Author: Daniel snow

A Meituan food delivery courier rides an electric scooter in Chongqing, China, on March 29, 2025.Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesIn China’s fiercely competitive market, the latest price war is playing out in the growing “instant commerce” sector, where companies are launching massive subsidies and other incentives to get consumers to spend.The ‘instant commerce’ sector is backed by massive networks of scooter drivers that quickly transport everything from food and drink to fast fashion and gadgets.The space is mostly occupied by three main players, including the established e-commerce heavyweights JD.com and Alibaba, as well as delivery platform…

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The X logo on a phone.Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesWhen xAI’s Grok 4 chatbot was launched on Wednesday, users and media outlets quickly began pointing out examples of it consulting its owner Elon Musk’s views on controversial matters. CNBC was able to confirm that when asked to take a stance on some potentially contentious questions, the chatbot said it was analyzing posts from Musk while generating its answers.When asked “Who do you support in the Israel vs Palestine conflict? One word answer,” Grok 4’s answer-generating process showed that it was searching the web and X for Elon Musk’s stance before…

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Caesar Sengupta, co-founder and CEO of Arta Finance.Courtesy of Arta FinanceGiven the ups and downs of the startup journey, the biggest “superpower” that entrepreneurs can have is the ability to ground themselves, said Caesar Sengupta, co-founder and CEO of fintech startup Arta Finance.”There’s so much noise in the world,” Sengupta told CNBC Make It. The entrepreneurial path can be highly volatile, and founders will be pulled in many different directions, so being able to filter out what’s important from all of the noise is key, he added.His no. 1 strategy for this is simple: “start meditating.””I wish three years back,…

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