Elective vehicle-maker Rivian is laying off hundreds of workers in its service and customer organization.
A company spokesperson told FOX Business that the job cuts represent less than 2% of Rivian’s workforce, which totaled about 15,200 employees at the end of 2025. Workers affected by the layoffs may apply for other open roles at the company.
“We recently restructured a handful of teams within Rivian as we work to profitably scale our business,” the spokesperson said.
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The job cuts took effect on Tuesday and affected Rivian’s service and customer division, which is responsible for sales and marketing duties, as the company looks to restructure its teams to grow efficiently while rolling out a new model.
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The Wall Street Journal first reported the layoffs.
Rivian recently conducted multiple rounds of layoffs in the last year while it prepared for the launch of the R2 SUV, which factors heavily into the EV-maker’s roadmap for future products.
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Ticker Security Last Change Change % RIVN RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE INC. 15.93 -0.75 -4.50%
It cut over 600 jobs, or 4.5% of its workforce, in October amid softer demand for its vehicles following the expiration of EV tax credits in October.
The R2 officially debuted last week with a variant that had a larger number of optional add-ons for a starting price around $58,000 – while the automaker is planning to release more affordable versions in the future.
RIVIAN TO LAY OFF 10% OF SALARIED STAFF
The company is hoping that the lower-cost model will broaden demand and strengthen its sales outlook as it strives for profitability.
Rivian has said that it no longer expects to meet its 2027 adjusted core profit target as it ramps up spending on research and development to accelerate its autonomous driving roadmap.
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SHERMAN, Texas (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — whose work helped enable artificial intelligence — stressed in an Associated Press interview Tuesday that society has no choice but to change in the advent of AI.
Huang has been optimistic about the technology’s potential to rapidly change society, creating faster economic growth and more scientific breakthroughs. But as the head of a computer chip company now developing AI systems, Huang has felt obligated to respond to critics who warn of job losses and threats to humanity itself.
“We need to create new social norms,” Huang said in an interview. “I would advocate that everybody use AI. Just go engage it.”
Huang made his case as AI has emerged as a political flashpoint, with objections to plans to build more data centers and fears that the speed with which it’s being adopted could spur the layoffs of workers who might not have a safety net. Such questions have threatened public support of the technology.
His close relationship with President Donald Trump has been a source of criticism among Democrats, even as he makes the case that the computing power created by AI is key to adding the factory jobs that have been promised for decades without much enduring success.
He said the ability of AI to build a website, analyze complex documents, guide advanced research or even plan a kitchen remodeling has helped to close the technological divide in America. People can now do advanced work on computers without having to know how to program or write software, he added.
Huang stressed that there is a need for government regulation and safety standards for AI, emphasizing that national security also needed to be a priority for the technology that has been powering stock market gains and much of the U.S. economy in recent years.
The head of the world’s most valuable company said society will adapt to AI just as it did to automobiles. He said cars were once portrayed as killing children, but the world changed its norms by having sidewalks and crosswalks and stopping kids from playing in the streets.
“When I was growing up, I used to play in the streets,” Huang said. “When cars came along, you obviously can’t play in the streets now.”
Huang skeptical of what government ownership of AI companies would achieve
With a market capitalization of roughly $5 trillion, Nvidia has soared in valuation in recent years to become the world’s most valuable company. AI modeling companies OpenAI and Anthropic are potentially set to also clear the $1 trillion mark once their stocks are publicly traded.
That explosive surge in wealth concentrated in AI companies has prompted renewed worries about economic inequality. Trump has tried to defuse those concerns, recently musing about the prospect that the U.S. government could own some shares in AI firms, so any windfalls would be more broadly shared with the public. That idea has also been advanced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Huang expressed skepticism about the idea, saying he expects the country will already benefit broadly from AI advancements.
“I’m not exactly sure what they’re trying to achieve,” he said regarding government ownership. “I haven’t had a dialogue with them about that. But just remember that these are American companies. Their success benefits the stock price, of which many Americans are investors in. It generates taxes, which helps many Americans. It creates a lot of jobs.”
He noted that AI companies could also lead to higher profits for energy, construction and hardware technology firms.
“Americans have a stake in American companies already, naturally, in a whole lot of different ways,” Huang said.
Huang says national security needs to be a priority on AI
The Trump administration has recently reversed course from using a light touch on regulating AI to taking a heavier hand.
It placed export controls on the AI company Anthropic’s latest models, leading the company on Friday to shutter all public access to those models over security concerns. Trump, a Republican, also signed an order to have new AI models voluntarily vetted by the government.
Huang said the government was properly focused on national security issues, but it was important to provide clear guidance when taking restrictive actions, as doing so could lead to unintended consequences.
“National security should always be the top concern of all technologies,” Huang said. “But having said that, you know, you have to be very specific about the risk that you’re concerned about, before setting up policies for export controls.”
During the Biden administration, Nvidia pushed back against export controls that were designed to restrict its ability to sell chips to China, rejecting the administration’s premise that a ban would guarantee an American edge on AI. Huang had warned that the export controls might limit America’s ability to develop the world’s AI ecosystem, as China would respond with its own advanced chips.
Huang says energy is key problem for America’s AI development
Huang stressed that while the U.S. has many strengths on AI, it is vulnerable because of a lacking energy infrastructure. The data centers performing the computations used in AI are creating a huge demand for electricity, which could be a strain on the power grid.
Some data centers will be constructed with their own electricity sources, but Huang said the U.S. is starting from a disadvantage on energy. And without more energy, it can be harder to play to American strengths in its AI infrastructure, models and computer chip development.
“The United States is woefully behind in energy production,” Huang said. “We just suffocated energy production for too long.”
Huang complimented Trump on his approach to seeking to increase energy production. The president has aggressively supported the use of oil, coal and natural gas, but he has scorned the use of solar and wind power.
The Nvidia CEO was not commenting on Trump’s opposition to climate-friendlier energy sources, but the gap he identified goes to some of the fears that U.S. households have about AI increasing their utility bills.
Huang was speaking Tuesday in Sherman, Texas, at an expansion of the Coherent factory to develop a laser for transmitting data among chips, which could cut power use by AI systems by up to 50%.
Trump’s fondness for Huang started at a Mar-a-Lago dinner
Trump, not known for technological expertise, quickly developed a friendship with Huang. The president has called him “smart,” a “friend” and “amazing,” insisting that Huang accompany him on foreign trips. Most recently, Trump had Air Force One pick up the leather-jacketed CEO in Alaska while en route to his state visit to China.
Their relationship started last year with an invitation to dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home and private club in Florida. Huang was in the area to receive the Edison Achievement Award for his AI work.
“He says drop by for dinner, and so I did,” Huang said. He went with his wife, Lori.
“He was incredibly engaging, incredibly charismatic, conversational, asked a lot of questions,” Huang recalled. “From the moment that I met him, the only thing that he’s ever talked to me about is creating more jobs, reindustrializing the United States, protecting national security, winning.” He added that Trump “calls me in the middle of the night and wants to talk about one of these topics.”
But his proximity to Trump has also led to criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., objected to Huang not testifying before a Senate committee even as “he has time to attend a $1 million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago.”
Huang said he wants the U.S. president and other officials — regardless of party — to succeed. “We could differ with politics, but we should want him to succeed,” he said. “Because when President Trump succeeds, our country succeeds.”

SpaceX briefly passed Amazon to become the fifth-most valuable company in the world, and nearly eclipsed Microsoft, before the company’s shares pared back those gains before the market closed Tuesday.
The newly public company’s stock had already climbed 20% on Monday — its first full day of trading. Tuesday’s news that SpaceX was acquiring AI coding company Cursor, along with the start of options trading on SpaceX’s shares, sent the share price even higher, spiking its valuation to $2.9 trillion before it ultimately settled back down.
This is all despite the fact that SpaceX posted a $4.9 billion loss on $18.7 billion in revenue last year, compared to Amazon, which turned a $78 billion profit in 2025 on $717 billion in sales in 2025. SpaceX has recently added new revenue streams in the form of compute leasing deals with Anthropic and Google, though, and will absorb the revenue from Cursor when that deal closes in the third quarter.
The Anthropic and Google deals are non-binding, but investors don’t seem to mind either way. Elon Musk’s space-and-AI company had added roughly $1 trillion to its valuation since going public on Friday.
That transaction netted SpaceX nearly $86 billion in fresh capital, largely on promises that it can create an AI business worth trillions of dollars — a wild claim for a company that recently tore its AI division down to the studs.
SpaceX first revealed a collaboration with Cursor in April, at a time when Musk said his AI company xAI — now a part of SpaceX — “was not built right [the] first time around” and that he was rebuilding it “from the foundations up.” SpaceX is making the acquisition with $60 billion in company shares.
SpaceX’s historic IPO saw it debut with a valuation of around $1.7 trillion, and the transaction raised nearly $86 billion for Musk’s company. SpaceX only made about 4% of its total shares available for trading, which experts predicted would make the stock more susceptible to wild swings.
That appeared to be the case Tuesday, as traders swapped more than 300 million SpaceX shares throughout the trading day — more than half of the 555 million available on the public market post-IPO, according to data from the Nasdaq stock exchange.
The volatility continued into after-hours trading, which saw SpaceX’s valuation briefly eclipse Amazon’s market cap for a second time before falling again.

The king of fast food has officially been dethroned.
For the first time in more than a decade, Chick-fil-A is no longer the top-rated quick-service restaurant, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which rates eateries based on thousands of customer surveys reflecting on recent experiences with major chains.
After an 11-year run, results from 16,464 respondents knocked the chicken chain from its coveted spot in favor of sandwich shop Jersey Mike’s, which was commended for its freshness, food variety and value. Securing an ACSI score of 84 out of 100, Jersey Mike’s edged Chick-fil-A out by one point after adding 238 net new locations in 2025 and clearing $4.2 billion in sales.
“The U.S. restaurant industry faced difficulties in 2025, with total sales struggling to keep pace with inflation,” said the report published Tuesday, June 16. “In a market defined by trade-offs, customers are placing greater emphasis on consistency, reliability, and perceived value as opposed to just price. Brands that deliver a consistently enjoyable experience are gaining ground.”
Wondering where your favorites ranked in 2026? Read more below.
See the top 15 quick-service restaurant chains
Chick-fil-A still on top of the chicken game, no McDonald’s in sight for burgers
Breaking quick-service or fast-food restaurants down a little further by category puts Chick-fil-A back on top, at least for chicken.
Jersey Mike’s maintained its crowning spot in the sandwich category, while Papa Johns and Pizza Hut tied for pizza, Starbucks led the coffee pack and Burger King and Culver’s were the winners in burgers. Perhaps surprising to some, fast food heavy-hitter McDonald’s ranked seventh on the list for burgers with a score of 72, not even breaking the top five.
There were only three that made the coffee list, and numbers two and three may also send some for a loop, as Dunkin’ is tied with Panera Bread at 78 points for coffee/bakery/cafe chains.
Top 5 chicken spots
Chick-fil-A
KFC
Raising Cane’s
Wingstop
Popeyes
Top 4 sandwich spots
Jersey Mike’s
Jimmy John’s
Subway
Arby’s
Top 4 pizza spots
Papa Johns
Pizza Hut
Domino’s
Little Ceasers
Top 5 burger spots
Burger King
Culver’s
Sonic
Wendy’s
Five Guys
Steakhouses take top spots for full-service eateries
Texas Roadhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse tied for the top sit-down spots with ACSI scores of 82, despite those scores representing a 1% to 2% point decrease for both.
Olive Garden followed closely behind at 81 before scores dropped into the high 70s for eateries like Applebee’s, Chili’s and Cracker Barrel.
“This year’s brand results show a compressed top tier while continuing to demonstrate America’s love of steak even as beef prices rise sharply,” said the report.
Accuracy of food orders, food and beverage quality, and courtesy and helpfulness of waitstaff remained the top factors for satisfaction, and all improved year-over-year, while quality of the mobile app and website satisfaction remained at the bottom but also improved.
The reliability of mobile apps (minimal downtime, crashes, lags), saw significant gains. In 2026, customer satisfaction with mobile apps went up 12% from 78 to 87, while website and mobile app quality satisfaction both went up by 4%.
“These improvements align with a broader industry push to reduce friction in carryout and digital ordering, an area where customers often ‘feel’ service failures most acutely when they may be paying more for delivery,” said the report.
See the top 15 full-service restaurant chains

KFC is betting its future on chicken without the bones, as well as drinks with a lot more flair. The chain on Monday laid out a “next chapter” built around boneless chicken, a revamped recipe for its tenders, a broader lineup of sauces (including chimichurri ranch), and new “Dunked” items smothered in flavor, reports CNBC. A global rollout of the upgraded tenders and sauces starts this month in the UK and Ireland, with Australia and the US to follow over the summer.
Meanwhile, a new drinks brand, Kwench by KFC—which the chain promotes as “the drinks you didn’t know you needed”—will add iced coffees, sparkling lemonades, and boba refreshers in markets including Australia and Canada. The push comes as KFC’s US market share has fallen to fourth place in chicken fast food, behind Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, and Raising Cane’s. The company is also refreshing its logo and restaurant design, with an open-concept Texas store and an “immersive” two-story location in Dubai on deck. Meanwhile, KFC owner Yum Brands is selling off struggling sister chain Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion, per the AP.
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