Plus, a freight startup comes up short on profitability. And, Sam-Bankman Fried makes a move. Victoria Craig hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, March 27. I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. There's one U.S. automaker that hasn't been rocked by President Trump's auto tariffs announcement today, and that's Tesla. The electric car company's stock bucked a wider industry trend in trading on Wall Street. Shares of Tesla rose while rivals Ford, GM, and Stellantis stocks fell.
[00:00:25] Still, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X that the cost of the tariff impact is not, quote, trivial, and that the company will not be, quote, unscathed because tariffs will have an effect on prices of Tesla's parts that come from other countries. Tesla is somewhat insulated from the levees because it builds all of its cars that are sold in the U.S. at factories in California and Texas. Other companies are more exposed because they import assembled vehicles from Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia.
[00:00:55] Elsewhere, the road to a public market debut might be a little longer for tech-focused freight startup Flexport. That's because demand wasn't as robust last year for its e-commerce fulfillment and distribution services. That caused the freight middleman to miss its target of achieving profitability by 2024. Further hampering that goal is uncertainty over consumer spending and the escalating trade war between the U.S. and its overseas trading partners. Flexport's CEO told The Wall Street Journal
[00:01:24] that he can actually entertain an IPO at the end of the year, but for now, it's off the planning horizon. Finally, Sam Bankmanfried was moved today from a Brooklyn prison where he's been serving the first part of a 25-year fraud sentence. The disgraced founder of cryptocurrency firm FTX is now at an Oklahoma transit facility where inmates usually stop while being moved to another location. The 33-year-old's legal team has been pushing for him to serve the rest of his sentence in California, where his parents
[00:01:54] live. SBF, as he's known, was convicted of carrying out one of the biggest financial frauds in American history, stealing billions from FTX customers and defrauding investors. His company collapsed in 2022. SBF has appealed his conviction, arguing that the judge was biased against him. His parents have also sought their son's release on a presidential pardon. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Friday's Tech News Briefing podcast.