JD.com launched its long-anticipated European online shopping platform on Monday, as the Chinese e-commerce giant looks to challenge Amazon as well as domestic rivals that have already expanded internationally.

Joybuy, JD.com’s international online shopping brand, launches in six new markets, including the U.K. and Germany, with the company banking on fast deliveries and high-quality products to get an edge on rivals.

While peers like AliExpress and Temu operate an asset-light model and ship goods directly from China, JD.com has its own local warehouses and logistics networks that enable it to minimize delivery times.

The approach has been successful in China, where JD has developed an extensive logistics network for super-fast deliveries and established itself as a destination for domestic consumers to buy global brands such as Apple.

The Chinese tech giant said customers in Europe can get same-day delivery on orders placed before 11 a.m. For orders over £29 in the U.K., there’s no extra cost.

Joybuy will also feature brand stores from companies including L’Oréal Paris and De’Longhi. These are effectively a branded space in the Joybuy app where companies can showcase their official goods.

JD.com is stepping into a highly-competitive European e-commerce market, which features heavyweights like Amazon, as well as smaller local players and rival services from Alibaba‘s AliExpress and Temu-owner PDD.

Both AliExpress and Temu have sought to bring competitively-priced products to the European market, but have relied on a marketplace model of third-party merchants who sell through their platforms.

While Temu and AliExpress have been operating internationally for the past few years, JD is hoping to catch up.

Joybuy emphasizes its ownership of much of the inventory that it sells.

“We’re at first party retailer, we’re completely different to every other retailer based on our customer proposition,” Matthew Nobbs, U.K. managing director of Joybuy, told CNBC in an interview.

“So we don’t do any de minimus business. We’re a retailer, first, and foremost for brands, and that’s our core.”

“De minimis” refers to a rule in various countries that gives customs duties exemptions for low-value goods.

Tesla is asking investors to approve yet another outsized pay plan for CEO Elon Musk, according to a financial filing out Friday.

The proposed compensation plan for Musk, already the world’s wealthiest individual, consists of 12 tranches of shares to be granted if Tesla hits certain milestones over the next decade. It would also give Musk increased voting power over the EV maker and aspiring robotics titan, which he has publicly demanded since early 2024.

To obtain the first award in the plan, Musk and Tesla would need to almost double their current market cap to reach $2 trillion, while also hitting a production and deliveries milestone of a cumulative 20 million vehicles.

Among the additional targets for Musk to reach in the 2025 CEO Performance Award: Adjusted EBITDA targets, rolling out product offerings “including 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation and delivery of 1 million AI Bots” and ultimately “he must create nearly $7.5 trillion in value for shareholders for him to receive the full award.”

Musk has remained politically embroiled, while also running a collection of companies, including aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX, drilling venture The Boring Company, health tech company Neuralink and the artificial intelligence venture, xAI, which has merged with his social network, X.

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Elon Musk’s Tesla has applied to test and eventually deploy its Robotaxi vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona, following in the footsteps of market leader Waymo.

Tesla has applied to conduct autonomous vehicle testing and operations, with and without human safety drivers on board, in Arizona, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Transportation told CNBC on Thursday. A decision on the application is expected at the end of July, and Tesla has “expressed interest in operating within the Phoenix Metro area,” the spokesperson said via email.

Reuters first reported Tesla’s Arizona ambitions.

The effort to expand to Arizona comes after Tesla in June began a pilot test of its robotaxis in Austin, Texas. Tesla’s Austin fleet includes Model Y SUVs that are equipped with the company’s newest, automated driving systems. Those vehicles are remotely supervised by employees in an undisclosed operations center, and they each include a human safety supervisor who rides with passengers.

The safety supervisor sits in the front passenger seat, accompanying riders, who are invited fans of Tesla. The supervisor can intervene should the Tesla Robotaxis get into trouble.

Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, opened up a driverless robotaxi service to the public in the Phoenix area in 2020, and now operates a fleet of 400 robotaxis there, the company told CNBC on Thursday.

Tesla, which was once seen as a self-driving pioneer, is now working to catch up to Waymo. The companies have distinct approaches to self-driving technology. Tesla claims its choice to mostly use cameras instead of expensive sensors like lidar will make its autonomous vehicles more economically viable.

The Musk company’s initial efforts in Austin have run into issues.

One invited passenger, who runs a Tesla-focused YouTube channel called Dirty Tesla, captured an incident on camera where his Robotaxi dinged a parked car outside of a restaurant.

Other incidents where Tesla Robotaxis violated rules of the road in Austin have also been captured on camera and circulated on social media, drawing regulatory scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal vehicle safety agency.

Tesla is scheduled to hold a second-quarter earnings call on July 23, during which executives are expected to discuss the initial Robotaxi pilot.

Separately, Musk on Wednesday said on X that Tesla’s Robotaxi service will expand to the San Francisco Bay Area “probably in a month or two.”

California Public Utilities Commission and the California Department of Motor Vehicles told CNBC on Thursday that Tesla has not yet applied for approvals to begin driverless testing or commercial deployment of its Robotaxis in the state.

The California DMV sued Tesla in 2022 alleging that the company made false claims in marketing and advertising about its vehicles’ self-driving capabilities.

WATCH: We went to Texas for Tesla’s robotaxi launch. Here’s what we saw

Alphabet’s Waymo unit has received approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.

In March, the company submitted a request to the California Public Utilities Commission to gain approval for its latest passenger safety plan, a key step in gaining permission to operate driverless vehicles across a broader area. On Monday, the proposed expansion was approved, allowing for Waymo’s driverless coverage to extend from San Francisco down through the Peninsula.

“We’re very excited to share that the CPUC has approved our application to operate our fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the South Bay and nearly all of San Jose!” the company wrote in a post on X on Monday. “While this won’t change our operations in the near-term, we’re looking forward to bringing the benefits of Waymo One to more of the Bay Area in the future.”

U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft on Wednesday announced that it’s buying European taxi app FreeNow in a 175 million euro ($199 million) deal.

The company said that the acquisition — Lyft’s first in Europe — is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and that, once combined, the two companies will serve over 50 million combined annual users.

Founded in 2009 as myTaxi, FreeNow is a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has been jointly owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2019.

The app is available in over 150 cities across nine countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Germany and France. Beyond traditional taxi and ride-hailing services, FreeNow also offers other mobility options including e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.

The startup is earnings-positive on the basis of Earnings Before Interest, Debt and Amortization, generating gross bookings over 1 billion euros in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.