Plus: trade technology provider Altana acquires AI platform to tackle customs complexity. And Coinbase stock jumps after Clarity Act clears major hurdle. Julie Chang hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, July 21. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. General Motors is facing a significantly smaller EV market. On a call with analysts, its CFO said that, and discontinuing smaller, less profitable models, plus tighter dealer inventory reduced global deliveries by 7.2 percent to roughly 1.43 million vehicles during the most recent quarter.
[00:00:28] GM has spent the past few years restructuring its EV unit to match cooling demand and regulatory changes, incurring $2.3 billion in incremental charges during the latest quarter, for a total of $10.9 billion since the second half of 2025. Still, strong demand for pickups and SUVs led GM to boost its full-year earnings outlook. Looking ahead, the company says it'll focus more on domestic manufacturing and defense.
[00:00:57] We exclusively report that trade technology provider Altana announced today it's acquiring Servo AI, a platform that uses agentic AI to automate the time-consuming manual task of drafting customs entries from import documents. Altana says Servo will speed up customs brokerage operations amid shifting tariff and trade policies.
[00:01:19] Altana, which uses AI to map supply chains and track compliance risks on its digital trade network, said the deal could be worth over $100 million based on performance milestones. The acquisition comes as U.S. retailers and manufacturers navigate an increasingly complex trade environment. And shares of Coinbase Global jumped today after a key crypto bill cleared a major hurdle.
[00:01:45] The White House and a group of senators reached an agreement on an ethics provision in the Clarity Act on Monday. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Significant obstacles still remain. The bill would need some Democratic support to get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate. It has already passed the House. Shares of Coinbase, the country's largest crypto exchange, are up over 10%. Stablecoin company Circle Internet Group is up nearly 8%.
[00:02:12] And Bitcoin recently traded above $66,000, up more than 1% on the day. And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. We'll have another quick tech update in the morning. .