The opening weekend for Disney's "Avatar: Fire and Ash" was less of a blaze and more of a simmer. During its first three days in theaters, "Fire and Ash" tallied $88 million, falling well shy of analysts' expectations, which called for a debut haul between $110 million and $125 million. For comparison, 2022's "Avatar: The Way of Water" brought in $134 million during the same three-day period. Internationally, the film collected $257 million, bringing the film's global opening to an estimated $345 million. "Fire and Ash" faced some theatrical headwinds, namely its over-three-hour runtime. There was also less pent-up demand compared to "The Way of Water," which was released more than a decade after the first Avatar film. Some box office analysts and critics noted that "Fire and Ash" has less technological innovation than its predecessors, which had been a driving factor in past ticket sales. Around 5.2 million domestic moviegoers went to see "Fire and Ash," according to data from EntTelligence, a massive decline from the 8.7 million that ventured out in 2022 to see the opening weekend of "The Way of Water." The first film, 2009's "Avatar," generated just $77 million in its opening weekend domestically, but stayed in theaters for nearly a year. With re-releases, the film now stands at $2.9 billion, according to data from Comscore. "The Way of Water" ran in theaters for 23 weeks and has grossed $2.3 billion globally. "With less than two weeks remaining in the box office year, the pressure on 'Avatar: Fire And Ash' to deliver big was intense and though the film may have come in a bit below pre-release opening weekend projections, the Avatar films have always been known for their marathon box office trajectories," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. The Avatar films have over-indexed with the more expensive experiential screens like IMAX and Dolby as well as 3D showings. Disney reported that 3D and premium theaters accounted for 66% of the weekend total. While 3D films have fallen out of favor with domestic audiences, they remain popular internationally —especially in China. Indeed, "Avatar" made the bulk of its money outside the U.S., with a whopping $2.08 billion coming from overseas. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every parent hopes that their child will still come to them years from now to spend time together, share their victories and setbacks, and seek guidance. This kind of lifelong closeness is built early on in the small, everyday moments that teach a child whether it's safe to be fully themselves around their parents. Here are the practices parents should start early on if they want a relationship that lasts well into adolescence and adulthood. Children rise to the expectations we set for them. If anything feels tough, you can come to me." This trust becomes the foundation they rely on later, when life gets more complicated. When you shut down crying, fear or frustration, your kids may just stop bringing them to you. Validation can sound like: "Everything you feel is allowed here." I've seen so many kids pull away from their parents because they feel suffocated by expectations. Give them space to be curious, loud and weird. Kids stay more connected to the people who allow them to be who they are as they grow older. Acceptance isn't the same as agreement. It's the message: "Who you are is loved and welcome here." Children stay close to adults who make room for their whole identity, not just the parts that are easy to parent. The strongest parent-child relationships are built on repair. When parents take responsibility, they teach children that mistakes don't break the relationship. Kids are more likely to shut down when they don't feel heard. Instead of immediately trying to offer a solution, try saying: "Tell me more about that." If a child learns early that disagreement leads to conflict, punishment, or withdrawal of your love, they'll stop being honest later. Healthy closeness requires emotional freedom, so when your child disagrees with you, respond with curiosity instead of control. Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting and the creator of the BOUND and FOUNDATIONS journals, now offered together as her Holiday Emotional Safety Bundle. She is widely recognized for her expertise in children's emotional well-being and for redefining what it means to raise emotionally healthy kids. Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC's new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. CNBC Select is editorially independent and may earn a commission from affiliate partners on links. Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It

A slew of layoffs, price hikes and studio closures have led many to declare — not for the first time — that the Xbox is dead. Laura Fryer, former executive producer at Microsoft Game Studios, said in June that the company seems to have "no desire or literally can't ship hardware anymore." Former Microsoft executive and ex-Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra slammed Xbox's "confusing" strategy in a now-deleted X post in October, saying the company is potentially heading for a "death by a thousand needles." The company's overall gaming revenue decreased 2% year-over-year, with a 29% dip in Xbox hardware sales, according to Microsoft's first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2026. It was the worst November in two decades, IGN reported, citing Circana data. Combined Switch and Switch 2 unit sales were down more than 10% during the month and PS5 sales were down more than 40%, IGN said. In console sales, Xbox can barely see the leaders this year. Sony's PlayStation 5 had 9.2 million units sold in 2025, according to its most recent financial results. Microsoft's Xbox Series S and Series X, at 1.7 million units, couldn't outsell the original Nintendo Switch, which launched in 2017 and has sold 3.4 million units so far this year, data from game sales tracking site VGChartz estimated. Microsoft declined to comment on Xbox sales or numbers. In November, Valve made a splash with its next-generation Steam Machine, which is set to launch next year. The mini cube will be able to run Windows PC games through Valve's own Linux-based SteamOS as a television console or as a gaming computer. But Microsoft doesn't seem too worried about falling behind. As Sony and Nintendo have firmly established themselves as hardware companies, Microsoft is pushing toward Bill Gates' original vision of an all-encompassing entertainment hub in the living room. "Ultimately, the addressable market is anybody who wants to play games, and Microsoft wants to serve that market," Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told CNBC. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a recent interview with the TBPN podcast that the company's gaming business model will look to be "everywhere in every platform," from consoles to TV to mobile. His comments also hinted that the next Xbox may function more like a PC. "It's kind of funny people think about the console and PC as two different things," Nadella said. Launched in October, those devices support cross-platform gaming and can run PC games bought from Epic Games, CD Projekt and Valve stores. Xbox has already incorporated that approach into the latest Backbone Pro, which rolled out in November. Designed in partnership with Backbone Labs, the portable gaming controller offers access to cloud gaming on mobile, PC, smart TV and other streaming devices. A source familiar with Xbox strategy told CNBC that the company is looking at creating an open system that enables players to jump between console, PC and cloud gaming — and any form of entertainment beyond gaming. Pachter said that while Microsoft is not completely abandoning hardware, the company is splitting its audience into existing buyers interested in specialized consoles and everyone else. In a 2019 interview with The Verge, Spencer said that he was not concerned with focusing on console sales as much as making games accessible. "I do think as we look at the next decade of gaming, as we think about reaching the over 2 billion people on the planet who play games, many of those people won't be buying consoles and gaming PCs," Spencer said. Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which gives subscribers access to games from a variety of publishers, is a clear example of this strategy. Microsoft has been steadily expanding its title offerings on the service. The platform's most basic tier, Game Pass Essential (previously Game Pass Core), which costs $9.99 and launched in 2023 with 36 games, now offers over 50 titles. Xbox reported a record 34 million Game Pass subscribers in 2024 and a total Game Pass revenue of almost $5 billion over the last fiscal year. Xbox said in a November blog post that the number of cloud gaming hours from Game Pass subscribers was up 45% compared to the same time last year. The Microsoft subsidiary also said console players are "spending 45% more time cloud streaming on console and 24% more on other devices." Although Microsoft faced heavy criticism from subscribers after increasing the cost of its Ultimate tier by 50% from $19.99 to $29.99 in October, the company is reportedly testing an ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming. Omdia senior principal analyst George Jijiashvili told CNBC that a free Game Pass tier would likely act as a user-acquisition tool, especially for gamers who have not invested in consoles yet. However, due to the high costs associated with cloud gaming, an ad-supported tier would likely not be able to actually drive a meaningful amount of revenue, he said. "With console-grade cloud gaming, you need to essentially run every single instance of the game in a server," Jijiashvili said. "You need a dedicated hardware for every single person that's streaming the game, meaning it just doesn't scale." Despite gaming's scaling limitations, Microsoft seems committed to doing what it has done with the rest of its products — moving it to the cloud. "They've evolved into a primarily cloud services company," Pachter said. "So everything they've done since they started acquiring studios at Xbox has been toward the connected experience in the home to view entertainment." Microsoft has spent the past few years building out its entertainment hub with a catalog of original games through an acquisition blitz. In 2018, the software giant more than doubled its game studios with a string of acquisitions that included Ninja Theory, inXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment. Two years later, Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, which owned Bethesda, for $8.1 billion. It was the company's largest gaming acquisition until its 2023 purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion. Pachter said that the software giant's gaming spree was also a move to collect "enough content" to bolster its cloud gaming services. Yet Microsoft's approach to using its roster of exclusive titles has seen a stark shift recently. As Xbox exclusives still struggled to compete with wildly successful PlayStation games like "Marvel's Spider-Man" and "God of War," the company has made a definitive pivot away from its original-content strategy. Bond recently said in an interview with Mashable that the idea of exclusive games is "antiquated" as the company has leaned into cross-platform gaming. In 2024, Xbox opened four formerly exclusive games to other consoles. In a January interview, Spencer said that the company won't "put walls up" where users can engage with Xbox games. "What we've learned is put the games first, make sure the games can be as great as they can," he said. In May, the company also shut down several studios under game publisher Bethesda, including "Redfall" maker Arkane Austin and "Mighty Doom" developer Alpha Dog Games. The gaming unit was hit again when company-wide layoffs in July led to Microsoft shelving "Perfect Dark" and "Everwild," games that have reportedly been in development for at least seven years, as well as multiple unannounced projects. The company reportedly asked its gaming division in 2023 to target profit margins of 30%, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. Microsoft has raised prices on its aging lineup of flagship consoles twice over the past year. Nintendo and Sony also announced price hikes for their respective consoles in August. With a growing number of consoles and handhelds in the market, competition is fierce for a dedicated group of customers that will always be interested in owning hardware. But Xbox is betting that cloud and cross-platform gaming are the future. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) is considered to be one of the key beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, thanks to robust demand for its advanced graphics processing units (GPUs). The stock has been under pressure recently due to concerns about valuations of AI plays and growing competition in the AI chip space from rivals like Broadcom (AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Alphabet-owned Google's tensor processing units (TPUs). Nvidia is also facing uncertainty related to chip exports to China amid geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing. Despite ongoing pressures, several top analysts remain bullish on Nvidia for several reasons, including its solid track record, strong execution, continued innovation and dominant position in the AI GPU market. TipRanks' AI Analyst also has an "outperform" rating on NVDA stock with a price target of $205. Let's look at the views of three such Wall Street pros who are bullish on Nvidia's growth potential. Following a virtual meeting with Nvidia's vice president of investor relations, Toshiya Hari, Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya reiterated a buy rating on NVDA stock with a price forecast of $275, saying that he continues to view it as a top pick. Among the key takeaways, Arya mentioned that while Nvidia agrees that Gemini 3 is a top large language model (LLM) that is trained on Google's in-house TPU, the company contends that it is too early to declare a clear winner. Specifically, the company emphasized that the existing GPU-based LLMs available were all trained on old Hopper (2022) architecture and cannot be compared with the upcoming LLMs that are trained on NVDA's Blackwell (2024) GPUs. Arya highlighted that management is confident about the expected launch of the Blackwell-backed LLMs in early 2026, which would prove that "they are at least a full generation ahead of competition." In fact, external benchmarks like MLPerf and InferenceMAX view Blackwell as the clear leader in both training and inference, with Nvidia standing out in terms of key metrics like tokens per watt and revenue per token. The five-star analyst added that Nvidia continues to have demand and supply visibility into at least $500 billion of revenue opportunity for Blackwell, Rubin and networking for calendar years 2025 to 2026. Interestingly, the recent deals with ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Anthropic/Microsoft are incremental to this $500 billion outlook (as they are letter of intents) and represent potential upside. 270 among more than 10,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon is also upbeat about Nvidia's prospects and has a buy rating on the semiconductor stock with a price target of $275. In his latest note to investors, the analyst discussed some interesting takeaways from his virtual investor meeting with Stewart Stecker, senior director of investor relations at Nvidia. Rasgon noted that the $500 billion outlook announced in October for cumulative Blackwell, Rubin and networking sales for calendar years 2025 and 2026 will likely see an upside, as it doesn't include new deals such as that with Anthropic, the OpenAI 10 GW collaboration, and partnerships in the Middle East. On concerns about competition from Google's in-house chips, Rasgon noted that while Nvidia acknowledges the progress that Google has made in more than 10 years, the company believes that it is about two years ahead of the search engine giant's TPU program. Nvidia argues that, given the evolving AI market, it will be challenging for Google to persuade cloud service providers to deploy TPUs as they are meant for specific model structures. "But they believe NVIDIA's programmable platform solutions remain the best hardware for cloud AI infrastructure," said Rasgon. Moreover, Nvidia has not yet obtained any details about the 25% revenue sharing with the U.S. government and is currently unclear about how this fee will be accounted for. 144 among more than 10,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. That said, he remains bullish on Nvidia. "We haven't given up on NVDA given the technology moat and valuation at 18x the $10 EPS bogey," said Curtis. The five-star analyst contends that ASIC adoption is still in its early phases, giving Nvidia plenty of room to grow amid robust spending. He thinks that ongoing worries about NVDA are overstated, given that Blackwell Ultra rollout is on track and Rubin is set to ramp in the second half of 2026. Furthermore, Curtis noted Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip space and expects the company's Vera-Rubin and NVLink 6 launches in the second half of 2026 to bolster its position. He expects Blackwell-backed LLMs to be introduced in the first half of 2026 and act as a potential catalyst for NVDA stock. Curtis also expects Nvidia's launch of its new CPX chip in the second half of 2026 to benefit from higher capital spending by hyperscalers and rising focus on inference. The analyst currently expects CPX to generate revenue of $13 billion in calendar year 2027. 58 among more than 10,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

For years, Braden Wallake has posted everything from business lessons to animal pictures on his LinkedIn page. Users blasted the HyperSocial CEO as being "manipulative" and displaying "self indulgence." The photo "would make a great dart board," another wrote. Corporate executives and founders like Wallake were sold on the idea that a vibrant social media presence can boost their personal and firm-wide brand awareness. But the reality is less picture-perfect than it's made out to be. And they're learning the hard way that their digital footprints can even have material business implications. "There can be real benefits from CEOs being online, but there can also be great risks," said Ann Mooney Murphy, a Stevens Institute of Technology professor who has studied how company leaders gain social media celebrity status. Nearly three-fourths of Fortune 500 chief executives had at least one social media account last year, up from roughly half in 2019, data from Influential Executive showed. More than seven out of 10 Fortune 100 CEOs with social platforms posted at least once a month in 2024, a 32% increase from the year prior, according to an analysis from communications firm H/Advisors Abernathy released this week. CEOs have flocked in particular to the work-focused social site LinkedIn, where they post three times a month on average. An active social media presence can help build brand recognition and drive attention from mainstream news outlets, Murphy said. It can also allow executives to develop para-social relationships directly with consumers — something that was once reserved for more-traditional celebrities like actors or athletes, she said. While company news was king in these posts, H/Advisors Abernathy found executives devoting more social real estate to sharing personal happenings. This softer style of content — examples of which include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sharing pictures from Taylor Swift's "Eras" tour and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon posting details for his DJ sets — can help keep followers engaged, Murphy said. A subsector has sprouted up around executives' social media habits, with several businesses offering training programs or consulting services focused on best practices. PayPal made waves in marketing circles earlier this year when it posted a "Head of CEO Content" role, which paid upwards of $300,000 in part to lead social media communications strategy. But in recent years, a growing list of anecdotes like Wallake's "Crying CEO" experience show how posting through life can go awry. Jason Yanowitz boasted on X in October that Blockworks, the crypto company he co-founded, saw "massive growth" and hit "record revenues" in 2025. He also said the company was shuttering its news division and recommended staffers to anyone hiring journalists covering digital currencies. Someone else replied that "before jumping into what's next," he should "address the real people who were impacted." Yanowitz, who declined CNBC's interview request, later wrote on X that he "should not have mentioned revenue" in the original post. Around the same time as Yanowitz's tweet, a social media video featuring Snowflake revenue chief Mike Gannon offered a case study on how these incidents can evolve into real-world crises. Shortly after, Snowflake said in a regulatory filing that statements made in the interview were not authorized and that investors "should not rely upon" them. The company declined to make Gannon available for an interview. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared visions for his business ventures on social media in between musings about politics and cultural issues. Two years ago, Musk found himself in court defending comments related to business plans made on X, his social media platform formerly known as Twitter. In several instances, readers have responded directly to executives whose content they find problematic or cringe-inducing. Some, like Ryan Benson, have also mocked the broader trend of business leaders' attempting to connect directly via social media. "They're not trying to speak with people the way that maybe an influencer has success in. Executives' missteps on social media can catalyze discontent from investors, consumers or employees, according to Murphy of the Stevens Institute of Technology. In some situations, she said social media statements could lead to increased regulatory or legal risk for the companies they represent. HyperSocial's Wallake said he initially took time away from LinkedIn to let the dust settle and now thinks twice before making a post. But Wallake still recommends other business managers harness social media to grow their brands given the benefits. If someone does bring up his teary picture, Wallake brushes it off. When Yehong Zhu, co-founder of media technology startup Zette AI, jumped on a day-in-my-life trend, responders roasted her over perceived laziness. People said she should be "embarrassed" and was "fundamentally useless to society." One commenter said they were "printing this out and taping it to the wall to remind me every time I catch myself believing in meritocracy." But she also noticed a flood of press coverage that included the company's name and signups to a product waitlist, underscoring the power of publicity — even if it's negative. Zhu later understood that her post was taken as "rage bait," a genre of content so infamous that Oxford named it the 2025 word of the year. She's currently undergoing a social media rebrand and is considering leaning toward controversial posts — with the hope of winning more attention online. "I was not trying to rage bait," she said of the original post. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

More than two-thirds — 69% — of homebuyers submit only one mortgage application, according to a new report from Zillow. However, you shouldn't stop there, experts say. With the average interest rate on a traditional 30-year mortgage sitting above 6.2% as of Friday, even a half-point difference in the rate can be a game-changer for some homebuyers, who already face elevated prices on housing and other necessary expenditures like groceries, health insurance and utilities. "In my experience, shopping around for a mortgage is one of the most overlooked opportunities for consumers to improve their financial outcome," said certified financial planner Mike Casey, founder and president of AE Advisors in Alexandria, Virginia. "Many borrowers default to the lender recommended by a real estate agent or their existing bank without comparing alternatives," Casey said. Despite weakening home prices and signs of economic slowing, rates on 30-year mortgages have largely remained in the 6.2% to 6.3% range over the last two months, according to Mortgage News Daily. While down from nearly 8% in October 2023, it is a far cry from the below-3% average seen in late 2020 and early 2021 amid the pandemic, when home prices began skyrocketing due in part to demand and low rates. The average price for a house in November was $359,241, a 45.8% jump from $246,326 at the beginning of 2020, according to home-buying site Zillow. Here's a look at other stories affecting the financial advisor business. "Rates can vary between different lending institutions, and closing costs can vary dramatically as well," said CFP Kevin Arquette, owner of WealthPoint Financial Planning in Lutz, Florida. For illustration: On a $360,000 30-year mortgage with a 6.25% fixed rate, the monthly payment — including principal and interest but not property taxes or homeowners insurance — would be $2,216.58, according to Bankrate's mortgage calculator. If you were to pay that amount monthly over the life of the loan, you would end up forking over $437,969 in interest. As for the estimated closing costs, it's important to understand when shopping around what's covered and if any of those expenses are negotiable. Closing costs are what you pay at the settlement table and cover things like title insurance, property taxes, lender fees and any so-called points you are paying. A point is 1% of the sale price, and paying points often comes with a mortgage rate that's lower than what you'd get otherwise. Your lender may be able to help you determine whether a lower rate with higher closing costs makes sense for your situation by showing you how much of your loan you will have paid off in, say, five years under different scenarios, Arquette said. Be aware that if you do apply for a mortgage preapproval, the lender generally will check your credit report as part of the process. This "hard inquiry" will cause your score to go down a few points temporarily. However, multiple mortgage applications don't necessarily hit your credit report as separate inquiries, said Margaret Poe, head of consumer credit education for TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus. "For example, if you rate-shop by applying for three different [loans], all three inquiries will appear on your credit report, but the credit-scoring models will only count them as a single inquiry," Poe said. The key is to apply for them relatively close together. You typically get a 45-day window, but some credit scoring models allow just 14 days, Poe said. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Alex publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The following has been edited for length and clarity. From what I've seen, the workload in finance will be different in a couple of years, and it's necessary to think about how you are going to fit into that. Two years ago, I would have had to walk an AI model through every single step and input to have a large language model calculate free cash flow. Now, I can provide five PDF files, reference three other outside sources, and ask the model to use these assumptions to calculate free cash flow. I began AI training in 2023, while I was looking for a job that involved some form of equity valuation work. I had a lot of interviews, but no offers. I was skeptical at first, but decided to give it a shot. Very quickly, I realized that I enjoyed the work and could share my background while getting paid to contribute to this technology. Every time Alex publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Alex and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. In that time, I've seen the models become drastically better at doing financial analysis, and it can take nearly a full day's work to create one AI prompt that can actually stump the models. The work pays well, and I find it interesting. I'm contributing my experience to a technology that will inevitably enter every industry. The financial industry is not an exception, and by understanding how this works and will impact my job, I'll be better prepared when the changes come. I first started in finance in my native Ukraine, where I worked as a stock trader at a proprietary trading firm before moving to one of the largest Ukrainian investment banks. I left Ukraine 9 years ago and moved to Canada, where I studied and then became an analyst at CIBC. A few months later, I was hired into my current full-time role working as a financial analyst at a large steel producer, where I value strategic projects and investments and analyze how the larger economy might impact our company's performance. I was then contacted by another company to do more AI training work. I have continued to pick up more projects since, working predominantly on the weekends and after my main job, around 15 to 20 hours a week. I work a lot, but my family lost everything in Ukraine, so I have people to take care of here. The work is project-based, but I don't recall a single day when there wasn't a project available. As someone writing the prompt, the pay usually ranges from $50 to $70 an hour, while reviewers can make from $90 to $120. With my experience, I've seen the pay stretch up to $160. The growth in pay suggests that AI is still dependent on humans. Your job is to make every task tricky without being ambiguous. Right now, it takes between three to eight hours to write a task that triggers model failure, and we're heading to a world where it could take a day or two. I enjoy writing and have published some of my equity research on Seeking Alpha. I am hopeful that my combination of finance and AI experience will position me better for the changes that are coming. In the future, industry professionals with skills and knowledge in their field will have AI bots that perform the tasks they currently do.

Every time Grace publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Tesla is going all in on its "Robotaxi" service — and putting factory workers and sales staff in drivers' seats to make it happen. The electric-car maker has started recruiting workers off factory lines to operate its ride-hailing fleet. Tesla is offering production associates and material handlers extra hours and pay to take on the role of AI operator, according to posters that appeared at its California factories earlier this month. Tesla plans to eventually release the software as a fully autonomous service. The posters, which also appeared in several engineering facilities, noted that staffers could earn $500 if they refer a friend for the AI operator role. Every time Grace publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Grace and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Some sales staffers in Nevada and Arizona moved over to similar operator roles in Las Vegas and Phoenix last month, according to a review of LinkedIn profiles. Adding more operators could help Tesla speed up service. After Tesla rolled out its Robotaxi app to the public in September, wait times spiked, with some passengers reporting on social media wait times as long as 40 minutes and a lack of available vehicles. Business Insider's Alistair Barr said he's recently seen wait times around 10 minutes in the Bay Area, and during peak commuting times, the app at times says it cannot provide a ride due to "high service demand." Tesla completed the self-certification process for service in Nevada and Arizona last month. The company has yet to begin offering paid rides in either state. Meanwhile, the company launched its Bay Area ride-hailing service in August. It's not registered as an autonomous vehicle service in California; it operates its service with a driver because the state has stricter regulations around autonomous vehicles than most other states, many of which operate around an honor system where the company self-certifies its vehicles. (The registration number reflects vehicles approved for use; it doesn't necessarily indicate how many are operating at any given time.) Musk said during an xAI event earlier this month that Tesla's Austin service will be driverless by the end of the year. "I think it's pretty much a solved problem, we're going through validation right now," he said, according to a recording posted on social media. Tesla is hiring for AI operators across the US, including in Illinois, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Texas, according to its website. The role has around-the-clock shifts and requires workers to sit behind the wheel while FSD is engaged, interact with passengers, and collect detailed reports on vehicle performance. It can also involve testing in various cities across the country. The recruiting process involved an FSD test drive, a valid driver's license, and passing a drug test and background check, according to people who interviewed for the role. Do you work for Tesla or have a tip?

Every time Samuel publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Since Michael Burry launched a Substack in November, he's been sharing plenty of investing insight, but he isn't the only "Big Short" trader who has something to say about the current market landscape. While he doesn't deny that the AI trade is real and a secular growth story, he also sees strong parallels between the two tech crazes that suggest investors need to tread cautiously. "And I think that we're reaching a point where the math is starting not to work." Every time Samuel publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Samuel and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Moses emphasized that his take on potential AI market problems isn't a call to short the industry. "They can turn down their capex at any point, and they're still cash flowing positive, as opposed to these other companies, which are dependent upon that spending within AI," he said. Moses isn't bullish on all of Big Tech's top names, though. He also highlighted volatile tech stocks Super Micro Computer and CoreWeave as examples of riskier plays within the AI trade. In his view, though, investors are finally starting to account for the fact that not all AI stocks are created equal as the divide between relative outperformers and underperformers becomes increasingly hard to ignore. That said, he thinks the timeline for when it will start to spur growth is one that investors should be paying close attention to, as it is sometimes misunderstood amid the AI hype. "There's a mismatch in the timing of how people think that companies will experience AI growth and actually the infrastructure that it's going to take to power it."

Russian President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide said on Sunday that changes made by the Europeans and Ukraine to U.S. proposals for an end to the war in Ukraine did not improve prospects for peace. The U.S.-drafted proposals for an end to the nearly four-year-old war, leaked to the media last month, raised European and Ukrainian concerns that they were tilted too far in Russia's favour and that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration could push Kyiv into conceding too much. Since then, European and Ukrainian negotiators have met with Trump envoys in an attempt to add their own proposals into the U.S. drafts, though the exact contents of the current proposal have not been disclosed. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that the European and Ukrainian changes would not improve the chances of peace. "This is not a forecast," Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies, though he said he had not seen the exact proposals on paper yet. Ushakov made the remarks after Putin's special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, met in Florida on Saturday with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dmitriev said the talks would continue on Sunday. The Miami meeting followed U.S. talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials. At stake is whether Putin will agree an end to the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers are sidelined and whether or not a peace deal brokered by the United States will endure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine would back a U.S. proposal for three-way talks with the United States and Russia if it facilitated more exchanges of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders. Ushakov said that a proposal for three-way talks had not been seriously discussed by anyone and that it was not being worked on. Russia says that European leaders are intent on scuttling the peace talks by introducing conditions that they know will be unacceptable to Russia, which took 12-17 square km (4.6-6.6 square miles) of Ukrainian territory per day in 2025. Ukraine and European leaders say that Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its aims after what they cast as an imperial-style land grab. Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox