Elon Musk's Chicago Loop May Be Ambitious to a Fault
*By Britt Terrell*
Elon Musk is a man with ideas...a lot of them.
But Vanity Fair's Maya Kosoff wonders if his latest project may be more than he can handle.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO won his bid to build a tunnel from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport, partnering with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to modernize the city's struggling transportation system.
The task, though, may be particularly tricky.
"With public infrastructure, you have contracts with the government, and digging a tunnel underneath the city literally disrupts people's lives. I think it's more impactful so therefore it's kind of the most difficult (problem) to solve," Kosoff said.
The issues are only exacerbated by the fact that the airport link is far from Musk's only project. His SpaceX still aims to send humans to Mars by 2014, and Tesla is developing new cars and trucks, even as it continues to struggle with meeting production targets and burns through cash.
And in her article, ["Is Elon Musk Scamming Chicago?"](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/is-elon-musk-scamming-chicago), Kosoff points out that the cost and the time it will take to construct the Chicago Express Loop may also be far higher than anticipated.
"It's supposed to cost a billion dollars," Kosoff said. "But look at the cost of other public infrastructure projects in the country. It cost a billion dollars to build less than a mile of the expanded Q train on \[New York City's\] Upper East Side."
Musk estimates the 18-mile track will take three years to complete and says his Boring Company - not taxpayers - will foot the bill.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/elon-musks-next-big-endeavor).
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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest supplier of semiconductors, doubled its Q4 revenue forecast and announced a $44 billion investment for expanded chip manufacturing in 2022. Caleb Silver, Editor in Chief at Investopedia, joined Cheddar to discuss the future for the global tech giant. "It has the money. It has the equity. It has the dominance over the market, so not a surprise at all, and it's taking charge as we head into this sort of next phase of advanced chipmaking," Silver said.
Grocery stores are restricting hours and services due to omicron-related labor and supply chain issues. This also comes at a time of labor unrest for supermarket giant Kroger as more than 8,000 workers at its King Soopers chain in Colorado have gone on strike.
Michael Hershfield, Founder & CEO of Accrue Savings, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the company's new round of funding, and its core mission of rewarding consumers for saving rather than taking on more debt with buy now, pay later options.
