What’s at stake for Tesla’s robotaxi debut

Joining us are the artist Refik Anadol, Kalika Bali of Microsoft, Balu Chaturvedula of Walmart, Jixun Foo of Granite Asia, Simon Chesterman of the National University of Singapore, Kyogu Lee of Supertone, and Geetha Manjunath of Niramai Health Analytix.

We’ll also hear from Weisheng Neo of Qualgro Partners, the artist Niceaunties, Sen Ramani of Accenture, Tim Rosenfield of Firmus Technologies, Rangu Salgame of Princeton Digital Group, Mei May Soo of Dell Technologies, Nigel Toon of Graphcore, and Russell Wald of Stanford University.

More to come, including an agenda. Plan to be in the region? Please register your interest here. Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca

Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Fortune Tech? Drop a line here.

Questions swirl as Tesla nears robotaxi debut

The first driverless Tesla robotaxis may soon begin zipping passengers through the streets of Austin, Texas.

It’s a critical moment for the electric carmaker and its mercurial boss, Elon Musk, who has vowed that Tesla’s transformation into an autonomous car company will begin with the launch.

Tesla has been rushing to get everything in order, but key groups—including Austin’s transportation department, local emergency first responders, and federal regulators—told Fortune they were still missing important information about the self-driving machines set to imminently hit the roads of the Texas capital. 

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

In choosing Austin for its robotaxi debut, Tesla selected a location with looser regulatory requirements than California cities like San Francisco. Its launch is the first phase of a bold robotaxi plan that involves specially designed “cybercabs” with no manual controls. 

Those vehicles aren’t expected to go into production until at least next year, however, and Tesla has said the robotaxis coming to Austin will be slightly modified versions of the Model Y cars the company sells to customers.

The launch is important for the automaker, whose stock is down roughly 16% this year, as sales of its vehicles have fallen in the U.S., China, and Europe following Musk’s controversial role in the Trump White House. And tariffs threaten to impact about a quarter of Tesla’s U.S. fleet.

But Tesla has a history of missing deadlines Musk lays out for the company. In 2019, Musk said that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis out on the roads by 2020; in 2022, he said production of robotaxis with no steering wheels would have started in 2024. —Jessica Mathews

Salesforce drops $8 billion on Informatica

Salesforce’s dramatic pivot to AI agents seems to have stalled in its early days. But the software giant is betting its $8 billion purchase of data management firm Informatica can help turbocharge its transformation. 

“Informatica is a gold mine of data,” Dan Ives, a managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Fortune. “Salesforce is acquiring data, [Informatica’s] customer base, and the ability to cross-sell. And in the AI revolution, data is king.”

Thanks to its core CRM business, Salesforce already possesses an extraordinary amount of data on the world’s biggest companies. 

But the deal suggests Salesforce doesn’t have everything it needs to make its AI-agent platform, dubbed Agentforce, an immediate success. 

The acquisition comes as Salesforce tries to rapidly reinvent itself to prevent its products from becoming obsolete. The software-as-a-service behemoth faces fierce competition when it comes to agentic AI, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft, Anthropic, and a host of others.

But having the best data is only half the battle. Informatica’s strong customer base, which includes over 80% of the Fortune 100, also helps. Salesforce will now have an opportunity to sell Agentforce to these clients, Ives said.

The company reports its Q1 earnings after the bell today. —Greg McKenna

How China’s rare earths monopoly threatens tech

When President Donald Trump targeted China with sky-high tariffs in April, it set up a showdown testing which country could better absorb the economic fallout. 

China, however, holds a trump card: a monopoly on a variety of rare earths, or minerals that are critical to key American industries.

“It’s the biggest gun they have to our heads,” says Evan Smith, CEO of Altana Technologies, which provides supply chain insights to a host of major companies. 

Smith describes the rare earths, which have names like terbium and Yttrium, as “the most important metals you’ve never heard of.” Though they may be obscure, they are essential not just for defense manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman but also tech firms like Apple and auto firms like Tesla.

In the current trade war, China hasn’t outright banned the export of these rare earths, but has introduced a licensing regime that is already introducing supply chain disruptions. 

Ordinarily, U.S. firms would turn to suppliers in other countries but the current system of rare earth production means nearly all of it occurs in China. 

The Department of Defense reportedly has been moving to build a domestic supply chain for rare earths, but these facilities have yet to become fully operational. 

Meanwhile, countries like Japan and Australia are also looking to expand rare earth production. For now, their output nowhere near offsets China’s de facto monopoly—meaning China maintains the upper hand. —Jeff John Roberts

More tech

—FTC vs. Meta is finally a wrap. Standby on an antitrust ruling.

—Circle readies IPO. The offering on the New York Stock Exchange could value the crypto company at $6.7 billion.

—Apple buys a video game studio. Was Sneaky Sasquatch on your M&A bingo card?

—Sharing data with China? TuSimple. The San Diego self-driving truck startup promised to not share sensitive tech with Chinese partners, then reportedly did it anyway.

—EVs sell like hotcakes in Europe. Record sales for automakers not named Tesla.

—Duolingo CEO softens AI push. “I do not see AI as replacing what our employees do.”

—WhatsApp comes to iPad. Your turn, Instagram.

—Volvo layoffs. 3,000 jobs cut, mostly in Sweden, as part of a $1.9 billion cost-cutting plan.

—Industrial giants feel the AI bump. The hottest AI companies in Europe? ABB, Legrand, Schneider Electric, Siemens.

—Blockchain-powered uranium? A German billionaire is bullish.

Endstop triggered