Jeff Bezos Vs. Elon Musk Space Contract Lawsuit, Novo Nordisk's Famed Drug Ozempic Could Be Next Contender For Medicare Negotiations, Tesla Rival XPeng's August Deliveries Zooms 43%: Today's Top Stories

Benzinga - by Vandana Singh, Benzinga Editor.

Tech Crunch

Jeff Bezos Vs. Elon Musk: Feud Takes Center Stage in Amazon's Space Contract Lawsuit

• An institutional investor prosecuted Amazon.Com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its board, including Jeff Bezos, over launch contracts awarded to Bezos' space company, Blue Origin.
• Amazon shareholders, the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, claim that Amazon's board quickly approved the launch agreements for Project Kuiper without considering competitor SpaceX.
• Project Kuiper is Amazon's constellation of 3,236 low-Earth satellites to blanket the globe, versus Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Starlink broadband mega constellation.

• Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google booted out the live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store, citing violations of its user-generated content (UGC) policy. The app, which lets users call stream hosts with payments privately, was pulled from the Play Store in August.
• The decision to remove Chamet comes from Google's policy to remove apps that primarily feature objectionable UGC. Although Chamet had warnings against broadcasting certain content, it contained suggestive material and ads.

CNBC

Novo Nordisk's Famed Drug Ozempic Could Be Contender For Medicare Negotiations

• Novo Nordisk A/S's (NYSE: NVO) Ozempic, the highly sought-after diabetes treatment, may soon enter the realm of price negotiations between drug manufacturers and Medicare.
• Ozempic is poised to become eligible for negotiations when the next batch of drugs is chosen in 2025, leading to price adjustments taking effect in 2027.
• This spending amount is comparable to some of the medications currently under consideration for price discussions this week, out of a total Part D expenditure of $98 billion in 2021.

Financial Times

Inflection AI's CEO Wants Restrictions on Nvidia Chip Sales: The Ethical Debate

• Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Inflection AI and co-founder of DeepMind, believes that Washington should impose restrictions on the sale of Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) chips, vital components for training advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems, to purchasers who commit to using the technology ethically and responsibly.
• Suleyman suggested that this move could be instrumental in influencing worldwide AI practices.
• He proposed that this measure would enable the U.S. to influence the global AI landscape.

• European Union regulators are poised to block the €1.63 billion acquisition of Sweden's Etraveli Group by US online travel site Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) due to concerns over competition.
• This decision diverges from the stance taken by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, which approved the deal a year ago.
• EU regulators are worried that this acquisition would further solidify Booking's dominance in the travel industry, potentially disadvantaging competitors.

Benzinga

Pharmacy Chain Operator Walgreens' CEO Rosalind Brewer Steps Down, Shares Lost 47% Since Her Appointment

• Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc's (NASDAQ: WBA) CEO has agreed to step down as CEO and board member as of August 31, 2023.
• The company said that Walgreens' board and Brewer had mutually agreed that she would step down.
• The board has appointed Ginger Graham, the current Lead Independent Director of WBA, as the company's interim CEO.
• Ms. Brewer has agreed to continue to advise WBA while the company conducts a search for a permanent CEO.

• Chinese smart electric vehicle firm XPeng Inc XPEV shares are trading higher after it posted strong delivery for August.
• The company reported monthly deliveries of 13,690 Smart EVs in August, up 24% over the prior month and 43% Y/Y.
• The company's XPENG G6 monthly deliveries stood at 7,068 units, leading to cumulative G6 deliveries to over 11,000 units, which surpassed the 10,000 mark in only 45 days since the start of the delivery.

• Li Auto Inc (NASDAQ: LI) delivered 34,914 vehicles in August 2023, up 663.8% Y/Y, thanks to the popularity of its three Li L series models that have solidified its position in China's NEV and premium vehicle markets.
• From January to August this year, the company said it has captured an over 30% market share in the RMB300,000 and higher NEV market in China.
• The company's monthly deliveries for each of the three Li L series models exceeded 10,000 vehicles.

• NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO) delivered 19,329 vehicles in August 2023, increasing by 81% year-over-year.
• The deliveries consisted of 12,015 premium smart electric SUVs, and 7,314 premium smart electric sedans.
• NIO expects deliveries of 55,000 to 57,000 units for the third quarter, up 74%-80.3% from the year-ago quarter.

• The European Commission has approved Comirnaty XBB.1.5-adapted COVID-19 vaccine, developed by BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX)-Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE).
• It is the third adaptation of this vaccine to respond to new COVID-19 variants.
• The vaccine is authorized for adults, children, and infants above six months.

Bloomberg

Nvidia Likely To Get Relief From Supply Chain Pressure

• Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) will likely get relief from supply chain pressure as reports suggest Samsung Electronics Co (OTC: SSNLF) has won the contract to supply advanced memory chips to the artificial intelligence kingpin.
• The South Korean electronics giant will provide a newer generation of memory HBM3 to Nvidia as it struggles to keep up with the surging AI demand.
• Reportedly, Samsung's chips successfully passed quality assessments by the U.S. chip designer, marking a pivotal milestone. The supply of these essential memory chips will likely kick off by October.

Washington Post

Amazon's One Medical CEO Departs Amid Significant Leadership Shift

• CEO Amir Dan Rubin is stepping down from concierge primary healthcare startup One Medical after six years of serving as a CEO and a little over a year after Amazon.Com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) snapped the company. One Medical COO, Trent Green, will succeed Rubin.
• The transition will likely take place over the coming months. Amazon acquired One Medical in 2022 after the closure of its telehealth experiment, Amazon Care.

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