Business

By Emily Green, Philip Blenkinsop and Diego Oré

MEXICO CITY, May 22 (Reuters) – Mexico and the European Union are set to sign a long-stalled free trade agreement on Friday as they seek to decrease dependence on the U.S. and partially insulate themselves from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The accord, which they reached broad agreement on in 2025 but have delayed signing, expands a Mexico-EU trade accord from 2000, which covered only industrial goods. The new pact adds services, government procurement, digital trade, investment and farm produce.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are to sign the deal in Mexico City in their first summit in over a decade.

“This summit means more than trade; it’s a geopolitical statement,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on Thursday in Mexico City ahead of the signing.

Both sides want to diversify their exports away from the U.S.

The EU was hit with sweeping new duties in Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025 and prepared countermeasures, though these were paused as both sides sought talks. While tensions eased somewhat with a tariff truce and a July deal, U.S. tariffs on EU exports remain elevated.

Mexico has also been hit with stiff U.S. tariffs on automotive, steel and aluminum exports, and trade relations between the two countries have been volatile throughout Trump’s second term.

Mexico’s economy ministry estimates the new agreement could increase Mexican exports to the EU from around $24 billion a year to $36 billion by 2030. The EU exports around $65 billion in goods annually to Mexico.

Trade between Mexico and the EU has increased 75% in a decade, dominated by transport equipment, machinery, chemicals, fuels and mining products.

The new deal provides duty-free access for almost all goods including farm products such as Mexican chicken and asparagus and European milk powder, cheese and pork, albeit with some quotas.

While the updated trade deal has been ready, it has taken over a year to sign. The EU prioritized a free-trade agreement with the South American bloc Mercosur and it concluded free-trade negotiations with Indonesia, India and Australia in the past eight months. 

Mexico, meanwhile, has been cautious about taking steps that could anger the Trump administration during sensitive negotiations to extend the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact. More than 80% of Mexico’s exports currently go to the U.S.

In the EU, the trade deal will be voted on by the European Parliament, which is likely to approve it within a few months.

(Reporting by Emily Green, Philip Blenkinsop and Diego Ore; additional reporting by Raul Cortes; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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May 22 (Reuters) – First Carolina Financial Services filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Friday, disclosing a jump in first-quarter profit as a strong run of new listings by U.S. banks extends into 2026.

The Raleigh, North Carolina-based lender reported a net income of $5.9 million on net interest income of $25.5 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with net income of $4.7 million on net interest income of $23.8 million a year earlier.

After a lull following the 2023 regional banking crisis, U.S. bank IPOs have mounted a strong comeback over the past year as investors look beyond earlier headwinds.

Northpointe Bancshares, Avidbank, Commercial Bancgroup and Central Bancompany were among the U.S. banks that tapped public markets last year.

Forbright, founded by former U.S. Representative John Delaney, unveiled its IPO filing last week, moving the U.S. bank closer to its market listing.

First Carolina, which plans to sell new shares in the offering, provides commercial banking, payment, consumer banking and wealth management services.

The bank, which had $3.4 billion in assets as of March 31, caters to areas such as North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina.

First Carolina was acquired in 2012 by a group of investors from Rocky Mount and elsewhere in North Carolina, according to its website, and has since raised about $313.9 million through private placements.

The lender bought digital banking platform BM Technologies in 2025 to expand its presence in the higher education funds disbursement sector.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is the sole bookrunner for the offering, with Raymond James and Hovde Group acting as co-managers.

First Carolina will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FCBM”.

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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By Jamie McGeever

ORLANDO, Florida, May 21 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended a choppy session on Thursday in the green, lifted by optimism that a U.S.-Iran peace deal is close at hand, while investors also pored over Nvidia’s earnings report and awaited potential bumper IPOs from SpaceX and OpenAI.

In my column today, I look at the overlaps between extreme concentration in U.S. stock ownership, Wall Street’s AI boom, wealth effects, and workers’ record low share of national output. Can stock market gains soothe workers’ pains?

If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.

1. SpaceX IPO bets $2 trillion on Musk’s ambitious rockets-to-AI vision

2. Major takeaways from Magnificent Seven’s AI-fueled earnings

3. ‘True cost of living’ could be Trump’s biggest headache: Mike Dolan

4. Iran war drags European economy down, pushes prices up

5. China oil import cut, higher U.S. exports wrongfoot market bulls

Today’s Key Market Moves

• STOCKS: South Korea +9%, Japan’s Nikkei +3%, China -2%. Europe and UK flat. Wall Street up, Dow +0.6%, S&P 500 +0.2%.

• SECTORS/SHARES: Japan’s SoftBank +20%, Samsung +9%. Ralph Lauren +14%, IBM +12%; Intuit -20%, Walmart -7%.

• FX: Dollar, G10 FX mostly flat. In EM, India’s rupee +0.5%, Korea’s won -0.5%.

• BONDS: Long-dated U.S. yields dip, short-end yields blip. Curve flattens. 10-year TIPS auction mixed – okay bid/cover, but tail of nearly 2 bps.

• COMMODITIES/METALS: Oil -2%, gold flat. NYMEX gasoline futures -8% this week, eyeing biggest fall since September. U.S. wheat futures -2%, easing from Tuesday’s 2-year high.

Today’s Talking Points

* ChatIPO

SpaceX and OpenAI are preparing to go public, the latest chapter in the stunning trillion-dollar tech/AI story that has driven Wall Street and global stocks to new highs this year. At projected IPO prices, they may soon be valued at just under $2 trillion and $1 trillion, respectively.

They’re striking while the AI iron is hot. But will investors end up getting burned? It’s a lot of equity supply to hit the market and OpenAI – or “ChatIPO”, as Deutsche dubbed the creator of ChatGPT – is not expected to make a profit for years. How this plays out could set the market tone for the rest of the year.

* Keepin’ it real #1

Real yields on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are high for a reason, but are they high enough to be a “buy”? The 30-year TIPS yield nudged 2.90% this week, the highest since 2008, the 5-year yield 1.70% and the 10-year yield 2.20%, both the highest in a year.

These may look like decent real returns worth locking in for investors seeking inflation protection for the bond side of their portfolio. On the other hand, is there room for them to rise even higher in the coming weeks and months?

* Keepin’ it real #2

Are bond yields now high enough to become a problem for equities? Nominal and inflation-adjusted measures of the “equity risk premium” are at or close to levels not seen for two decades or more, which suggests they might be.

JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou says stocks are indeed expensive relative to bonds from a long-term investor’s perspective, but also notes there is “some way to go” until we are in exuberant late 1990s territory. “There is currently more limited room before a further rise in real bond yields starts becoming a problem for the equity market.”

What could move markets tomorrow?

• Developments in the Middle East

• Japan CPI inflation (April)

• Germany GfK consumer sentiment (May)

• Germany Ifo business conditions (May)

• Euro zone finance ministers and central bankers meet in Cyprus

• UK GfK consumer confidence (May)

• UK retail sales (April)

• Canada producer price inflation (April)

• Canada retail sales (March)

• U.S. University of Michigan inflation expectations, consumer sentiment (May, final)

• U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller speaks

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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Nia Williams)

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NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the Wall Street bank of defrauding shareholders about its work for 1MDB, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that became embroiled in a corruption scandal. 

The parties said last month they had agreed to settle, but terms were not disclosed at the time. Lawyers for the shareholders, led by Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-Fonden, disclosed the amount in a Wednesday filing in Manhattan federal court. 

“The settlement is an outstanding result for the class,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the filing. 

A judge must approve the settlement. 

Neither Goldman Sachs’ lawyers nor a spokesperson for the bank immediately responded to requests for comment. 

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set up 1MDB to promote economic development, with help from Malaysian financier Jho Low, who is now a fugitive. 

U.S. and Malaysian authorities have said $4.5 billion was siphoned away from 1MDB, with some diverted to offshore bank accounts and shell companies linked to Low. 

Goldman helped 1MDB sell $6.5 billion of bonds and collected an estimated $600 million in fees. 

Shareholders accused the bank of lying about its role in the fraud while repeatedly touting its supposedly robust risk management. 

They said Goldman’s share price tumbled after investors realized Goldman “actively facilitated – and handsomely profited from” the fraud. 

Goldman agreed in 2020 to pay $2.9 billion in penalties and have a Malaysian unit admit criminal wrongdoing to settle 1MDB probes by the U.S. Justice Department and other authorities. 

A Brooklyn, New York, judge formally ended the U.S. criminal case against Goldman in May 2024, after the bank completed a three-year deferred prosecution agreement. 

One Goldman banker was convicted of helping loot 1MDB, and another pleaded guilty. 

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Rod Nickel)

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May 21 (Reuters) – Deckers Outdoor forecast annual sales and profit above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, banking on resilient demand for its UGG boots and Hoka running shoes.

Growth in wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels, coupled with new product launches, benefited the company despite pressure on lower-income consumers from sticky inflation.

Sales at its Hoka brand rose 14.5% during the fourth quarter, while sales at the UGG brand increased 9.2%.

“Our focus on brand building, product innovation and category leadership, along with marketplace execution continues to drive full-price demand across an expanding global audience,” CEO Stefano Caroti said in a statement.

Deckers, which relies heavily on Vietnam as a key manufacturing hub, expects fiscal 2027 sales to be between $5.86 billion and $5.91 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $5.82 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Annual per-share earnings are forecast at $7.30 to $7.45, while analysts expect $7.34.

Overall quarterly sales rose 10% to $1.12 billion, and profit came in at 96 cents per share. Both topped analysts’ expectations.

(Reporting by Neil J Kanatt and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shilpi Majumdar)

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TOKYO, May 22 (Reuters) – U.S. crude futures rose more than $1 in early trade on Friday as investors doubted the prospects of a breakthrough in U.S.-Iran peace talks, with the two countries stuck in opposing stances over Tehran’s uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters no deal has been reached with the U.S. but the gaps have been narrowed, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been “some good signs” in talks but any toll system in the strait would be unacceptable.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed as high as $98.00 a barrel and last traded up $1.20, or 1.3%, at $97.55 as of 2228 GMT. They fell about 2% on Thursday, closing at their lowest in nearly two weeks.

The benchmark was still headed for a weekly loss of over 7%.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Nia Williams)

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a spat with a major oil company over who is to blame for the state’s high gas prices, with the Democratic governor’s office urging drivers not to fill up at Chevron stations over Memorial Day weekend.

“Pro tip: unbranded gas comes from the same refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines, and it meets the same state standards to keep your engine running clean,” Newsom’s office posted Thursday on X. “Big Oil is already making billions off Trump’s Iran War; don’t let them rip you off even more by overpaying for the brand name.”

Newsom’s office cited an analysis by a group within the state’s energy commission, which oversees the oil and gas industry, that found that Chevron averaged more than 60 to 80 cents per gallon above unbranded alternatives.

Memorial Day weekend is one of the busiest travel times of the year. The call-out by the governor’s office follows Chevron posting signs at California gas stations blaming the state’s climate policies for the high cost of gas. The average price of gas in California sat at $6.14 per gallon on Thursday, about $1.58 higher than the national average, according to the American Automobile Association. The state taxes consumers about 70 cents per gallon of gas, according to the state’s energy commission. That is the highest gas tax in the country.

“California politicians are choosing foreign oil and fuels over local jobs and lower costs,” the signs read. They feature a QR code that directs to a Chevron webpage asking people to “speak up for affordable, reliable energy.”

It is not clear when Chevron put the signs up, but spokesman Ross Allen said they are part of a campaign the company launched three years ago to inform drivers on the price impacts of California policies.

“We’ve been very vocal about the importance of customer education in California so that our drivers and our consumers understand where their tax dollars are going,” Allen said.

There are hundreds of Chevron gas stations operating in California, and most of them are operated independently and set their own prices, he said.

Chevron has also become a point of contention in the governor’s race, with billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer criticizing former federal health secretary Xavier Becerra for accepting campaign contributions from the company. Steyer and Becerra are both Democrats.

Prices at the pump have swelled nationwide since the Iran war began, launching a global energy crisis. The price of crude oil, which is the main ingredient in gasoline, has climbed during the war because the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil normally passes, has effectively been shut. Oil tankers have been stranded there unable to deliver crude.

Newsom, who often touts the state’s status as a global climate leader, has passed policies in recent years aimed at cracking down on oil company profits and reducing gas prices.

He signed a law in 2023 allowing the state’s energy commission to penalize oil companies for excess profits, declaring the state had “finally beat big oil.” But regulators voted last year to hold off on plans to penalize businesses until 2030 and prioritize other efforts to protect consumers at the pump.

The postponement came after two oil refineries that accounted for roughly 18% of the state’s refining capacity announced their plans to close, reigniting debate over the price impacts of the state’s ambitious climate policies.

Newsom signed another law in 2024 giving the commission the authority to require refineries to keep a certain amount of fuel on hand. The goal is to try to keep prices from increasing suddenly when refineries go offline for maintenance. But that regulation has also stalled.

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By Leika Kihara

TOKYO, May 22 (Reuters) – Japan’s annual core inflation slowed to a four-year low in April due to the effect of subsidies on fuel and education, data showed on Friday, though analysts expect surging fuel costs from the Middle East war to accelerate price growth in coming months.

While government measures are offsetting some of the price pressure from the energy shock, Bank of Japan policymakers are dropping hawkish comments signalling the chance of an interest rate hike in June as they focus on broadening inflation risks.

Japan’s core consumer price index (CPI), which strips away the effect of volatile fresh food costs, rose 1.4% in April from a year earlier, much slower than a 1.8% rise in March and falling short of the median market forecast for a 1.7% gain.

The increase was the slowest since March 2022, with a 10.6% drop in education fees weighing on service-sector inflation and offsetting steady increases in a range of other items including food, the data showed.

A separate index excluding the effect of volatile fresh food and fuel, which is closely watched by the BOJ as a better gauge of demand-driven price moves, rose 1.9% in April from a year earlier after a 2.4% gain in March.

“Although inflationary pressures eased in April, they will pick up again before long. Accordingly, we still think the Bank of Japan is likely to resume its tightening cycle sooner rather than later,” said Abhijit Surya, senior APAC economist at Capital Economics.

The data is among factors the BOJ will scrutinise at next month’s policy meeting, where the board is widely expected to raise its short-term policy rate to 1% from 0.75%.

Markets have been rattled after the Iran war effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about a fifth of global oil and gas flows, driving up crude oil prices and the safe-haven dollar against the yen.

The war has complicated the BOJ’s rate-hike plan by adding to inflationary pressure, while weighing on an economy heavily reliant on fuel imports from the Middle East.

Wholesale inflation, a leading indicator of consumer prices, accelerated in April at the fastest pace in three years as the Iran war boosted oil and chemical goods prices, bolstering the case for a near-term rate hike.

BOJ board member Junko Koeda said on Thursday she was scrutinising the speed and magnitude of the pass-through from wholesale to consumer inflation, in gauging the pace and timing of future rate hikes.

“I believe it’s reasonable to raise the policy interest rate at an appropriate pace to address high inflation while also considering the trade-offs for the economy,” Koeda said, warning that the energy shock could push underlying inflation above the central bank’s 2% target.

BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda is likely to deliver a speech on June 3, which will be scrutinised for any hints on whether the central bank would indeed hike rates at the June 15-16 policy meeting.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Sam Holmes and Kim Coghill)

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By Kalea Hall

DETROIT, May 21 (Reuters) – United Auto Workers leaders called for stronger pay standards and mandates that carmakers build where they sell, ahead of Washington’s upcoming talks on a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

UAW President Shawn Fain and others detailed the union’s hopes for the new pact during a Thursday presentation to media.

Formal negotiations over changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are expected to start between the U.S. and Mexico next week.

• The Detroit labor group said that if pro-worker trade demands aren’t met, the U.S. government should pull out of a trade deal with the countries.

• “There’s no future for the working class that doesn’t address the free trade disaster,” Fain said during the media webinar while wearing a “Kill NAFTA” T-shirt, referring to the previous free trade deal between the three countries.

• The union recommends the expansion and enforcement of Mexico’s labor laws, raising wages in Mexico and increasing health and safety standards.

•  The UAW has long viewed free trade deals as an attack on blue-collar work in America because companies have shifted jobs to lower-cost regions over the past several decades.

• A revised USMCA could include higher U.S. content requirements for vehicles crossing the border duty-free. Those rule changes could lead to high costs, more complexity, and place limits on market access, a recent report by Boston Consulting Group noted, specifically stating the repeal could add $33 billion in tariff-related costs.

• Auto trade groups this month urged President Donald Trump’s administration to extend the current deal. The countries have a July 1 review deadline for USMCA.

(Reporting by Kalea Hall; Editing by Mike Colias in Detroit and David Gregorio)

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By Raphael Satter and Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) – SpaceX’s initial public offering is set to be the largest in history, partly fueled by its promise to grab a chunk of what it calls a multi-trillion-dollar market for artificial intelligence services through its AI startup, xAI.

But xAI’s Grok chatbot has been a flop with one of the world’s largest customers – the U.S. government, according to seven federal employees, three contracting experts and a Reuters review of government AI inventory documents.

The 2025 consolidated inventory records from federal agencies show more than 400 publicly identified examples of AI use in government that name a specific vendor. Of them, only three involve the use of xAI or Grok. By contrast, 234 examples involved technology based on OpenAI’s models, including ChatGPT, Codex, and Microsoft Copilot; 33 involved Gemini or other Alphabet products; and 26 involved Anthropic’s Claude, which has since been blacklisted by the Trump administration.

  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which collated the records, did not respond to requests for comment. xAI did not respond to detailed questions from Reuters about Grok’s use in government. Most of the other AI companies, which like Grok have been available to federal agencies through the General Services Administration (GSA), did not respond to requests for comment on the data. Google declined comment and referred Reuters to blog posts highlighting its government work.

Grok has been available to federal agencies for eight months at a cost of 42 cents per agency. That near-zero pricing, which is also used by xAI’s competitors, is a typical strategy tech giants use to entice government agencies into using their products so they can lock them into higher-priced contracts later. 

“The goal is to encourage adoption so that federal employees eventually can’t imagine doing their jobs without generative AI,” said Valerie Wirtschafter, a researcher at the Brookings Institution who studies AI adoption in the federal government.

The OMB data raise questions about whether Grok can take AI market share from leaders including Claude or ChatGPT and help justify SpaceX’s ambitious $1.75 trillion IPO valuation. In a recent regulatory filing, SpaceX said it expects to make far more money building AI for large companies and other big organizations – a total market opportunity it values at $26.5 trillion – than from any of its other businesses.

The U.S. government’s lack of enthusiasm for Grok is a “canary in the coal mine,” casting doubt on SpaceX’s soaring ambitions for broad adoption, said Vineet Jain, co-founder and CEO of Egnyte, which makes AI-powered software for enterprise companies. 

“It suggests the model lacks the security rigor required at the federal level, which will be a red flag” for some corporate buyers, Jain said. “Without government validation, the $1.75 trillion valuation looks less like a floor and more like a high ceiling.”

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has publicly touted Grok’s potential for federal work and lobbied for its widespread adoption. In a September announcement of Grok’s deal with the GSA, he said his team wanted to work with President Donald Trump to “rapidly deploy AI throughout the government for the benefit of the country.” 

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) actively promoted Grok. The now-defunct entity told Department of Homeland Security officials to use Grok, for example, even though it had not been approved for use at the sprawling agency, Reuters reported at the time.

GOVERNMENT GROK USAGE

The AI inventory data collected by OMB provides a window into how federal agencies deploy the technology. The data typically describe how the tools are used and how many employees use them. Some of the uses are mundane, like categorizing incoming emails or transcribing meetings. Other more sophisticated uses involve detecting fraud or space research. National security-related use cases are typically omitted.

The data has some inconsistencies. In many cases, the specific AI service used was left blank on forms. Wirtschafter, the Brookings researcher, cautioned that there were variances about what was defined as an AI use case at some agencies. Still, she said, the database was the “most comprehensive non-military, non-intelligence inventory of AI use cases we have.”

At the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Health and Human Services, the chatbot was being used for low-level tasks such as generating first drafts of documents or posting to social media, the data showed. HHS didn’t return messages about its AI use. A spokesperson for OPM said Microsoft Copilot is the AI tool most commonly used at the agency.

A second part of the AI inventory focused on more ambitious applications, which are used by fewer people, also shows little trace of Grok. The only three references to Grok in that data showed that Grok had been deployed “in a limited test or pilot capacity” at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Election Assistance Commission. By contrast, OpenAI and Microsoft together accounted for 140 use cases.

The Energy Department didn’t return messages. The EAC said in a statement that its evaluation was “ongoing.”

The inventory data excludes the Pentagon, which has a $200 million deal with xAI. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the addition of Grok to GenAI.mil, the military’s unclassified hub for the use of AI models. In May, xAI became one of seven companies to deploy on the Defense Department’s classified networks.

One Pentagon source with direct knowledge of the matter said many staffers preferred competitors’ AI tools over Grok.

At the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s research and development arm, Google’s Gemini is used for engineering analysis, while Anthropic’s Claude is preferred for coding, writing and research, the source said. OpenAI was also used, the person said, but Grok was generally not. 

Claude or Gemini are used within the more sophisticated engineering circles at DARPA, the person added, in part because Grok is “just not the best model out there,” he said.

The Pentagon and DARPA did not respond to requests for comment.

SIGN OF WEAKNESS WITH CORPORATE CUSTOMERS?

SpaceX is still fighting to make inroads. The company’s AI subsidiary, xAI, recently began pursuing FedRAMP High Authorization – a kind of seal of approval for sensitive government work  – with the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But three USDA information-technology professionals said they were not aware of Grok being used. The USDA said it was “proud to sponsor Grok” but didn’t respond to a question about how often the chatbot was used.

Last month, xAI lost a bid to build a Grok-powered product for the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said the chatbot hadn’t met the department’s requirements.

Veterans Affairs didn’t directly address questions about its Grok use. 

The low usage within the federal government echoes data that points to Grok failing to break into the business world more broadly.

In a report published last year, the web traffic monitoring firm Netskope – which tracks how its thousands of corporate customers connect to AI models – said that Grok had “failed to gain significant traction” in corporate environments. Updated figures that Netskope provided to Reuters showed that Grok enterprise usage had fallen even further, to 2 out of every 1,000 users down from a peak of 5 out of every 1,000 users. Netskope executive Ray Canzanese said that even the employees that used Grok spent less time with the chatbot than its competitors – less than half the time that ChatGPT users spent with OpenAI’s model, for example.

Canzanese said the Grok usage data told him the chatbot “is just not going to enter the mainstream for corporate America.”

(Reporting by Raphael Satter, Alexandra Alper, Mike Stone and David Jeans; Additional Reporting by Echo Wang; Editing by Chris Sanders, Brian Thevenot and Anna Driver)

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