Elon Musk announced his new company xAI which he says has the goal to understand the true nature of the universe. Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images Elon Musk's xAI has lost its second co-founder in two days. Influential researcher Jimmy Ba on Tuesday announced his departure in a post on X, thanking Musk and writing that he was, "Grateful to have helped cofound at the start." Ba's departure co...
Elon Musk announced his new company xAI which he says has the goal to understand the true nature of the universe. Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images Elon Musk's xAI has lost its second co-founder in two days. Influential researcher Jimmy Ba on Tuesday announced his departure in a post on X, thanking Musk and writing that he was, "Grateful to have helped cofound at the start." Ba's departure comes just one day after fellow co-founder Tony Wu announced his own exit from xAI, which merged with Musk's aerospace company SpaceX earlier this month. The xAI co-founder exodus comes as SpaceX prepares to go public sometime this year. A University of Toronto professor, Ba was credited for critical research that influenced the company's Grok version 4 AI models. Besides Ba and Wu, other co-founders including Igor Babuschkin , Kyle Kosic and Christian Szegedy, have also departed Musk's artificial intelligence venture. Greg Yang announced last month that he would be stepping back from his role to focus on his battle with Lyme disease. The record-setting, all-stock deal valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, according to documents viewed by CNBC. Musk previously used xAI to acquire his social network X, formerly Twitter, in another all-stock transaction announced in March 2025 . The departures also come as xAI faces regulatory probes in multiple jurisdictions across Europe, Asia and the U.S. The probes were initiated after the company's Grok AI chatbot and image generator allowed mass-creation and syndication of non-consensual, explicit images, colloquially known as deepfake porn. The images were based on photos of real people, including children. Musk launched xAI in 2023 alongside 11 other people in an effort to compete against OpenAI and Google . The company's stated goal was to "understand the true nature of the universe," according to its website at the time. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. WATCH: SpaceX deal to aquire xAI ...
Monday night, xAI co-founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced he was leaving the company. “It’s time for my next chapter,” Wu wrote in a late-night post on X. “It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.” Less than a day later, on Tuesday afternoon, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, said that he, too, is bouncin...
Monday night, xAI co-founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced he was leaving the company. “It’s time for my next chapter,” Wu wrote in a late-night post on X. “It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.” Less than a day later, on Tuesday afternoon, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, said that he, too, is bouncing, posting a gracious note on X on his way out. “Enormous thanks to @elonmusk for bringing us together on this incredible journey. So proud of what the xAI team has done and will continue to stay close as a friend of the team,” it read in part. On their own, both were pretty standard tech departure announcements — but they’re part of a troubling pattern for the lab. Six members of the company’s 12-person founding team have now left the company, with five of the departures coming in just the last year. Infrastructure lead Kyle Kosic left for OpenAI in mid-2024, followed by Google veteran Christian Szegedy in February 2025. This past August, Igor Babuschkin left to found a venture firm, and Microsoft alum Greg Yang departed just last month, citing health issues. By all accounts, the splits have all been amicable, and there are lots of reasons why, nearly three years in, some founders might decide to move on. Elon Musk is a notoriously demanding boss, and with the SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI complete and an IPO pending in the coming months, everyone involved has a pretty big windfall coming. It’s a great time to be fundraising for an AI startup, so it’s only natural for high-level researchers to want to strike out on their own. There are also less amicable reasons that might factor in. The company’s flagship product, the Grok chatbot, has struggled with bizarre behavior and apparent internal tampering — the kind of thing that might easily create friction on the technical team. Then there were the recent changes to xAI’s image-generation tools that flooded the platform with dee...
Douglas Rissing/iStock via Getty Images XOMA Royalty Corporation ( XOMA ) ( XOMAO ) accumulates financial income from royalties, milestones, and other fees. They receive those cash inflows from programs run by other biotechs or pharmaceutical firms. However, note that XOMAO is not the common stock itself; instead, it's the 8.375% cumulative perpetual preferred depositary share. Thus, their investm...
Douglas Rissing/iStock via Getty Images XOMA Royalty Corporation ( XOMA ) ( XOMAO ) accumulates financial income from royalties, milestones, and other fees. They receive those cash inflows from programs run by other biotechs or pharmaceutical firms. However, note that XOMAO is not the common stock itself; instead, it's the 8.375% cumulative perpetual preferred depositary share. Thus, their investment case is about dividend reliability, capital structure, and call risk. In 2025, XOMA added 24 new assets with a reported strategy that combines royalty interests with tax-related value and selective monetization. All in all, over time, they could definitely improve their cash cushion, but at this point, I still feel XOMAO offers a nice dividend opportunity for long-term investors. Dividend Angle For Biotech XOMA Royalty Corporation is a biopharma royalty aggregator that buys royalties, milestones, and fees tied to drug candidates developed by other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. XOMA pays with non-dilutive capital and gets the upside if the underlying programs progress and generate sales. XOMAO is the ticker for Series B 8.375% cumulative perpetual preferred depositary shares. The company was incorporated back in 1981 as XOMA Corporation, and it was rebranded to its current name in 2024. It's now currently headquartered in Emeryville, California. I also previously covered XOMAO in April last year, and since then, they've continued making regular $0.52 dividend quarterly payments per share. Source: Corporate Presentation. January 2026. Having said that, last year, XOMA bought 24 new assets. XOMA claims that by acquiring certain biotech companies that spend heavily on R&D, it can unlock future tax deductions under Section 174 of the US tax regulations, which requires that certain R&D costs be treated more like a long-term investment than a regular expense. Therefore, instead of deducting the full R&D amount in the year it is spent, the company must amortize th...
Earnings Call Insights: Mattel (MAT) Q4 2025 Management View Ynon Kreiz, Executive Chairman & CEO, opened by noting, "In the fourth quarter, we achieved 6% growth in gross billings, including 7% in North America and 4% internationally. However, the growth in the U.S. was less than anticipated, which impacted our full year results relative to expectations." Kreiz also announced, "We have several st...
Earnings Call Insights: Mattel (MAT) Q4 2025 Management View Ynon Kreiz, Executive Chairman & CEO, opened by noting, "In the fourth quarter, we achieved 6% growth in gross billings, including 7% in North America and 4% internationally. However, the growth in the U.S. was less than anticipated, which impacted our full year results relative to expectations." Kreiz also announced, "We have several strategic updates to cover, including our agreement to acquire full ownership of Mattel163 announced today, details on the evolution of our strategy, guidance for 2026, as well as midterm expectations and an update on our capital allocation priorities." Kreiz reported Mattel ended the year with over $1.2 billion of cash after repurchasing $600 million of shares, and that the Board has authorized a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program through 2028. Kreiz highlighted, "Today, we announced that we have reached an agreement with our joint venture partner, NetEase, to acquire full ownership of the Mattel163 mobile games studio... The acquisition values Mattel163 at $380 million with a purchase price of $159 million for NetEase's 50% interest." The CEO detailed the evolution of company strategy, emphasizing a move to a "brand-centric organization and integrated operating model" and five strategic priorities, including scaling digital play and leveraging AI across systems and supply chain. Kreiz noted, "2026 will be an important year for Mattel as we implement our new brand-centric strategy to grow our IP-driven play and family entertainment business." Paul Ruh, CFO, stated, "Gross billings grew 6% in the fourth quarter, including 7% in North America, and POS was positive across every region, including the U.S. However, U.S. gross billings in December ended up growing less than we anticipated, impacting our full year results relative to expectations." Outlook Guidance for 2026 is for net sales growth in the range of 3% to 6% in constant currency, with FX expected to add a 1.5 p...
Key Points Starbucks' dividend grew at a hefty average annual rate of 24.5% for a decade, but has slowed dramatically since 2021. The company's 1.6% payout increase last year reflects some distressing fundamentals. While turnaround efforts may well succeed, short-term pain for shares is likely to come first. 10 stocks we like better than Starbucks › For 15 years, Starbucks' (NASDAQ: SBUX) dividend...
Key Points Starbucks' dividend grew at a hefty average annual rate of 24.5% for a decade, but has slowed dramatically since 2021. The company's 1.6% payout increase last year reflects some distressing fundamentals. While turnaround efforts may well succeed, short-term pain for shares is likely to come first. 10 stocks we like better than Starbucks › For 15 years, Starbucks' (NASDAQ: SBUX) dividend growth couldn't be stopped. In 2010, in the shadow of the Great Recession, it issued its first dividend of $0.05 per share, which doubled less than three years later. Up through 2025, payouts grew by 1,140%, and anyone who had invested $1,000 on the eve of its first dividend in April 2010 would now be enjoying a yield on cost of 28% each year. That's great income, but alas, this dividend growth is very likely in the past. As a shareholder, it pains me to say this, but I believe Starbucks' dividend growth will come to an abrupt halt later this year, as the company typically announces dividend hikes in October. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Here are the signs. Starbucks' dividend growth has sputtered big-time in recent years From 2010 to 2020, the company hiked its dividend by an average of 24.5% a year. But since 2021, dividend growth has slowed dramatically, as you can see below. Year Quarterly Payout Annual Dividend Increase 2021 $0.49 per share 8.9% 2022 $0.53 per share 8.2% 2023 $0.57 per share 7.5% 2024 $0.61 per share 7% 2025 $0.62 per share 1.6% Slowing dividend growth may not tell us much by itself, not even a slowdown as sharp as this. After all, I argued recently that Coca-Cola's dividend growth will soon pick back up after a years-long slowdown. But Starbucks' token dividend growth in 2025 came alongside some worrying fundamentals. 2. Starbucks' payout ratio is soaring Over th...