Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, March 24. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. Tesla notched its first increase in European monthly sales in more than a year. The boost comes as Elon Musk's EV maker faces intense competition from Chinese auto giant BYD.
New car registrations for Tesla models, a reflection of sales, grew nearly 12% on year in February to more than 17,600 units across the region, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Tesla hadn't logged an increase in monthly new car registrations in Europe since December 2024.
Xiaomi's fourth quarter net profit fell 27% to about $950.5 million, despite a 7.3% rise in revenue. The Chinese electronics maker faces challenges from high memory chip prices and weak Chinese consumer spending.
Chapter 2: What recent sales trends are impacting Tesla in Europe?
Sales from its biggest revenue driver, smartphones, dropped 14% during the period. There were also signs of weakness in Xiaomi's Internet of Things and Lifestyle Products segment, including large home appliances and televisions. But its EV business was a bright spot, with quarterly revenue more than doubling. For the full year, Xiaomi's net profit grew 76%.
And a new survey of about 750 CFOs found that while AI is expected to displace workers in routine clerical and administrative roles, its immediate impact will be small.
The survey, produced with economists from the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Richmond, was conducted in late 2025 and early 2026 and released this week as a working paper on the National Bureau of Economic Research website. CFOs from various sectors, including finance, tech manufacturing, and professional services, project only a 0.4% headcount reduction this year due to AI.
Meanwhile, workers with highly skilled roles, like architects and engineers, are more secure, particularly if workers can leverage AI. That's your TMB Tech Minute. Join us again this afternoon for more.