozen countries. Among them: Electronics and automotive giants Japan and South Korea, not to mention rising “not China” tech stars Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The tariffs are set to take effect on August 1…unless, of course, an agreement is reached. (Trump issued similar levies in April, only to lower them to 10%.) To paraphrase what carmaker Kia likes to tell its customers at this time of year: I suppose everyone’s trying to make the most of summer.
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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Meta’s AI talent poaching spree continues at Apple
One of Apple’s brightest AI stars is reportedly jumping ship to Meta.
Ruoming Pang was head of the foundation models team at Apple…that is, until Mark Zuckerberg and Co. offered the widely admired engineer “a package worth tens of millions of dollars per year,” according to a Bloomberg report.
That’s not just a big deal in the Great AI Talent Wars of 2025, but a major setback for Apple, which has rather publicly struggled to keep pace with its Big Tech peers on AI matters.
Pang joined Apple from Alphabet in 2021. As Bloomberg notes, Pang was running “a roughly 100-person team” responsible for the large language models that support the features collectively marketed as Apple Intelligence.
But a rethink of that department’s strategy and leadership has “soured some of the morale” on those teams, according to the report.
At Meta, he’ll rub superintelligent shoulders with Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, the former SSI CEO (and Apple vet) Daniel Gross, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, among others from OpenAI, Anthropic, and more. —AN
Elon Musk’s new politicking push could (again) alienate Tesla shareholders
Elon Musk’s pledge to work round the clock for shareholders lasted just six weeks before the siren call of politics lured him away from his corporate empire.
One day after President Trump signed into law the tax cut and spending bill that had provoked a split of the former power couple, the Tesla CEO said he was forming a third party to end the Republican and Democrat duopoly in Washington.
It marks the return to political activism that many Tesla investors had hoped was firmly behind them following the entrepreneur’s tumultuous spell in the White House.
“Very simply, Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,” warned Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives. “There is a broader sense of exhaustion from many Tesla investors that Musk keeps heading down the political track.”
Shares in Tesla have had a roller-coaster year in 2025, plunging on the back of his controversial government cuts before soaring once more when it became clear he would leave the Trump administration.
On Monday, the stock sunk nearly 7% amid fears the U.S. president could view Musk “more as a foe than a friend now,” as Ives phrased it.
The analyst added that it would not “shock” him if the board gets involved at some point to exert pressure on their CEO.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment by Fortune. —Christiaan Hetzner
CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in $9 billion deal
CoreWeave is trying to deepen its control over the infrastructure powering the AI revolution.
The cloud computing company—which listed on the Nasdaq in March in the biggest tech IPO in years—said Monday that it would spend $9 billion on data center operator Core Scientific.
If the name rings a bell, that’s because Core Scientific has been one of the top Bitcoin mining companies, an activity that requires considerable computing infrastructure.
The price is a 66% premium on Core Scientific shares.
The all-stock deal gives CoreWeave more than a gigawatt of capacity in the U.S., allowing it to shed leases and other expenses, some of which currently go to Core Scientific, as it chases revenue.
And what a pursuit it has been: CoreWeave’s Q1 revenues of $981.6 million were a 420% increase from the same time a year prior.
It’s not the first time the companies considered a tie-up, by the way. CoreWeave offered to buy Core Scientific last year for about $1 billion.
The new deal requires regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q4 of this year. —AN
More tech
—Samsung’s tariff troubles. Its Q2 profit projection of $3.3 billion misses estimates by more than a billion, thanks to U.S. export controls for China.
—The hottest new thing in AI: espionage. Wary of Chinese spies, OpenAI has reportedly added biometric controls and other security layers.
—Jack Dorsey’s new side project. The Block CEO spent a weekend building Bitchat, a decentralized messaging app that uses Bluetooth mesh networks.
—The People vs. Shaun Maguire. More than 600 entrepreneurs and venture capitalists condemned the Sequoia Capital VC’s comments about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City.
—Apple appeals EU’s €500 million fine. The penalty goes “far beyond what the law requires,” the company argues.
—Epic settles with Samsung. The gaming company had sued over third-party app store support.
—Capgemini acquires WNS. It’s $3.3 billion for the Indian business process management firm.
—AT&T exits the media business. Private equity’s TPG has now acquired all of DirecTV.
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