It's been a busy first week on the stock market for hydrogen-electric truck-maker Nikola.
Even though it hasn't seen any revenue yet, the stock began to soar this week, at one point reaching $88 a share.
During the trading day Wednesday, the young company surpassed Ford's $28.8 billion market cap. Trevor Milton, founder and executive chairman of Nikola Motor Company ($NKLA) told Cheddar, "The market justifies valuation. It's hard to tell someone what a company's worth, but I do know they're rewarding companies that are willing to completely change and transform the industry."
Thursday, the stock was trading lower.
Milton pointed to competitor Tesla as an example, citing the company's consistent losses in revenue but skyrocketing stock prices. "I think that's why there's so much excitement," Milton said, "We're doing the same things for the second-highest polluter in the world, the semi-truck, that Tesla did for the cars."
Nikola's upcoming electric pickup, the Badger, is also sparking interest. It's the truck Milton hopes will one day dethrone Ford's F-150. "I think it's going to be probably one of the most successful pickup truck launches in history," he said. Preorders for the Badger open on June 29 with the company hoping to see them on the road as soon as the end of next year.
When asked about criticism from the notorious short-seller, Andrew Left, Milton said it's valid to question why he sold his own shares of the company for $10, stating that Left never tried to find out for himself why Milton would have done so. "The unfortunate part about it was that he never reached out to ask us," Milton said.
The Nikola founder went on to explain that when the company was raising money in the private sector, and underwent a reverse-merger, he was asked to sell the shares as he moved into the role of executive chairman
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
