Bankrupt battery maker Northvolt AB will continue to operate in Sweden with a staff of 1,700 while its remaining employees will be laid off.

“Despite significant reductions, it is positive that the business can continue to some extent, which is likely crucial to enabling a full or partial sale of the business,” Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee, Mikael Kubu, said in an emailed statement.

The company had a total staff of about 7,000 prior to running out of money last year following a series of operational blunders that forced it to file for bankruptcy protection in the US. 

That legal process provided Northvolt with a temporary, and ultimately unsuccessful, lifeline while it sought to get its precarious finances on a stable footing. The end of the road came earlier this month when the group saw its business and assets put up for sale by a court-appointed trustee in Sweden.

Northvolt, once seen as Europe’s answer to a homegrown battery champion, amassed about $10 billion in debt and equity since being founded in 2016. Multiple financing rounds across a range of instruments have created a long line of lending banks and shareholders facing the prospect of sizable losses. 

The bankruptcy estates have now reached “a principal agreement with the relevant stakeholders regarding financial guarantees to conduct the continued operations,” Kubu said, adding that the accord will be formalized in the coming days.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Markets around the world continue to sink on fears about President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies, and investors keep plowing money into gold, with futures hitting another record high Monday.

Trump’s latest round of tariffs roll out Wednesday, which Trump has been calling “Liberation Day.”

Interest in buying gold can rise sharply in times of uncertainty, as anxious investors seek safe havens for their money. Gold prices have been spiking as Trump’s tariff policies have started an international trade war that’s roiled financial markets and threatened to reignite inflation for families and businesses alike.

If trends continue, analysts say gold’s price could continue to climb in the months ahead. But precious metals are also volatile assets — so the future is never promised.

Here’s what to know.

What’s the price of gold today?

On Monday, the going price for New York spot gold hit a record $3,122.80 per troy ounce — the standard for measuring precious metals, which is equivalent to 31 grams. That’s about $886, or 40%, higher than a year ago.

The price of spot gold is up 19% since the start of 2025, per the data firm FactSet. By contrast, the stock market has tumbled. The benchmark S&P 500 is down 4.5% this year as even blue chip stocks have faded.

Gold futures also reached a record in trading Monday, hitting close to $3,157.40 an ounce.

Why is the price of gold going up?

A lot of it boils down to uncertainty. Interest in buying gold typically spikes when investors become anxious — and there’s been a lot of economic turmoil in recent months.

The heaviest uncertainty lies with Trump’s escalating trade war. The president’s on-again, off-again new levy announcements and retaliatory tariffs from some of the nation’s closest traditional allies have created a sense of whiplash for both businesses and consumers — who economists say will foot the bill through higher prices.

Confidence began to slide at the start of the year for both U.S. households and businesses due to fears of inflation and tariffs. Those worries seem to only be worsening, as U.S. consumer confidence has been eroding for several months.

Over the last year, analysts have also pointed to strong gold demand from central banks around the world amid geopolitical tension, including wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Is gold worth the investment?

Advocates of investing in gold call it a “safe haven” — arguing the commodity can serve to diversify and balance your investment portfolio, as well as mitigate possible risks down the road. Some also take comfort in buying something tangible that has the potential to increase in value over time.

Still, experts caution against putting all your eggs in one basket. And not everyone agrees gold is a good investment. Critics say gold isn’t always the inflation hedge many say it is — and that there are more efficient ways to protect against potential loss of capital, such as derivative-based investments.

The Commodity Futures Trade Commission has also previously warned people to be wary of investing in gold. Precious metals can be highly volatile, the commission said, and prices rise as demand goes up — meaning “when economic anxiety or instability is high, the people who typically profit from precious metals are the sellers.”

If you do choose to invest in gold, the commission adds, it’s important to educate yourself on safe trading practices and be cautious of potential scams and counterfeits on the market.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Super Micro Computer, the AI-adjacent tech firm that manufactures servers packed with Nvidia’s prized GPUs, has named a general counsel. The appointment is a key recommendation the company’s board made after an independent investigation into management and accounting practices last year. For the high-profile position, Super Micro tapped its current senior vice president of corporate development, who will now also double as general counsel. 

Beleaguered Fortune 500 company Super Micro Computer continues to try to clean up and modernize its internal functions and has named a general counsel, the company announced on Monday. 

Current senior vice president of corporate development, Yitai Hu, will now also serve as chief legal officer at the $20 billion tech manufacturer. According to his LinkedIn bio and California state records, Hu is also a manager of Eponym Investments, a general investment firm. 

Hu’s hiring was announced in conjunction with the appointment of Scott Angel, a new independent director on Super Micro’s board. Angel spent 37 years in audit and assurance at Deloitte until he retired in December 2017. The timing is notable: Super Micro spent the past five months enmeshed in a sprawling accounting mess after its former auditor, EY, quit abruptly last October, raising red flags about the company’s financial controls. 

“Supermicro’s explosive growth has positioned us as a clear industry leader with tremendous opportunities for further value creation, and the appointments of Scott as an independent director and Yitai as General Counsel will support our continued growth,” said Charles Liang, CEO and founder, in a press release.  

Angel is an audit committee financial expert, and spent 25 years as an audit partner in Silicon Valley, according to Super Micro. He served clients in tech and led Deloitte’s semiconductor industry practice from 1993 until 2017. Deloitte & Touche LLP previously served as Super Micro’s independent registered public accounting firm from 2003 until it was dismissed in 2023 when Super Micro hired EY. 

A Super Micro spokesman declined further comment.

The appointments come at a critical time for the hardware manufacturer, which builds high-efficiency servers and data centers and recently partnered with Elon Musk’s xAI Grok team to build a 750,000-square-foot data center in Memphis. Super Micro is a key player in the AI ecosystem, and its star and its stock price rose along with Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic. However, investors’ faith in Super Micro was shaken following its accounting problems, and its share price is down more than 17% the past six months. 

Financial data company S3 Partners told Fortune Super Micro is the second largest short in the technology hardware and equipment industry group with 22.3% of its floating shares shorted—a short interest valued at $3.89 billion. So far this year, short sellers in the company’s stock added 31.2 million shares worth $1.1 billion, an increase of 38%, S3 Managing Director Ihor Dusaniwsky said in a statement. In the past 30 days, short sellers added 10.7 million shares to their positions, an uptick of 10% in total shares shorted. 

“Shorting SMCI has not been a profitable trade for the full year, but recently it has been very profitable,” wrote Dusaniwsky in a statement. Short sellers lost $263 million year to date in mark-to-market losses for a -7.1% return, but they are up $7 million in March alone in profits, an 18.2% return, he said. 

Despite bets that the stock price will continue to fall, Liang has said finally issuing financial filings, after being delinquent for months, marked an important milestone and an end to the distractions. In a call with analysts last month, Liang said the company was focused on meeting a $40 billion revenue target for 2025. However, the fallout from the accounting kerfuffle continues to reverberate; since August, Super Micro and Liang have been hit with at least five lawsuits and face probes from the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Super Micro has said it is cooperating with regulators. 

The company’s troubles reached a boiling point when EY resigned last summer after it brought concerns to the board’s audit committee about Super Micro’s internal controls, governance, and transparency, which resulted in the board forming a special committee and launching an investigation. Last August, the board recruited veteran lawyer Susie Giordano to join the board and serve as the sole member of the special committee to oversee the investigation. As the investigation continued, Super Micro delayed filing its annual financial report to investors as well as two quarterly reports, which prompted Nasdaq to warn the company it was in danger of being delisted from the exchange. 

Super Micro has since wrapped the investigation, issued its financial statements, and announced in February that it was in compliance with Nasdaq rule requirements. The company hired BDO USA as its auditor and named a principal accounting officer and chief accounting officer, promoting two internal finance executives to the roles. Super Micro is also searching for a new chief financial officer with more experience to replace sitting CFO David Weigand, a recommendation also borne from the special committee investigation.  

Hiring a general counsel and a new CFO were two of six key measures the committee pressed following the probe. Furthermore, the board recommended expanding the legal department with more in-house attorneys “to a level commensurate for a company of Super Micro’s size and complexity, particularly in light of its recent rapid growth and future growth ambitions.”  

Hu will report directly to Super Micro CEO Charles Liang, the company told investors. He is licensed in California, where Super Micro is headquartered, and has been with the tech firm for five months. Hu previously spent a year at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, two years at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and 10 years at Alston & Bird. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com