Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
4 Business News Stories We Are Following Today 5-28-25
Wed, 28 May 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker breaks down four key business stories: Tempus AI’s stock drop, major leadership changes at Jeep, Tesla’s recovery under Elon Musk’s renewed focus, and how U.S. trade power is influencing global tariff negotiations.
Chapter 1: What is the first business story about?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Today, we're going to walk through very quickly four stories that we're following today, and some of these will break out into separate podcasts. First, Tempest, the AI cancer research company founded by Eric Lefkowski and Brad Keywell, is down 16% today. But don't worry, it's up 64% or so years to date.
Chapter 2: What leadership changes are happening at Jeep?
It also has a market cap currently of about $10 billion. And There, the top five insiders in the company own about 51%, and Eric himself owns about 26%. It's incredible what they've built here. Second, at Stellantis, which is Jeep to us in the United States, or Chrysler Jeep, they are bringing a new CEO on, Antonio Filoso. He'll replace the previous CEO. There's an interim order right now.
Chapter 3: How is Tesla recovering under Elon Musk?
The previous CEO, Carlos Tavares, really put Jeep into sort of a dumpster fire, a disaster. Jeep is down 54% over the last 52 weeks. It's also down 22% year to date. Let's hope this helps them move in the right direction. Just a horrendous job by the last CEO. Third, we are watching Tesla, Doge, and Elon Musk. And Tesla's having quite the comeback. It's down 10% year-to-date.
Chapter 4: What is the impact of U.S. trade power on global tariffs?
Earlier in the year, it was down 40% to 50%. So terrific there. And Doge, I think the jury is very much still out as to whether it's been lots of noise or whether they have a real impact or not. I don't know, and it remains to be seen. So we're watching Doge, Elon Musk, Tesla. Musk says he's going to spend more time at Tesla. We'll see if that helps.
Finally, fourth, watching this tariff and trade war thing go on and continue and so forth, and for all the criticism that President Trump took on the tariff initiative, including from myself from time to time, it is amazing to see how this is working out, quite frankly. It is a sign of how important the consumer power of the U.S.
is that countries throughout the globe are working very hard to reduce their tariffs and get into a closer spot with the United States trade-wise. It's really a remarkable thing to watch. The latest satellite today was India and several other countries really bending over backwards to try and get back into the good graces on U.S. trade.
It's fascinating to watch for all the criticism that the president took in this. He might be smarter than a lot of us give him credit for, including myself. Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity Business Podcast. Again, Scott Becker, anytime you have a question or idea for an episode, reach us at sbecker at beckerstrategygroup.com. Thank you very much for joining us.