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By Abhirup Roy (Reuters) -Tesla unveiled more affordable versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and its Model 3 sedan on Tuesday at $39,990 and $36,990, respectively, as the electric-vehicle maker seeks to reverse falling sales and waning market share amid rising competition. Tesla shares fell 2.1% in afternoon trading. Chief Executive Elon Musk has for years promised mass-market vehicles, though last year he canceled plans to build an all-new $25,000 EV, Reuters first reported.  Late last year, Musk said the vehicle would be priced below the "key threshold" of $30,000 including U.S. EV tax credits. In the United States, prices effectively rose by $7,500 at the end of last month, when the credit ended. That helped goose quarterly sales to a record, but expectations are that they will slow down for the rest of the year, unless the affordable car comes to the rescue. "The desire to buy the car is very high. (It's) just (that) people don't have enough money in the bank account to buy it," Musk said in July during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call. "So the more affordable we can make the car, the better." Tesla had posted two clips on X over the weekend, igniting excitement among fans. One video shows headlights peering out of the dark and another shows what looks like a wheel spinning for a few seconds, followed by "10/7" — the U.S. format for the date October 7. CRUCIAL TO $1 TRILLION PAY PLAN Musk initially promised that production of the vehicle would start by the end of June. But Tesla only made what it called "first builds" of the car, it said in July, adding that it would be available for customers sometime in the last three months of the year. Tesla has already been grappling with slowing sales of its aging lineup as competition has grown rapidly, especially in China and Europe, where Musk's far-right political views have also undermined brand loyalty. Earlier this year, Tesla launched a refreshed version of the Model Y with improvements including new light bars and a rear touchscreen. Musk has been pivoting the company toward artificial intelligence, focusing on robotaxis and humanoid robots. Tesla has said it will launch more affordable vehicles in its lineup but has not provided details.  Sources have told Reuters the EV maker also plans to roll out a stripped-down version of its Model 3 midsize sedan. Affordable cars will also be key to Tesla delivering 20 million vehicles over the next decade – one of the several operational and valuation milestones set by the company's board as part of its proposed $1 trillion pay package for Musk. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang, Sriraj Kalluvila and Alan Barona)

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By AJ Vicens and Raphael Satter (Reuters) -Qilin, a ransomware group with a track record of intrusions against major entities around the world, claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a hack on Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings, which disrupted production at the beer and beverage giant. Asahi Group’s beer-making subsidiary, Asahi Breweries, said on Monday that it had restarted production at its six Japanese beer plants on October 2.  It first said it had been hacked on September 29. Qilin posted 29 images to its website on Tuesday of what the group claims to be internal Asahi Group documents. The group claims to have stolen more than 9,300 files, or roughly 27 gigabytes of data, according to the entry on its website. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the documents.  Asahi's European subsidiary referred questions to Asahi Group, which did not respond to an emailed comment outside of office hours. Qilin did not respond to a request for comment. Qilin operates a ransomware-as-a-service platform that allows malicious users to carry out hacks in exchange for a percentage of extortion proceeds. It first emerged in 2022 and boasts nearly 870 attacks, according to data compiled by , a cybercrime research platform. The group was behind the June 2024 hack of British diagnostic services provider Synnovis, which officials said in June 2025 contributed to the death of a London hospital patient. The group "is one of the most aggressive ransomware operations currently in circulation," said April Lenhard, the principal product manager at cybersecurity company Qualys, who described the group as "disruptive, highly active, and willing to create real-world chaos." (Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit; Additional reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and James Pearson in London; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Porter)

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By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Gaps in efforts by the U.S. and allies to restrict China's ability to manufacture advanced computing chips have allowed China to buy nearly $40 billion of sophisticated chipmaking gear, according to a bipartisan investigation by U.S. lawmakers. U.S. Democratic and Republican administrations have tried to restrict China's ability to make microchips, viewing the industry as crucial for national security. But inconsistencies in rules issued by the United States, Japan and the Netherlands have led to non-U.S. toolmakers selling to some Chinese firms that U.S. companies could not, according to a report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on China seen by Reuters. The committee called for broader bans by the group of allies on chipmaking tool sales to China, rather than narrower bans of specific Chinese chipmakers.  Chinese firms last year bought $38 billion in equipment from five top semiconductor manufacturing equipment suppliers, without breaking the law, a 66% increase from 2022, when many of the tool export restrictions were introduced. It also accounted for nearly 39% of the aggregate sales of Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA, ASML and Tokyo Electron, the report found. The U.S., citing national security concerns, is targeting China's ability to make state-of-the-art chips because they are crucial to fields such as AI and military modernization. The two economic superpowers are also vying to sell advanced technology such as AI data centers to other nations. "These are the sales that made China increasingly competitive in the manufacture of a wide range of semiconductors, with profound implications for human rights and democratic values around the world," the report said. In an interview, Mark Dougherty, president of Tokyo Electron's U.S. unit, said the industry's China sales have started to decline this year, in part due to new regulations and welcomed more coordination between the U.S. and Japanese governments. "I think it’s clear, from a U.S. perspective, there’s an outcome that is still desired that has not yet been achieved," Dougherty told Reuters. Applied and Lam did not respond to a request for comment. ASML and KLA said they could not comment until seeing the report in full. The committee said that the toolmakers cooperated with the committee on the report and were informed of its findings. Three Chinese firms that have become major customers of toolmakers – SwaySure Technology Co, Shenzhen Pengxinxu Technology Co and SiEn (Qingdao) Integrated Circuits Co – are of particular security concern. They were flagged last year by the congressional committee's leaders, Chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, in a letter to the Commerce Department alleging ties to a secret network aiding Huawei Technologies, and U.S. officials barred exports to them in December.  The report recommended tighter coordination among allies and broader restrictions, including on components China could use to build its own chipmaking tools. “China is attempting to rewrite the entire supply chain," said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank. "What used to be niche tool segments are now battlegrounds." (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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