Thoughts on Tech News of Note - 05-01-2026

• Musk v. Altman
• Motorola Razr Fold
• BYD, EV Maker Extraordinaire

Musk v. Altman
To be honest, I barely care about this story. I am not a fan of Musk or Altman, and I don't use their companies' products. Nevertheless, this is the arguably one of the biggest stories of the week in the wide world of technology simply because of the notoriety and influence of the companies each man controls.

Plenty of outlets will talk about the facts of the case and whether it has merit. I don't want to talk about this story that way. In my mind, this is really more of a story about leadership. Both Elon Musk and Sam Altman have had some years of leading companies and shaping outcomes in the spheres in which they have operated. Both have had near cult-like admiration at one point or another and both are now seemingly on a downward trajectory in terms of their public perception even while they are trying to propel their companies into stratospheric heights (in one case, quite literally) requiring ever more resources with sparse details on the potential returns. OpenAI has yet to turn a profit despite having the largest mindshare and xAI, while now protected somewhat by its profitable parent company SpaceX, is much smaller and even less successful due in part to its late start and probably also due to the reputation and nature of its products.

In the personal lines insurance market, we had a coverage whose name I always liked: Business Pursuits. I think business pursuits is an interesting angle to take on this story. What business and what pursuits?

The pursuits aren't all that different at their core. Both men are fond of regaling us with the long-term future benefits of their products. They understand that the product itself isn't really what they are selling as much as the true final product is a vision of the world they want to create and control. Altman honed his skills in communicating mission and vision while leading the technology accelerator lab Y Combinator, where he helped connect startup founders to investors hungry to get in at the start of big new ideas with bountiful ROI possibilities. He became a well-known entity in Silicon Valley and through his many interactions with founders and investors, he learned what messaging worked with those audiences and carried that ability with him to OpenAI. By most modern accounts, he continues to excel at telling people what they want to hear to get them to do what he wants them to do. And if very recent exposition is to be believed, he doesn't need to believe in the words he says, he just needs to believe that the words he says will be compelling to the target audience. He is able to come across as earnest; thoughtful and considered yet not necessarily outlining clear thoughts and carefully considering the obstacles or dangers of the road where his twisty and often vague thoughts will lead. To Altman, words matter because they manifest outcomes. His pursuit is his business, and his business is to wield power and influence.

Musk, for all his failings, does seem to have some real convictions. In his early years at Tesla, he expressed the need to expand viability of electric cars due to the real present and future dangers of reliance on fossil fuels and standard combustion engine vehicles. But he also seemed somewhat realistic about the limits to the benefits of electric cars and could see a time where perhaps Earth would itself be a less viable option for humanity, leading to a need to terraform and populate other planets. This manifested itself in passion pursuits at Tesla and SpaceX where he spoke as clearly and openly as he could about the path forward as he saw it. But he had other passions as well and his growing transparency on his political views began to impact his business pursuits. Musk isn't a very good liar nor is he a very good storyteller. As he enlarged his territories and began to move in more prominent circles, he kept showing us who he really is. He couldn't help it. He even began to lean into it, putting his money where his mouth led him in ways that began to divide his once faithful fan club. His own words and actions became a club with which he'd routinely hit himself over the head, unable or unwilling to contain his urges despite the risks and potential retaliation. To Musk, words matter because they communicate intent. His pursuit is his passion, and his passion is to manifest his convictions with power and success as proof of their merit and his worth.

Contrast that to other key leaders in the AI space like Demis Hassabis (Google), Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft), Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity), and Alexandr Wang (Meta). Have you even heard of any of these men? Do note that I left out Dario Amodei (Anthropic) intentionally as we've heard and seen plenty of his words this year. In many ways, Amodei is a bit like Musk and suffers no shortage of words with his penchant for writing long-form articles about the refuge and threat of AI and his convictions about its use. Words matter and when in a leadership position, one should be truly thoughtful and considered in what is put into the atmosphere. Until we can see your actions, you will be judged by your words. And when your actions fail to line up to your words, consequences are inevitable.

It is Musk and Altman's own words that have begun to wrap themselves around them to form a verbal trap from which they may or may not be able to escape. This trial is just another step in exposing many of those words, and more importantly, exposing the real pursuits behind the businesses each man leads.

Motorola Razr Fold
Much like the previous story, I don't want to blab on about the specs and design of the new Razr Fold. This phone has the specs on paper to be very competitive with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 and perhaps even the upcoming Fold 8, knowing Samsung's tendencies to make very iterative changes to phones, especially after such a big update like the move from the Fold 6 to the Fold 7. Although it's true that today's consumer who would be shopping book-style foldables is perhaps savvier and more attentive to specs than the average smartphone consumer, other factors are important as well. The Razr Fold will come with a battery that is more than 30% larger than the battery in the Z Fold 7. Moto is taking advantage of newer silicon carbide batteries that offer more density at the same size and weight of lithium-ion batteries. It will be the first major manufacturer in the US to offer such a battery, and battery life matters to consumers as it's usually the first aspect of a phone to start to show signs of aging. The phone also offers higher speed charging than what is available on anything from Samsung or Apple. People also care about cameras and Moto seems to be taking the cameras on their Fold more seriously with cameras that are similar to what's available in the Motorola Signature phone, which reviewers have found to be very competent. People also want their phones to be reasonably durable and the Razr Fold bests the Fold 7 with an IP49 rating showing better water resistance than Samsung's foldable. And for a small but vocal segment, this phone will have instant appeal because of its compatibility with an optional stylus that Moto will offer as a separate purchase. For people (like me) who bailed on the Fold 7 because it removed stylus support, this could be enough to push some to give this foldable a try. As a person who has owned a Motorola phone in the past five years, it is also important that they are promising 7 years of support for this phone. Moto has been notoriously bad about supporting their phones and we often were ecstatic to get just two years of support in past years. If Moto lives up to this promise, there are no obvious major gotchas that would keep someone who is shopping a foldable from looking seriously at the Razr Fold. I am hopeful that having another viable competitor in the US market will spur Samsung to continue innovating and improving their phones as well. What was that someone once said - when brands compete, we all win? Yeah, that. More of that, please.

BYD, EV Maker Extraordinaire
The lead story in this week's column made light mention of Tesla, but Tesla is no longer the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer. It has now been overtaken by BYD, a Chinese automaker that started as a battery company and pivoted to making cars at very competitive prices and quickly expanded into markets beyond China. BYD sold more than two million vehicles in 2025, a year where Tesla's sales declined by nearly 10%. While it is true that Tesla was (is?) on the decline, BYD sales were up over 28% that year, showing that they were likely to overtake Tesla sooner or later despite the decline. It's said that BYD has gotten to the place where it sits by keeping its focus and scaling responsibly. They have maintained control over their costs, and they make vehicles that appeal to consumers with cutting-edge technology and useful features that drive interest and close sales. BYD cars aren't currently available in the United States and American car makers have expressed what seems to be outright fear at the possibility of an influx of inexpensive Chinese cars with which they know they can't compete. BYD's most popular line is the Song series, which is known for offering higher-end features at lower prices (the Song series starts at the equivalent of $21,000) than competitors and BYD's latest Han L can charge in five minutes. US automakers have some work to do. And despite our current administration's love affair with the oil industry, our current plight in the Middle East would seem to indicate that reducing our reliance on oil should still be a priority and finding ways to improve transportation for the future should still be on our roadmap. As with the previous story, we need more and better competition in the EV space, so here's hoping that as Chinese automakers continue to rise, American automakers will wake up and start to compete.