The “electric vehicle company gone bankrupt” pack just grew by one. Nikola, the once hyped-up maker of electric- and hydrogen-powered semi trucks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.

Its fall from grace comes after a truckload of problems. Once a symbol of the EV revolution on Wall Street, Nikola reached a peak market cap of ~$27 billion in 2020—making it more valuable than Ford—after clinching a multibillion-dollar deal with General Motors. But by Q3 2024, CEO Steve Girsky warned that the company didn’t have enough cash to make it through the first quarter of 2025. It’s entering bankruptcy with $98 million in debt and lease obligations.

Started at the top, now it’s here

Nikola struggled from the moment it went public via SPAC in 2020 without having ever sold a single truck. Soon after, it was hit with allegations from short seller Hindenburg that its technology wasn’t as far along as it claimed, and those allegations spurred a government investigation:

• In 2022, Nikola’s founder, Trevor Milton, was convicted of securities fraud for allegedly misleading investors. He is appealing the conviction.
• During the trial, the prosecution pointed to a 2017 promo video of a Nikola semi that supposedly showed the truck driving down a hill. In reality, the vehicle was nonoperational and placed at the top of a hill and rolled down.

Nikola had fundamental problems: It lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on every vehicle it sold. In 2023, it was forced to recall all its vehicles due to a series of fire incidents with its electric trucks.

Zoom out: Nikola joins fellow EV-makers Fisker Automotive, Electric Last Mile Solutions, and Lordstown Motors, all of which went bankrupt in the last three years after going public during 2020 or 2021. Though it once looked promising, the electric vehicle environment is now tougher than an overcooked chicken breast—due to high costs, waning demand, and weak charging infrastructure, even blue-chip auto companies like Ford, General Motors, and Volvo have pulled back on their EV promises.—CC

Trump and Zelensky traded harsh words amid tension over Russia talks. Soon after the US and Russia held talks about how to end the war in Ukraine without Ukraine present, a verbal battle erupted between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. It began when Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war, which dates back to when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Zelensky then told reporters Trump was living in a Russia-created “disinformation space,” saying, “I want there to be more truth in Trump’s team.” Trump responded by calling Zelensky “A Dictator without Elections” and lamenting how much the US had spent on the war in a Truth Social post that overstated the amount of aid the US provided.

Trump admin moves to scrap NYC congestion pricing. The Department of Transportation is pulling its approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, which, since being implemented last month, has imposed a toll on drivers who enter busy areas of Manhattan in order to pay for public transit repairs. This will fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to end the program that has helped curb traffic but led to complaints from some drivers and business owners within the impacted zone. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the program “a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners.” New York’s governor vowed to fight for the program, saying, “We’ll see you in court.” The MTA also filed a lawsuit to protect the program.

KFC is leaving its old Kentucky home. We don’t expect the colonel to trade his string tie for a cowboy hat, but the chicken chain formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken is moving its corporate headquarters from Louisville, KY, to Plano, TX, its parent company Yum Brands said. About 100 KFC employees will be relocated to the new office, according to Yum Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Habit Burger and Grill. The parent company said it was part of a larger shift to two corporate hubs in Plano and in Irvine, California. The company’s charitable group, the KFC Foundation, will continue to be based in Louisville.—AR

Apple rolled out its newest iPhone SE this week, but it’s ditching the old nomenclature. The company released its newest lower-cost smartphone, the iPhone 16e, which is priced at $600 and will start shipping on February 28.

The new phone hints at a big shift coming soon in how Apple builds its devices: The home button is officially dead, replaced by a Face ID-enabled system. The 16e is also strong enough to run Apple Intelligence, the company’s AI offering, just like its more expensive cousins the iPhone 16 and the 15 Pro.

It’s also the first device to use Apple’s in-house cellular chip, the Apple C1.

• The company has paid chipmaker Qualcomm billions for its cellular modems (the piece that connects your phone to cell networks) and licensing fees.
• If the new in-house modem rollout in the 16e models works well, Apple will likely incorporate it in its next big release—the iPhone 17, expected this fall—and fully transition to its own chip within the next two years.

Big picture: Last year, Apple had its worst year in China for smartphone sales since 2016. It’s hoping that souping up its more affordable options could be the key to making the iPhone competitive internationally.—MM

Ne Zha 2, a Chinese blockbuster about a toothy child with fire powers, became the highest-grossing animated movie ever this week, snagging the crown from Inside Out 2, Pixar and Disney’s 2024 box-office winner about a toothy child with emotions.

The three-week-old film can’t stop smashing records. Ne Zha 2 has pulled in ~$1.7 billion globally on a reported $80 million budget since its Jan. 29 release, making it China’s highest-grossing movie ever and the eighth highest-grossing film of all time. Also:

• Ne Zha 2 unseated Inside Out 2 as the world’s top-performing animated film in about seven months—faster than any previous title dethronement (e.g., Frozen held the record for six years).
• It’s the first non-Hollywood film to crack the international box office’s Top 10 and the first non-English language movie in the Top 20.
• The feature is Imax’s highest-grossing China release, raking in $20+ million more than Avengers: Endgame.

Zoom out: China’s overall box office is up ~96% compared to the same time last year, according to Variety. Its theaters are rebounding from an extended post-Covid slump thanks to greater investment in domestic filmmaking, which has allowed China to shed its longtime reliance on American studios for mainstream entertainment.—ML

In the spirit of transparency, the Department of Government Efficiency, a White House office tasked with cutting government excess and championed by Elon Musk, has begun detailing the savings its measures have created on a website. But according to the New York Times, the receipts DOGE brought contained an error: On Monday, the group said one contract it canceled for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was worth $8 billion, when it was in fact worth only $8 million. NYT notes that the contract was previously listed incorrectly at the higher amount in a federal database, so it’s possible someone at DOGE deserves kudos for catching the mistake—though DOGE’s website also featured a screenshot of the database showing the contract at the correct amount, which was later deleted.

By yesterday morning, DOGE had updated the site to reflect the $8 million figure. But all told, Bloomberg reports that the DOGE website claims $55 billion in savings on federal spending, but only accounted for $16.6 billion worth of that—and that was before adjusting the $8 billion down to millions, which leaves only ~$8.6 billion covered in DOGE’s itemized list.—AR