Every company is established to fix frictions in the market. To fix those frictions, companies must acquire and accumulate capabilities. Capabilities come via pillars which include tools, processes and people. These three pillars are then used to organize and reorganize factors of production to create products and services that are deployed in the markets, as forces, for customers to purchase, to overcome customers’ frictions.

How companies handle that transmutation of turning ideas and raw materials into products and services will determine their competitiveness in the market. Innovation happens when they maximize the outputs, from the lens of productivity, so that the customers are best served even as the least possible utilization of inputs and resources. The mechanical advantage is solidly positive!

Markets reward companies with revenue, as revenue is what companies are compensated with for creating and releasing the forces of products and services, which have the ability to overcome the frictions customers have. When a company consistently delivers innovatively, the reward increases and that means growth is happening.

In summary: markets have frictions as customers have needs, and companies are established to create products which are special forces with capacity to overcome those frictions. For overcoming their frictions, customers reward companies with revenue. Innovative companies do that overcoming in brilliant ways, and overtime, they get rewarded with tons of revenue, enabling massive growth.

In this lecture, I will explain the Mission of Companies and the very essence of why we have companies, linking market needs, innovation and growth. Tekedia Mini-MBA LIVE Session begins on Saturday. Join us as we have seats for you here.

General Motors has announced a $4 billion investment across three U.S. assembly plants, part of a sweeping reshuffle of its North American manufacturing operations that includes relocating production of two vehicles currently built in Mexico.

The move comes as the automaker navigates increasing pressure from the Trump administration’s aggressive trade policies, including 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and many auto parts.

The new investment—set to span through 2027—will fund additional production of the gas-powered Chevrolet Blazer and Chevrolet Equinox at U.S. plants, while also converting a once-idled Michigan factory, initially designated for all-electric trucks, into a hub for gas-powered SUVs and trucks.

A source familiar with GM’s plans said production of the Blazer would fully shift from Mexico to the U.S., while Equinox assembly in the U.S. would augment, not replace, current output at the Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico. GM has not clarified the future of the Mexican plant, but the shift is already being interpreted as a political and economic win for Trump’s tariffs, which came into effect earlier this year.

GM said the investment will allow it to produce more than two million vehicles annually in the U.S. by the end of the investment cycle.

From EV Dreams to Tariff Realities

The plan also signals a retreat from GM’s earlier aggressive push into electric vehicles. The Orion Assembly plant in Michigan, once projected to become the company’s second EV-exclusive facility, will now be retooled to manufacture gas-powered vehicles instead.

This marks a significant pivot at a time when GM had committed billions to electrification, echoing a wider trend in the auto industry, where automakers are walking back EV ambitions amid persistent cost pressures, regulatory uncertainty, and slower-than-expected consumer adoption.

GM insists the change is rooted in market realities and consumer demand. “Today’s announcement demonstrates our ongoing commitment to build vehicles in the U.S. and to support American jobs,” said CEO Mary Barra, noting that GM remains focused on giving customers a choice between electric and combustion-powered vehicles.

The Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas will begin building the gas-powered Equinox in mid-2027, while the Spring Hill plant in Tennessee will add Chevrolet Blazer production in the same year.

Although GM refrained from directly linking its decision to political pressure, the timing leaves little room for ambiguity. With Trump’s 25% auto tariffs creating fresh uncertainties across the sector, GM has spent recent months analyzing its production footprint while executives adopted a cautious “wait and see” stance. That caution has now shifted toward tactical adjustments.

The investment is being viewed by analysts as both a nod to economic nationalism and a response to policy headwinds.

“We believe the future of transportation will be driven by American innovation and manufacturing expertise,” Barra said, indirectly echoing themes Trump has championed since returning to the White House.

GM maintained its 2025 capital spending forecast at between $10 billion and $11 billion but now expects annual spending between $10 billion and $12 billion through 2027, likely to accommodate the new reshuffling of its manufacturing plans.

Balancing Tariffs and Strategy

During a recent Bernstein investor event, GM CFO Paul Jacobson downplayed the panic surrounding the tariffs, saying the impact may not be “as bad as the market reacted to.” He noted that GM could mitigate between 30% and 50% of tariff-related costs without new capital spending in the near term. However, this latest investment suggests the company is now taking longer-term steps to restructure its operations to absorb ongoing policy risks.

Meanwhile, Mary Barra hinted that despite the challenges, the new trade landscape may also open doors. “You’re going to see us be very resilient… and seize opportunities where the vehicles are so successful,” she said, referencing strong demand for GM’s gas-powered SUVs.

The automaker’s shift also highlights how tariff threats and shifting trade alliances are accelerating broader recalibrations in global supply chains—particularly as automakers like GM look to de-risk from over-dependence on Mexico and shore up domestic production capacity in anticipation of further regulatory turbulence.

This U.S. manufacturing push not only burnishes GM’s credentials as a patriotic brand under political scrutiny but also aligns it with a growing realization in the auto industry: that consumer preference for gas-powered SUVs remains strong, even as EV investments are scrutinized for long-term profitability.

Tesla shares are nearly back to pre-crisis levels after suffering a sharp drop last week following Elon Musk’s highly public spat with President Donald Trump.

The stock surged 5.7% on Tuesday to close at $326.09, putting it just about $6 short of its price before Musk and Trump’s social media clash sent the company’s market cap spiraling by 14% in a single session.

The recovery is being interpreted by investors as a turning point, not just for Tesla’s stock, but for Elon Musk’s public priorities.

Robotaxi Sparks Rally—But It’s About More Than Cars

The latest rally followed the release of an eight-second video showing a Tesla Model Y operating autonomously on the streets of Austin, Texas, without a safety driver. The vehicle, painted black and bearing a graffiti-style “Robotaxi” logo, was seen navigating an intersection, slowing for pedestrians at a crosswalk. Tesla fans hailed it as a long-awaited public appearance of the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software operating in “unsupervised” mode.

Musk amplified the clip on X, calling it a “beautifully simple design” and emphasizing that these were regular, unmodified Teslas, meaning future robotaxis are already rolling off the production line. A pilot ride-hailing program using about 10 to 20 Model Y vehicles is expected to launch in Austin on June 12, though Tesla has not formally confirmed the date. For now, the cars will operate within a geofenced zone and be remotely monitored by employees who can intervene if needed.

Despite the excitement, analysts and researchers have warned against reading too much into the short clip. Philip Koopman, an autonomous vehicle safety researcher at Carnegie Mellon, told CNBC the video doesn’t offer enough information to evaluate how safe or effective the system really is.

Even so, the market appears encouraged—not just by the robotaxi test, but by what the test signals: a Musk who’s refocusing on Tesla after months of political entanglements and public controversies.

Exit from DOGE Marks a Turning Point

Tesla’s rebound coincides with Musk stepping down from his high-profile, though informal, role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Though the post was largely symbolic, it positioned Musk at the intersection of policy, tech, and power—and increasingly distracted him from his core ventures.

Since exiting DOGE, Musk has become more publicly engaged in Tesla’s operations and vision, starting with renewed pushes on autonomy and streamlining the company’s AI development pipeline. Analysts say the stock’s recent uptick may be the market pricing in the benefits of Musk returning to business leadership, where his strategic instincts have typically shone.

His recent fallout with Trump makes a return to politics even less likely in the near term. The two men, once aligned on regulatory rollbacks and space policy, began trading insults last week following disagreements over a new spending bill. Trump threatened to end federal contracts and subsidies for Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Musk, in turn, said SpaceX will ‘immediately decommission’ its Dragon capsule with NASA.

For investors, that’s welcome news.

“The more time Musk spends engineering and shipping products, the better it is for Tesla,” one analyst at a major investment firm told CNBC. “The political distractions were hurting the brand and the stock.”

Pressure to Refocus—and Perform

Tesla’s first quarter was a rough one. Automotive revenue fell 20%, as Chinese competitors like BYD and XPeng undercut Tesla on price, and Musk’s personal brand began to erode consumer enthusiasm in key markets like Germany and mainland China. Tesla also faced pushback in Europe, where sales slid in the early months of the second quarter.

Even before the Trump-Musk feud, investors were already pressuring the CEO to concentrate on product rollouts, not political posturing. The robotaxi reveal, along with the apparent dialing down of his political engagements, seems to signal that Musk is listening—at least for now.

Tesla is currently listed as “testing” on the City of Austin’s official autonomous vehicle registry, joining companies like Amazon’s Zoox and AVRide. Only Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, holds a “deployment” designation, underscoring how far Tesla still has to go in commercializing autonomous mobility.

However, for bulls like Piper Sandler, that process has now officially begun. “A key component of our TSLA thesis has officially begun playing out,” the firm wrote in a Tuesday note, reaffirming its “buy” rating.

While Musk’s political estrangement may have opened a clearer path for Tesla to recover both public trust and investor confidence, the company still needs to navigate safety concerns and roll out a viable robotaxi service.

The big question now is whether Musk stays the course.

With Trump clearly drawing battle lines, and DOGE no longer occupying his calendar, all signs point to a Musk who is—for the first time in months—all in on Tesla. And the market, at least for now, appears to be rewarding that.

Vast Data, the nine-year-old enterprise data storage company quietly powering some of the world’s most demanding AI workloads, is back in the market to raise a fresh round of funding—this time at a proposed valuation of $25 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The move would mark a monumental leap from its $9 billion Series E valuation in December 2023 and signals just how aggressively investor sentiment has shifted in favor of companies building the underpinnings of the AI revolution.

Although the terms of the round are not yet finalized, and insiders say the valuation could change, interest in Vast from venture capitalists has intensified. The startup has emerged as a key enabler of large-scale AI deployment, offering a data infrastructure that handles the growing complexity, volume, and speed demands of modern artificial intelligence applications.

At the core of Vast’s appeal is its AI-native storage platform, designed to unify all types of data—structured, semi-structured, and unstructured—under one high-speed, flash-based system. Unlike traditional systems that rely on storage tiers—slower, cheaper storage for archival data and high-performance storage for active datasets—Vast’s architecture collapses those silos, allowing immediate access to massive volumes of data. This structure is particularly critical for AI model training and inference, where delays in data retrieval can slow down entire pipelines.

Its platform, paired with hardware from Supermicro, HPE, and Cisco, is already trusted by next-gen AI cloud providers like Coreweave and Lambda, as well as established enterprises such as Pixar, ServiceNow, and Xai, Elon Musk’s AI research company. These clients use Vast not only for storage but also for the performance benefits it brings to AI workloads that require rapid and frequent data access.

Economic Impact of AI Behind Valuation Surge

Vast’s bid for a $25 billion valuation isn’t occurring in a vacuum. It underscores a broader market trend: the economic gravitational pull of AI, which is projected to generate up to $15.7 trillion in global economic value by 2030, according to a report by PwC. Of that, nearly $6.6 trillion is expected to come from increased productivity, with the rest driven by consumption-side effects, including new product and service offerings.

As the AI wave accelerates, so does the demand for the foundational infrastructure—computing, storage, and data management—that enables it. Vast Data sits at the center of that value chain, providing the kind of high-throughput storage systems needed to make large language models (LLMs), generative AI tools, and autonomous systems operate efficiently.

It’s why Vast’s year-over-year revenue has reportedly been growing at 2.5x to 3x, and why it hit $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) when it last raised funds 18 months ago. CEO Renen Hallak said on a podcast in May 2023 that the company has also been free cash flow positive for four consecutive years, further bolstering investor confidence.

From Storage to Full-Stack Data Infrastructure

What sets Vast apart is its strategic ambition to move beyond storage. The company is building a next-generation database architecture that could position it to compete with Databricks, a $43 billion juggernaut in unified data analytics and AI services. This move transforms Vast from a storage provider into a broader data infrastructure company, helping customers not only store data but optimize how it flows into AI models and enterprise systems.

That ambition places it in a different league compared to rivals like Weka, which raised $140 million last year at a $1.6 billion valuation, or even Pure Storage, a publicly traded firm with a market cap of around $17 billion. If Vast secures its new valuation, it will leapfrog both to become one of the most valuable private companies in the enterprise AI space.

To date, Vast has raised $381 million from heavyweight backers such as Fidelity Management & Research Company, NEA, BOND Capital, and Drive Capital. The next round, if closed at the intended figure, would not only rank as one of the largest step-ups in enterprise tech but also validate the thesis that data infrastructure is as valuable as AI models themselves.

The Silent Engine of the AI Boom

As consumer-facing AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic dominate headlines, startups like Vast Data are emerging as the silent engines making the AI economy viable. From managing the flood of training data to delivering high-speed access for real-time inference, these infrastructure players are quietly redefining how value is created in the digital age.

And as the projected $15.7 trillion AI economy begins to take shape over the next five years, it is companies like Vast—those enabling AI to run faster, more reliably, and more affordably—that may define the next era of enterprise technology.