*By Jeffrey Marcus*
Tesla's chairman and CEO Elon Musk escaped an attempt by some shareholders Tuesday to strip him of one of his jobs running the electric car company he founded 15 years ago. Musk will remain as chairman after he fended off an effort by an investor group to remove him and oust three board members loyal to him, including Musk's brother Kimbal.
The vote failed by a "super majority," the company said, which is not surprising. Any vote would take two-thirds to pass, and Musk himself reportedly owns one-fifth of the company's shares.
Other developments from the shareholders meeting include:
* Tesla announced plans to build a factory in China, a move that would allow the car company to avoid import tariffs there. The Chinese government recently announced it would allow electric car makers to own factories in China without a domestic partner. Tesla's head of global sales, Robin Ren, said the factory would be in Shanghai, and Musk said the factory would assemble cars and build batteries in the same place, [CNBC reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/tesla-talks-shanghai-factory-at-shareholder-meeting.html).
* With the help of a new third assembly line at the company's California factory, Musk said Tesla will likely be able to produce 5,000 Model 3 vehicles a week by the end of June. The plant is already producing an average of 3,500 week, he said, and the grueling months-long effort to ramp up production has been worth it. "It's been the most excruciating, hellish months I've maybe ever had, but I think we're getting there," Musk said [according to The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/business/tesla-once-a-wall-street-darling-faces-investor-challenge.html).
* Despite fatal crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot feature, the company is pressing ahead, even offering free trials for customers who are not certain they want to spend another $5,000 on a non-existent chauffeur, [Wired magazine](https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-shareholders-meeting/) reported.
* New models are on deck, including the all-wheel drive Model 3, expected to begin limited production later this year; the Model Y, which will go into production in 2020; and the semi truck and the new roadster expected around the same time.
* Musk did not lash out the way he did during Tesla's quarterly earnings call last month, when he antagonized analysts and institutional investors. But it was still an emotional shareholders meeting for Musk, who had his authority challenged and his vision questioned. He got a little choked up, [Reuters reported](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-shareholders/teslas-musk-says-quite-likely-will-meet-model-3-goal-directors-re-elected-idUSKCN1J12YT). "At Tesla we build our cars with love," Musk said. "At a lot of other companies, they're built by marketing or the finance department and there's no soul. We're not perfect, but we pour our heart and soul into it and we really care."
Watch [video](https://www.tesla.com/shareholdermeeting) of the full shareholders meeting on Tesla's website. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/elon-musk-lives-to-fight-another-day-as-chairman-of-tesla).
Stocks closed mixed Friday with big bank stocks dragging on the Dow after a few lackluster earnings reports. Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 gained, but overall, stocks notched a second losing week in a row to start 2022. Tom Kozlik, Head of Research and Analytics at Hilltop Securities, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss today's close, expectations for 2022 earnings reports, whether or not the COVID-19 omicron variant is being properly priced into markets, and more.
After months of investors turning to crypto as a hedge against inflation, instead of the traditional hedge of gold, one crypto exchange is working with a token creator to launch a digital coin backed by a physical asset. GCOIN gives customers a digital title of ownership to 99.99% pure physical gold which is stored in a secured vault. Brent de Jong, GCoin's founder and Kristin Boggiano, Co-Founder and President of CrossTower, a cryptocurrency exchange, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the GCOIN rollout, customer interest, why crypto is used as an inflation hedge, and more.
Retail platform operator and delivery company, Foxtrot,
raised $100 million in a Series C round led by D1 Capital Partners. Foxtrot bills itself as the modern convenience store that combines what it calls in-store curated discovery with 30-minute delivery and 5-minute pickup. Since launching first as a digital-only delivery service, the company has since grown into a popular local retailer, opening 16 brick and mortar locations across Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Foxtrot co-founder and CEO Michael LaVitola joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As Meta and Microsoft ramp up their AR and VR tech futures, analysts have been waiting on word from Apple, but the consumer tech giant is reportedly delaying such an announcement. Doug Astrop, a managing partner at Exponential Investment Partners, joined Cheddar to dive into the rumors about the possibilities of a foray into the metaverse by Tim Cook's megacorp sometime in 2022 or 2023. "We can't really predict with a great deal of certainty how it's going to play out, but I'm confident Apple's going to be a big player and do very well in any scenario that unfolds," said Astrop.
Monster Beverage is charging into the beer and hard seltzer biz with its $330 acquisition of CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective. The energy drink finalized the deal a week after Constellation Brands Inc. made a deal with Coca-Cola to acquire the Fresca brand.
Ford has seen a record 52-week high for its valuation, hitting more than $100 billion for the first time. The rise in its stocks comes amid its push for more electric vehicles, including the highly anticipated F-150 Lightning pickup, coming this spring.
Specializing in AI, robotics, and automation for the global supply chain, Symbotic announced last month it will be tapping the public markets in a SPAC deal with investment giant SoftBank. Symbotic CFO Tom Ernst and Vikas Parekh, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers spoke with Cheddar about going public and the future of modernizing logistics amid the constrained supply networks. "The supply chain is fundamentally broken," said Ernst. "By employing the best in modern technology for autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence, we're able to fundamentally rethink the way in which you receive and store and sort goods, making for a dramatically more efficient supply chain."
JP Morgan Chase beat Q4 earnings estimates, largely attributed to credit card borrowers and corporations. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo also reported strong quarterly earnings and saw a 15 percent growth in its shares for the year.
