Tesla’s Optimus Humanoid Robot Program Chief Milan Kovac Resigns

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Milan Kovac, head of Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot program, announced his departure from the company in a post on X on Friday, citing personal reasons for the decision. Kovac, who took charge of the program in 2022 as director of Optimus and Autopilot Engineering and was promoted to vice president in 2023, stated that his decision was driven solely by the need to spend more time with his family abroad.

“I’ve been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad. I want to make it clear that this is the only reason,” Kovac said on social media.

According to Bloomberg News, which first reported the news, Kovac will leave his position immediately. Leadership of the Optimus program will now transition to Ashok Elluswamy, who currently heads Tesla’s Autopilot division. Neither Tesla nor Elluswamy have publicly commented on the leadership change.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously emphasized the central role that the Optimus robot and full autonomy play in the company’s long-term future. “The only things that matter in the long term are autonomy and Optimus,” Musk told CNBC in May.

Musk has stated that Tesla aims to produce thousands of Optimus robots this year, though the project has faced supply chain obstacles. In April, Musk noted that China’s export restrictions on rare-earth magnets had affected production of the humanoid robots.

Tesla has increasingly focused its business strategy on autonomous technology, including both the Optimus robots and the company’s anticipated robotaxi service. Much of Tesla’s future valuation, Musk has indicated, is tied to the success of these initiatives.

US-UAE AI Data Campus Deal Faces Delays Amid Security Concerns

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A multi-billion dollar agreement to establish one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence data center hubs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) remains far from finalized, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Despite its high-profile announcement during President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Abu Dhabi, persistent U.S. security concerns continue to stall progress.

The planned 10-square-mile AI campus is being spearheaded by G42, an Emirati state-linked technology firm central to the UAE’s AI ambitions. Major U.S. technology firms including Nvidia, OpenAI, Cisco, Oracle, and Japan’s SoftBank have signed on to help develop the first phase, called Stargate UAE, which is scheduled to become operational in 2026.

The project’s backers have touted it as a significant step toward steering Gulf nations toward U.S. technology and away from Chinese alternatives. However, five sources involved in the discussions told Reuters that U.S. officials remain deeply concerned about potential technology transfers to China and the UAE’s ability to enforce strict export controls.

Although the UAE pledged during Trump’s visit to align its national security regulations with Washington — including measures to prevent diversion of U.S.-origin technology — American officials remain cautious. These concerns mirror those raised during both the Biden and Trump administrations, particularly over the UAE’s previous deployment of Huawei 5G infrastructure despite U.S. objections.

Sources indicated that the U.S. Commerce Department has yet to determine the security protocols required for exporting advanced Nvidia AI chips critical to the project. The absence of an agreed enforcement mechanism further complicates the deal, leaving it without a definitive timeline for completion.

Among the likely U.S. conditions are prohibitions on Chinese technology at the site and restrictions on employing Chinese nationals, given ongoing fears of AI chip smuggling and intellectual property leaks to adversaries. While the UAE has dismantled some Chinese partnerships—such as G42 removing Chinese hardware and divesting from certain Chinese holdings under Biden administration pressure—Chinese firms like Huawei and Alibaba Cloud still maintain a strong presence in the country.

Adding to U.S. unease is the UAE’s growing role as a hub for companies circumventing Western sanctions on Russia, further complicating Washington’s strategic calculus. Despite these challenges, both Trump administration officials and some in the current administration remain committed to pursuing the deal, though bipartisan skepticism remains strong in Congress.

Once operational, Stargate UAE is expected to house roughly 100,000 advanced Nvidia Grace Blackwell GB300 AI chips within a 1-gigawatt facility — potentially expanding to 5 gigawatts in the future. The Emirati government has so far not commented on the latest delays, and no final agreement has been reached on technology controls or operational oversight.

OpenAI Appeals Court Order on Data Preservation in NYT Copyright Lawsuit

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OpenAI has appealed a recent court order requiring it to indefinitely preserve ChatGPT output data in an ongoing copyright lawsuit filed by The New York Times (NYT). The company argues that the order conflicts with its obligations to protect user privacy.

Last month, the court mandated that OpenAI must preserve and segregate all output log data, after the NYT requested this as part of the discovery process. In response, OpenAI filed a motion on June 3 to vacate the data preservation order, according to a court filing.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly criticized the order on X, stating, “We will fight any demand that compromises our users’ privacy; this is a core principle.” He added that the NYT’s request was “inappropriate” and “sets a bad precedent.”

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2023, accuses OpenAI and its partner Microsoft of using millions of NYT articles without permission to train their language models, including the one powering ChatGPT. The Times alleges that this constitutes copyright infringement.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein previously ruled that the Times had made a plausible case that OpenAI and Microsoft may have induced users to infringe on its copyrights. In an earlier opinion, the judge allowed the case to proceed, citing numerous and widely publicized instances where ChatGPT reproduced substantial portions of Times content.

While the NYT declined to comment on OpenAI’s appeal, the case remains one of the highest-profile legal challenges facing generative AI companies over training data use and copyright infringement claims.