Business

Almost two-thirds of Gen Z Americans have started, or intend to start, their own business.
Nearly half of Gen Z, about 48%, have numerous side hustles, compared to 34% of small business owners. 
New business formation boomed since the pandemic, but it was as much a story of necessity as opportunity.

Inga Kjer | Photothek | Getty Images

For decades Microsoft has been associated with a traditional definition of office work, long hours in front of a computer, but now the corporate enterprise giant finds Gen Z entrepreneurs disrupting ideas about workplace hustle and the traditional 9-5 day. Many recent Gen Z college graduates are flipping the career paradigm and pursuing entrepreneurship rather than entering the corporate world. 
“We’ve seen a lot of reimagination during the pandemic and a lot of digital transformation, which I think really has propelled what we see as a bit of a boom in entrepreneurship,” says Travis Walter, vice president of retail at Microsoft Store. Almost two-thirds (62%) of Gen Z has indicated they have started, or intend to start, their own business, according to data from WP Engine and the Center for Generational Kinetics. Meanwhile, in 2021 alone, 5.4 million Americans submitted applications to start their own business, according to government data.  

The traditional idea of “hustle culture” has evolved over the years, and while the grind Gen Z puts in looks slightly different than millennials, it doesn’t mean they’re doing any less work. Instead, these entrepreneurs wear multiple hats with flexible work schedules, working vacations and more consideration for personal time. Nearly half of Gen Z, about 48%, have numerous side hustles, compared to 34% of small business owners, according to Microsoft’s survey, conducted by Wakefield Research across 1,000 small business owners with less than 25 employees. Many of these businesses overlap with the rise in social media marketing. Entrepreneurs who use TikTok for their business (48%) are almost twice as likely to have multiple side hustles as those who do not (27%), according to the Microsoft data.
“I think it’s important to let people work the way they need to work because then they can actually do their best work, as we’re seeing with entrepreneurs and Gen Z,” Walter said.
Microsoft’s data shows 91% of Gen Z entrepreneurs work unconventional hours; 81% say they work on vacation, compared to 62% of business owners overall. 
“What do I truly want to do?” is a question being asked more frequently, according to Philip Gaskin, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. “That’s some of that Gen Z energy,” he said.
Gen Z graduates are coming into the workforce during the pandemic period of “rediscovery,” Gaskin said, a reevaluation of personal and professional goals by many Americans across generations. Some people who may have been bored of their corporate jobs, or felt stale at a point in life, were given the time to pause and reevaluate. Many people who saw an opportunity went for it during the pandemic, often with new technology ideas. The boom in new business formation isn’t uniformly a rosy scenario. In some cases, it is a function of necessity, according to Kauffman’s analysis, with people who lost their jobs needing new forms of income.

This shift is correlated with a rate of new entrepreneurs that has been growing for several years, with 2020 showing the highest spike of all, according to Kauffman Foundation data. And it has big implications for the labor market. “Most jobs created over the last five years were provided by firms less than five years old,” Gaskin said.
Gen-Z is also leaning more towards the entrepreneurship path rather than getting involved in corporate America right out of college because many see it as a way to fast-track their retirement. About 61% of Gen Z small business owners believe they will be able to retire faster than if they had gotten a corporate job, compared to 40% of all small business owners who hold this view, according to the Microsoft survey. Among the broader small business community, amassing retirement savings through investment vehicles has historically been a challenge and much of their income directly reinvested in the business, which has provided reason for concern about financial security among entrepreneurs.

Mission-driven, problem-solving Gen Z entrepreneur

Ritwik Pavan, a Gen Z entrepreneur, has already started several businesses.
“I’ve been on the entrepreneurial journey since high school, and I always wanted to build something because I always had the problem-solving type of mindset,” Pavan said.
The big idea he landed on after working in various tech niches, including app development, since college, is in urban mobility.
With co-founders Matthew Schaefer and Christian Burke, he launched Vade in 2018, which helps reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by providing real-time parking data for citizens.

Left to right: Ritwik Pavan (COO), Christian Burke (CTO) and Matty Schaefer (CEO) of Vade discuss venture plans.
Source: Vade

“I’m helping all these people solve problems and build their ideas, but I’d love to go find something I’m passionate about solving and for me, that problem was parking,” Pavan said. “The best part about being an entrepreneur is that we’re very mission-driven and believe that what we’re going to do is going to change lives for the better and help cities become better places to live,” he said.
According to the Microsoft survey, around 88% of all small business owners who prioritize social good say it helped their business grow, including 82% of Gen Z respondents. 
Pavan is an example of how work hustle has changed. His favorite part about being a small business owner is the flexibility that comes with the job, but that doesn’t mean working fewer hours than a corporate boss like Jamie Dimon or Elon Musk demands.
“The truth is, as a founder, for the first three years me and my co-workers were working 18-hour days, even 20 hour days, even now sometimes,” Pavan said.
But being able to make decisions for your own company, he says, makes the long hours worthwhile, even if that also means being responsible for the bad ones. According to the Microsoft data, many Gen Z entrepreneurs start this decision-making, like Pavan, before college, and many don’t see a degree as being critical to their success: 78% of Gen Z entrepreneurs say a college education is “not very necessary” for them to run a business. More

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Hertz’s $4.2 billion deal to purchase 100,000 Tesla fully electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of 2022 set off a race among rental car agencies.
Enterprise Holdings and Avis Budget Group have announced their own plans to transition away from the internal combustion engine.
But for the $56-billion U.S. rental industry, which buys about one-tenth of auto manufacturers’ new cars every year, hundreds of thousands of traditional autos will be rented for years to come.

Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles at a Hertz airport location.
Photo by E.R. Davidson

Not long after Hertz Global Holdings emerged from bankruptcy last summer, reorganized after the Covid-19 pandemic stalled the entire car rental industry, the Estero, Florida-based company boldly announced a $4.2 billion deal to purchase 100,000 Tesla fully electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of 2022. Just like that, the race was on within the industry to transition to EVs from internal combustion engine (ICE) models.
While Hertz was first off the starting blocks, its two biggest rivals, Enterprise Holdings and Avis Budget Group, have since joined in. But just like the full-scale adoption of EVs among American drivers is going to take years, the rental car shift also will be a marathon, not a sprint. “Companies that operate fleets at our size cannot just turn on a dime and next year go all EV,” said Sharky Laguana, president of the American Car Rental Association. “Our industry wants to move as fast as it can, but there are some serious and challenging constraints.”

The initial one, Laguana said, “is just getting your hands on the damn things.”
The $56-billion U.S. rental industry typically buys about one-tenth of auto manufacturers’ new cars every year, but with persistent supply-chain disruptions, especially the shortage of essential computer chips, the numbers are way down. The industry bought 2.1 million vehicles from OEMs in 2019, Laguana said, compared with only about 750,000 in 2021. U.S. sales of EVs doubled in 2021, but still only comprise about 4% of the nation’s total market for cars and trucks.
Another major speed bump for rental car companies is the paucity of EV charging stations, at airports and other rental locations, hotels, resorts and office buildings, as well as along local roads and interstate highways. And then there’s the challenge of educating and training companies’ agents and mechanics on EVs, not to mention familiarizing drivers on the differences from operating ICE vehicles.
Hertz does not state the overall number of vehicles in its fleet, said Jeff Nieman, senior vice president, operations initiatives, so it’s unknown how many Teslas are available in the more than 30 markets currently offering EVs, which now also include the first of the 65,000 Polestar 2s — an EV brand jointly owned by Volvo and its Chinese parent Gheely which has planned to go public through a SPAC deal — Hertz began purchasing in a five-year deal announced in April. Nieman did say, however, he is confident that EVs will represent “more than 30% of our fleet by the end of 2024.”

In the meantime, Hertz has several hundred thousand ICE models in the U.S. that will be rented for years to come, said Chris Woronka, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. Even so, “they’ve decided they’re going to carry the EV torch for the industry and be very outspoken about their plans and goals,” he said.

Look no further than the spate of Hertz TV spots, starring NFL superstar Tom Brady touting Tesla rentals, that aired during this year’s Super Bowl. Hertz also has created a dedicated area on its website to help educate drivers about EVs.

Renting EVs to corporates focused on ESG, carbon neutrality

A primary target for Hertz, according to Woronka, is the corporate market. “The leisure customer might think it’s cool to drive an electric car, but the longer game is on the corporate side,” he said.
Beyond comparing costs of employees driving EVs versus ICE cars — currently skewed by the national average of around $5 for a gallon of regular gas — companies view EVs as a quantifiable way to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, meet net-zero goals and burnish their environmental, social and governance (ESG) bona fides among sustainability investors and advocacy groups.
“The initial research has shown that corporate accounts are going to be willing to pay a premium for EVs,” Woronka said, “because it helps them achieve some of their ESG objectives.”
Not surprisingly, rental companies themselves are embracing this concept, said Sara Forni, director of clean vehicles for the nonprofit Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance (CEVA). While they certainly “want to get more butts in EV seats,” she said, “they also want to meet their sustainability goals and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”
Siemens US, an affiliate of the German-based conglomerate, is a flagship member of CEVA and was part of the Hertz EV program launch last fall. “We fully support our global decarbonization and ESG goals,” said Randall Achterberg, North America travel commodity manager, “and our fleet makes the largest Scope 1 emissions footprint and we’re already making progress with an aggressive EV transition strategy,” referring to GHGs produced by Siemens’ U.S. fleet of nearly 10,000 vehicles. “On the corporate travel side, we want to expand our employees’ usage of EVs.”
To date, Siemens has booked more than 100 EV rentals with Hertz. “We’re not pushing as heavily as we’d like to, because they’re not ready,” Achterberg said, acknowledging the inherent obstacles in its EV rollout. Siemens is alleviating one stumbling block: it builds EV charging stations and has committed to manufacture a million of them in the U.S. over the next three years.

Enterprise’s early Orlando EV rental car experiment

Enterprise may not be as out-front as Hertz with its EV rental program, but the privately held company, headquartered in St. Louis, has been in the exploratory stage since 2014. That’s the year it began participating in the Drive Electric Orlando Rental Pilot, a multi-year study sponsored by the Electrification Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit advocating for EV adoption, particularly among fleet owners.
The pilot, partly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, was centered at Orlando International Airport and as well comprised resorts and theme parks in the area. “We also had close partnerships with local regulators and policymakers, which was critical in making sure we did this the right way,” said Chris Haffenreffer, assistant vice president of innovation at Enterprise. The company rented all-electric cars, including Chevy Volts and Nissan Leafs to travelers, who were incentivized with perks such as free charging, parking and valet service.
“Even though EVs were [then] an afterthought in our business, the lessons learned are consistent with what we see today,” Haffenreffer said. Namely, getting employees behind the wheel of EVs is crucial, “so they can communicate actively with customers,” as is partnering with other entities to invest in the charging infrastructure.
Although the rental companies have said they are building their own charging stations, another critical partner is the U.S. government, which in last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill earmarked $7.5 billion to states to create a network of EV charging stations. Earlier this month, the Biden administration proposed regulations that would require stations built on interstates with federal dollars to be no more than 50 miles apart.
Enterprise, like Hertz, is focusing on its commercial-rental fleets and fleet-management division, where business customers will value the lower maintenance and operating costs. “It’s about being a trusted advisor to those customers, helping them understand how to operate an EV and the benefits,” Haffenreffer said. But as with leisure travel renters, figuring out how to get from point A to Point B and how to charge the car is increasingly challenging, Haffenreffer said.
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Avis saw its stock rocket in early November after it said it was getting into the EV rental business a week after the Hertz-Tesla deal broke, and though its come back down along with the entire market, CEO Joe Ferraro told analysts during a conference call at the time, “You’ll see us going forward be much more active in electric scenarios as the situation develops.”
Avis has been tight-lipped since then and declined to be comment for this article. But Woronka said, “I take them at their word.” He cited the rental car company’s sizable corporate fleet exposure as a reason. “They’re just not ready to pull back the curtain yet on what they’re doing,” he said.
U.S. automakers are spending billions to ramp up their EV production. General Motors aims to deliver 400,000 EVs in North America by the end of 2023, and Ford has committed to 600,000 by that same time. Considering that renting an EV is essentially an extended test drive, the rental market is seen as an important driver in President Joe Biden’s plan for half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 to be zero-emissions vehicles.
“From our point of view, the rental car market makes a ton of sense, especially as OEMs get into longer-range electric vehicles,” said Electrification Coalition executive director Ben Prochazka. “What a great way to get consumers exposure to new technology in a low-risk setting.” More

Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

It’s that time again! “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he’s giving his answers to callers’ stock questions at rapid speed.

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Abbvie Inc: “I think the answer is that Abbvie, which we own big for our Charitable Trust, goes higher.”

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NVIDIA Corp: “You have to buy it gingerly. Why? Because the sellers just come out of the woodwork every time the stock goes up. But I’m with [CEO] Jensen Huang. … I’m going to say, buy.”

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Aegon NV: “I like Chubb more. These companies do very well at this particular moment in the cycle. I think you’re in a good one.”

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American Airlines Group Inc: “Typically, I don’t recommend airlines, but at $12, that factors in nothing but depression and I do not think we are going to get depression. So, I’m going to say okay to that.”

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Rapid7 Inc: “It doesn’t make money. … I’m not going for it.”

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Coterra Energy Inc: “It is terrific. It’s down huge. Buy Coterra. … It’s an inexpensive stock with a giant dividend.”
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Abbvie and NVIDIA.

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Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday warned investors that any upcoming market rallies will be temporary as the Federal Reserve turns up the heat in its fight against inflation.
“Until we see a pattern of higher unemployment, lower consumer spending and lower oil prices, just presume that you need to sell stocks into any rally,” the “Mad Money” host said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday warned investors that any upcoming market rallies will be temporary as the Federal Reserve turns up the heat in its fight against inflation.
“Until we see a pattern of higher unemployment, lower consumer spending and lower oil prices, just presume that you need to sell stocks into any rally because the Fed’s going to make sure those rallies are temporary,” the “Mad Money” host said.

“That said, I think the economy has already weakened substantially here, so the pain might be over faster than you’d expect,” he added.
While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite climbed on Friday, all the major indices ended a volatile week of trading in the red, with the S&P recording its worst week since 2020.
“Every time it looks like they’re done selling, they come right back,” said Cramer, who on Thursday recommended that investors hold off on buying until the market settles down.
He also previewed next week’s slate of earnings. All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet.
Monday

The market is closed due to Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the confederate states.
Tuesday: Lennar

Q2 2022 earnings release before the bell; conference call at 11 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $3.95
Projected revenue: $8.12 billion

Cramer said he wouldn’t be surprised if analysts downgrade the construction company’s stock because the price of houses is so high.
Wednesday: KB Home. Korn Ferry
KB Home

Q2 2022 earnings release after the close; conference call at 5 p.m. ET
Projected EPS: $2.04
Projected revenue: $1.65 billion

Investors should consider buying some stock of KB Home if Lennar’s stock doesn’t tank, since it might be ready to bottom, Cramer said.
Korn Ferry

Q4 2022 earnings release at tbd; conference call at 12 p.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1.55
Projected revenue: $680 million

The management consulting firm could shed some insight on whether the Fed’s interest rate hikes are impacting labor, Cramer said.
Thursday: Darden Restaurants, FedEx
Darden Restaurants

Q4 2022 earnings release before the bell; conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $2.21
Projected revenue: $2.54 billion

Cramer said he expects disappointing results from the parent company of Olive Garden and Capital Grille due to food and labor inflation and cash-strapped consumers.
FedEx

Q4 2022 earnings release at 4:15 p.m. ET; conference call at 5 p.m. ET
Projected EPS: $6.87
Projected revenue: $24.49 billion

While he doesn’t expect a good quarter from FedEx, Cramer said he’s still interested in its take on the state of e-commerce.
Friday: CarMax

Q1 2023 earnings release before the bell; conference call at 9 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1.55
Projected revenue: $9.20 billion

CarMax will likely have a decent but mediocre set of numbers due to the car shortage, Cramer predicted.

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Starbucks North American president Rossann Williams will leave the company and be replaced by the head of the coffee chain’s Asia Pacific division.
Williams has been one of the public faces of the company’s efforts to curb unionization efforts by its baristas.

A pedestrian carries a Starbucks branded cup in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Starbucks Corp.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Starbucks’ North American president Rossann Williams is leaving the company and will be replaced by the head of the coffee chain’s Asia Pacific division.
The announcement Friday marks the latest change to the company under interim CEO Howard Schultz, who returned to the top job in April after the departure of former CEO Kevin Johnson. Schultz is slated to stick around in the role through around the end of the year, after the board names a long-term successor. In his time so far, Schultz has paused the company’s stock buyback program, committed $1 billion to raise wages and improve cafes and vocally pushed back against union efforts.

“As we embark on the next chapter, we have made a difficult, but necessary change to our North America business; a change that creates new leadership for a new era at Starbucks,” John Culver, the company’s chief operating officer, wrote in a memo to employees viewed by CNBC. “The decision was not taken lightly and was one preceded by discussion about a next opportunity for Rossann within the company, which she declined.”

Williams has worked for Starbucks since 2004, when she joined the coffee chain after stints at Toys ‘R Us and Blockbuster. Over the last year, she’s been one of the public faces of the company’s efforts to curb unionization efforts by its baristas. More than 150 Starbucks cafes in the U.S. have voted to unionize, as of Friday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Williams’s departure.
Sara Trilling, who currently serves as president of Starbucks’ Asia Pacific business, will succeed Williams in the role, effective Tuesday. Trilling has been with the company for two decades, starting out in its creative studio working on its retail store design and working her way up. Williams will help with her transition through June and Cliff Burrows, president of the company’s Americas division, will also assist in an advisory role.

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Ezra Miller has come under scrutiny in recent months for a pattern of disturbing behavior and allegations of misconduct.
These allegations against Miller come almost a year before Warner Bros. is slated to release “The Flash,” a $100 million film that is part of the studio’s DC franchise.
Warner Bros. has not made a statement about Miller or the future of “The Flash” film.

Actor Ezra Miller arrives at the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Justice League’ at Dolby Theatre on November 13, 2017 in Hollywood, California.
Axelle | Bauer-Griffin | Filmmagic | Getty Images

It’s time for Warner Bros. Discovery to talk about Ezra Miller, according to crisis management experts.
The actor, who portrays superhero The Flash in the studio’s DC Extended Universe, including in an upcoming big-budget film, has come under scrutiny in recent months for a pattern of disturbing behavior and allegations of misconduct.

Miller, 29, made headlines in 2020 after a video surfaced showing them appearing to violently choke a fan. However, incidents of impropriety escalated in 2022 when they were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment at a karaoke bar in Hawaii.
Hours before their court appearance in April for these charges, Miller was arrested again after an altercation in which they were accused of throwing a chair and injuring a woman.
Now, two orders of protection have been granted, one for a 12-year-old in Massachusetts and one for Gibson Iron Eyes, an 18-year-old Standing Rock activist, who was allegedly groomed by Miller, according to parents Chase Iron Eyes and Sara Jumping Eagle. Authorities have been unable to locate Miller in order to serve these orders. Gibson is believed to be traveling with Miller.
Miller notably deleted their Instagram account earlier this week after posting cryptic photos and messages that appeared to taunt police.
The allegations against Miller come almost a year before Warner Bros. is slated to release “The Flash,” a $100 million film that is part of the studio’s DC franchise.

“When you start to have a string of things, that’s a worrying pattern,” said Tony Freinberg, president at Edendale Strategies, a crisis management and strategic communications firm. “It’s worrying about what it says about someone’s well-being, and it’s worrying about what it says about someone’s suitability to be the face of a large Warner Bros. franchise.”
“Any one thing could be a misunderstanding,” he added. “But when you start getting into four, five, six things, you’re starting to get into troubling territory.”
Miller’s talent agent and legal representatives did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
“Silence is not an option,” said Evan Nierman, author of “Crisis Averted” and CEO of crisis PR firm Red Banyan. “At a certain moment choosing to say nothing, you are communicating a message.”
Warner Bros. had remained quiet during Miller’s assault arrests earlier this year, but sources within the company said emergency meetings were held in April to discuss their recent controversies and how the studio would proceed going forward. At that time, it was determined that the film would remain on the slate, but Warner Bros. would pause future projects involving the actor.
The studio even teased “The Flash” during its presentation at CinemaCon in late April, suggesting that it still planned to proceed with the film’s release next year.
Miller has been associated with the DCEU since the release of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” in 2016 and has been a key part of the Warner Bros.-produced “Fantastic Beasts” film series, which still has two movies left to film.
“If they are hoping that it’s just going to go away or people are going to forget about this, I think they are mistaken,” Nierman said.
Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The studio is in a tough spot. On social media, fans of the the DCEU are clamoring for Miller to be recast. But doing so, and reshooting a movie, is incredibly expensive, and the studio might not be able to make back enough profit from the box office to outweigh its investment.
It’s also not as simple as shelving the film and taking a write-off on the multimillion-dollar budget. Freinberg noted that Warner Bros. is probably in the midst of evaluating every contract associated with the film to determine what it can legally do going forward.
If actors or producers have film proceeds baked into their contracts, Warner Bros. may be legally obligated to release the film, regardless of whether Miller is in violation of any morality clauses within their own contract.
“I think Warner Bros. is in a horrible position,” Freinberg said. “It’s not typical that people feel sorry for movie studios, but I genuinely feel sorry for Warner Bros because they have a nightmarish situation trying to figure out what to do because every option that they have is bad.”
Warner Bros. recently merged with Discovery in a deal worth $43 billion, which means top brass at the company aren’t just inheriting content, but the crises the come with them. Experts told CNBC that David Zaslav, the president and CEO of the newly minted Warner Bros. Discovery, is likely very involved with how the company ultimately will respond to the situation.
Freinberg suggested that Warner Bros. could also be holding back on speaking publicly about the Miller matter because these are allegations.
“An allegation is just an allegation, it’s not proven,” Freinberg said. “They have the right to due process and everything else, but on the other hand what’s being said about them is very serious.”
Whatever Warner Bros. decides will be the studio’s strategy going forward, both Freinberg and Nierman agree that it needs to be done quickly.
“The key for Warner Bros. is to ‘be quick but don’t hurry,'” Freinberg said, quoting basketball coach John Wooden. “There’s no time to waste, but they don’t want to announce something that is half-baked.”
Nierman echoed that sentiment, noting that any statement needs to be communicated with transparency and authenticity — and that saying nothing would be a bad choice.
“If they were my client I would recommend going public with a statement and doing so with a strategic outcome in mind,” Nierman said about Warner Bros. “If they know that they intend to release the film, then explain why they are not scrapping the film at this point. The public and reasonable people would understand.”
He added: “In a flash your reputation can evaporate, and for that reason they need to take that seriously.”

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In what’s been a particularly eventful year for Elon Musk, this was a decidedly rough week.
Tesla’s stock is dropping, and there are internal issues at the company that aren’t helping.
Musk’s other big company, SpaceX, fired a group of employees who circulated an internal letter and faces a long to-do list before its Starship rocket program can receive a launch license in Boca Chica, Texas.

Elon Musk pauses and looks down as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

In what’s been a particularly eventful year for Elon Musk, this was a decidedly rough week.
Tesla’s stock, which has lost almost half its value since peaking in November, dropped more than 6% in the last week, as investors continued to sell out of their tech holdings.

There are internal matters at Tesla that aren’t helping. This week, they were tied to safety issues with the company’s advanced driver-assist systems.
Musk’s other big company, SpaceX, fired a group of employees who circulated an internal letter that reportedly denounced the CEO and founder as a “distraction and embarrassment.” Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday handed SpaceX’s Starship rocket program a long to-do list before it can receive a launch license in Boca Chica, Texas.

Then there’s Twitter. Musk agreed to buy the social media company for $44 billion in April, but has since publicly trashed it, raising all sorts of concerns about whether the deal will actually close. On Thursday, Musk spoke to Twitter employees for the first time in a video address that was widely panned, based on messages that showed up on the internal chat board.
Here’s what went down in Musk town this week.

Problematic data on driver-assist crashes

The NTSB released this image of a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor electric car that was involved in a fatal accident near Miami that killed two people on Sept. 13, 2021.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday that Tesla vehicles accounted for nearly 70% of reported crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems since last June. Data provided by the U.S. safety agency said the electric cars were involved in 273 of the 392 accidents cited in the report, which included data from 11 automakers.

Still, the NHTSA said the data doesn’t have proper context and is only meant as a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends.
“I would advise caution before attempting to draw conclusions based only on the data that we’re releasing,” NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said during a media event. “In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer.”

Tesla hikes prices across U.S. car models

Tesla Model 3
Courtesy: Tesla

When Musk announced plans in June to cut 10% of Tesla’s workforce, the CEO said he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy. For consumers, those concerns are turning into sticker shock.
Tesla hiked prices for all car models in the U.S. this week as the auto industry continues to grapple with supply chain issues, inflation and economic uncertainty.
The company increased the price of its Model Y long-range version to $65,990 from $62,990, and raised the performance model by $2,000 to $69,990, according to its website. Electrek said the price of the Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive increased by about $5,000 to $104,990. The Model X Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Long Range went up by $6,000.
Tesla had previously delayed deliveries of some of the long-range models in the U.S.

FAA says SpaceX Starship program needs adjustments

The FAA on Monday made an environmental decision that resulted in a mix of good and bad news for Musk’s SpaceX, and the mammoth Starship rocket the company is developing in Texas.
The regulator issued a list of more than 75 environmental mitigation actions the company must complete before it can move forward with Starship flight tests. Included in the requirements are limitations on noise levels and how often SpaceX can close the public highway near the facility.
After the FAA’s decision, Musk said the company will have a Starship prototype rocket “ready to fly” by July. The company is aiming to reach orbit with the vehicle for the first time. But it first requires a launch license from the FAA, and the regulator’s required mitigations amount to a significant lift before the company can request one.
The good news for SpaceX is that the FAA has concluded its assessment, and is not requiring a more in-depth review.

SpaceX employees embarrassed by Musk

Musk’s plan to buy Twitter has worried policymakers around the world.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

An unknown number of SpaceX employees wrote and internally circulated a letter that was critical of Musk and his public behavior, describing him as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment,” according to media reports. CNBC reported Friday that at least five employees involved in the letter were fired as a result.
SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, in a company-wide email obtained by CNBC, claimed the letter and process to solicit signors “upset many” employees, who she said felt “uncomfortable, intimidated, and bullied.”
“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism,” Shotwell wrote. “I am sorry for this distraction. Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time at work to do your best work.”

Musk’s call with Twitter employees didn’t go well

Elon Musk twitter account is seen through Twitter logo in this illustration taken, April 25, 2022. 
Dado Ruvic | Reuters

With Twitter’s stock price trading around $37, well below the $54.20 Musk agreed to pay for the company, investors and employees are justifiably concerned about what the future holds.
Musk’s all-hands meeting with Twitter staffers on Thursday seemed like an effort by the potential future owner to establish a sense of trust and transparency with the people who would be working for him.
But reactions on Slack following the meeting indicated employees were still left with questions and concerns, according to a person who saw the messages but asked not to be named as they were intended to be private.
While former CEO Jack Dorsey promised employees the option to work remote permanently, Musk has taken a very different approach with his companies, recently demanding that Tesla and SpaceX workers be in the office at least 40 hours a week.
Musk said on the call that he may not be as strict with Twitter employees, because developing software can more easily be handled from afar while car manufacturing requires physical presence.
But his answer didn’t appear to calm concerns. His comments also left some Twitter employees fearing for their jobs, according to the person familiar. In addressing concerns about potential layoffs, Musk said Twitter needs to get into a healthy financial state, but that “anyone who is a significant contributor has nothing to worry about,” according to the person.
In response, Twitter employees shared messages and memes toward the end of the meeting riffing on how to brand themselves as exceptional.
—CNBC’s Michael Wayland contributed to this report.
WATCH: Musk tells Twitter employees he wants at least a billion daily users

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SpaceX has fired at least five employees involved in circulating a letter around the company that was critical of CEO Elon Musk, two people familiar with the company told CNBC.
The open letter was circulated and signed by an unknown number of SpaceX employees earlier this week.
Musk is the controlling shareholder of the privately held company, with his trust owning about 78% of SpaceX’s voting shares as of last year.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk participates in a postlaunch news conference inside the Press Site auditorium at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020, following the launch of the agency’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station.
NASA/Kim Shiflett

SpaceX has fired at least five employees who were involved with circulating a letter around the company that was critical of CEO Elon Musk, according to two people familiar with the company who declined to be named and an internal email from President and COO Gwynne Shotwell.
Shotwell, in a companywide email Thursday, said SpaceX “terminated a number of employees involved” and called “blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails” unacceptable, according to copies of the email obtained by CNBC. The open letter, first reported by The Verge, was circulated earlier this week. More than 400 SpaceX employees signed the letter in just under a day and a half, The Verge reported Friday.

“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism,” Shotwell wrote, adding the letter “upset many” within the company and “made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied.”
The letter was addressed to company executives, according to media reports, and described the billionaire’s public behavior as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment” for SpaceX employees.
The New York Times first reported the SpaceX firings. SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Musk is the controlling shareholder of the privately held company, with his trust owning about 78% of SpaceX’s voting shares as of last year. The CEO has created an often eccentric persona in public spheres, particularly on Twitter where he offers commentary and updates on SpaceX and his electric vehicle company, Tesla.
Musk has said he uses Twitter to express himself, comparing his use of the service to how “some people use their hair,” and is seeking to acquire the social media company.

During a Twitter all-hands meeting Thursday, Musk said free speech is critical to users of the platform – even if a company is under his private ownership, like SpaceX.
The internal SpaceX letter also referenced recent sexual misconduct allegations against Musk, reported by Business Insider last month. The report said that Musk sexually harassed a SpaceX flight attendant during a private flight, and that the company paid the employee $250,000 for her silence.
Shotwell defended Musk after the misconduct allegations, writing in an email to employees at the time that she believes “the allegations to be false.”
In her email Thursday, Shotwell said SpaceX leadership “is more dedicated to ensuring we have a great and ever-improving work environment than any I have seen” in her career. She also emphasized SpaceX has a trio of launches scheduled “within 37 hours” this weekend, as well as ongoing work to support the International Space Station.
“I am sorry for this distraction,” Shotwell said. “Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time at work to do your best work.”

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