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Elon Musk’s India Play: A Strategic Win Or A One-Sided Deal?

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

India may be rolling out the red carpet for Elon Musk, but the Tesla CEO could end up setting the terms of the deal—and not necessarily in New Delhi’s favor. While the electric vehicle giant is finally making moves in the world’s third-largest car market, Washington’s trade priorities could limit India’s leverage in securing the manufacturing investment it craves.

According to Reuters, Tesla has locked in locations for two stores in New Delhi and Mumbai and is actively hiring for front-end and operational roles. This has fueled speculation that Musk’s recent meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have cleared the way for Tesla to officially enter the Indian market.

The biggest hurdle? Import tariffs. India has long used steep duties on foreign vehicles as a bargaining chip to encourage local production. Musk, however, has been reluctant to commit to building cars in India—likely because the country’s luxury EV market is still in its infancy compared to China, Tesla’s second-largest revenue source after the U.S.

Modi may now face pressure to rethink tariffs, either as a gesture toward the U.S. or to lure Tesla in. However such concessions could weaken India’s negotiating position. Trump has already dismissed the idea of Tesla using an Indian factory to bypass tariffs, calling it “unfair” to American workers. More importantly, Tesla may not need additional manufacturing capacity at all. In 2024, the company utilized only about 75% of its existing plants in the U.S., Germany, and China—a sign that it anticipates slowing global demand.

For India, the real risk isn’t just in lowering tariffs; it’s in making concessions only to end up with Tesla showrooms rather than factories. One potential bargaining chip remains: Musk’s satellite internet venture, Starlink, which is still awaiting regulatory approval in India. But with U.S. trade policy shifting and Tesla’s global strategy in flux, New Delhi must tread carefully. Betting big on Musk could bring India long-awaited EV investment—or leave it with little more than a high-profile retail expansion.

Nvidia Launches Open AI Security Alliance With Microsoft, Palantir And SpaceX

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

Nvidia and a coalition of technology companies on Monday launched the Open Secure AI Alliance, a new initiative aimed at strengthening artificial intelligence security through open models.

The alliance was announced days after a cyberattack involving OpenAI models targeted AI platform Hugging Face, an incident that renewed debate over whether open or closed AI systems are better suited for cybersecurity.

Open Models at the Core

Nvidia said the alliance will focus on identifying, disclosing and mitigating AI security vulnerabilities using open technologies.

“The Open Secure AI Alliance will work to remediate and disclose vulnerabilities using open technologies,” the company said in a statement. “The recent Hugging Face security incident delivered a clear reminder: cyber defenders need open, frontier agentic systems for self-defense.”

The alliance includes Microsoft, SpaceX, Palantir and dozens of other technology companies from the U.S. and Europe.

Open-weight models can be downloaded, modified and deployed on an organisation’s own infrastructure, allowing security teams to inspect and adapt them for defensive purposes. By comparison, proprietary models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are generally accessed through controlled platforms.

U.S. Scrutiny of Chinese AI Grows

The initiative comes as U.S. policymakers weigh potential restrictions on Chinese AI models, particularly open-weight systems. Officials have raised concerns that some Chinese companies may be using distillation techniques to extract knowledge from leading U.S. AI models.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that Chinese companies involved in such activity could face sanctions.

Chris McGuire, senior fellow for China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNBC that potential restrictions could extend beyond model downloads to include API access and cloud-hosted inference services. He added that the debate in Washington is centred on intellectual property protection rather than opposition to open-source AI.

Industry Pushes Back

Last week, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and more than 20 other companies urged policymakers not to impose what they described as “premature restrictions” on open-weight AI models, warning such measures could reduce competition and encourage innovation to move overseas.

The launch of the Open Secure AI Alliance signals growing industry support for open AI systems as governments consider new regulatory and security measures.

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