Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Tuesday, March 25.
Tesla's Inc.'s investor relations website tells shareholders about the importance of "sound corporate governance." Under a video of Chair Robyn Denholm, the company tells investors: "It is the duty of the Board of Directors to serve as a prudent fiduciary for shareholders and to oversee the management of the Company's business."
Fast-forward to early today in Australia and Denholm wasn't going to say a word during a public appearance about her CEO, Elon Musk, or how he spends his time working for the company while supervising President Donald Trump's reinvention of the U.S. government, Bloomberg reported.
Denholm's enigmatic role presiding over Musk and the world's most valuable automaker since November 2018 has been the subject of many questions and few answers. And her appearance today offered little more.
Read more: Live updates on tariff news and impacts
The questions mounted in January when Tesla reported lackluster fourth-quarter results, just as Musk's new role with the Trump administration began to emerge. But today, Musk has become a global lightning rod for criticism of Trump's ongoing government cuts, and Tesla stores are being vandalized to the point where the FBI has launched a special task force to investigate. Shares in Tesla have plunged, although they started to bounce back on Monday.
Musk has urged employees to hold their stock, but Denholm still pocketed $33.7 million from selling some of her Tesla shares, according to a report earlier this month.
Amid all this, Tesla continues to operate without a media relations department to answer questions relevant to its shareholders. And the board chair's silence today spoke volumes about how much Tesla values "sound corporate governance."
Speaking of governance, the state of Michigan sent a loud and clear message today that it will continue to subsidize private economic development with public money. As reported by our affiliate Crain's Detroit Business, Michigan agreed to transfer a $120 million performance-based grant for a $2.5 billion EV battery plant that originally was being built by a joint venture of Detroit-based General Motors and Korea's LG Energy Solution Inc. Now the entire $120 million is earmarked for the Korean company.
GM said in December it would sell its stake in the plant to LG with plans to recoup its $1 billion investment. LG remains committed to creating the 1,360 jobs expected in exchange for the grant.
Meanwhile, Nissan Motor Co.'s incoming CEO Ivan Espinosa says some pretty interesting things in this profile today by Hans Greimel. Among them?
"This is one fundamental thing we have to address," Espinosa said in a wide-ranging interview. "We think our brand is stronger than it probably is in some parts of the world."
From robotaxi development world, Waymo will be making its case for the adoption of self-driving technology directly to lawmakers in Washington. Bloomberg reports today that Waymo, the robotaxi business of Google parent Alphabet Inc., plans to launch robotaxis in the nation's capital next year. The move would effectively give U.S. lawmakers and other officials more exposure to self-driving cars as they mull a framework for federal standards, Bloomberg reported.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
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