Axios

Gautam Gupta, Uber's outgoing finance chief, is headed to home-buying startup Opendoor as its chief operating officer, the company tells Axios. Gupta has spent four years at Uber, becoming its highest ranking finance executive after CFO Brent Callinicos left in 2015. He will formally leave the ride-hail giant next month.

From cars to real estate: Gupta's jump to Opendoor is the byproduct of his longtime friendship with CEO Eric Wu and great timing, according to Wu. Gupta will be Opendoor's first COO as the startup plans its next phase of growth, which will include building out an expansion playbook. By the end of the year, it hopes to be in eight to 10 markets, up from the three it currently operates in.

Along with Gupta, Opendoor is also bringing on two longtime Amazon executives: Jason Child who will be the startup's CFO, and Bali Raghavan as VP of engineering. Both spent 12 years at the online retail giant.

Momentum Machines, a buzzy startup known for its hamburger-making robots, has secured over $18 million of a new venture capital round that could total nearly $22 million, according to an SEC filing. Board members include Sven Strohband of Kohsla Ventures and Stanford University physics professor Zhixun Shen. No new investors were disclosed, but existing backers include Khosla Ventures, K5 Ventures, Google Ventures and Lemnos Labs. The company did not return a request for comment.

Why it matters: Founded in 2009, Momentum Machines is developing food-preparing robots, the first one of which supposedly can prep hundreds of made-to-order hamburgers in an hour ― from raw ingredients to packaging. In other words, it might be the future of fast-food prep work.

"Facebook Is Determined to Build Ties With Automakers," by Bloomberg's Jamie Butters and Sarah Frier:

• COO Sheryl Sandberg, in Detroit yesterday for an annual Facebook Automotive Summit, "shared a stage with [GM CEO] Mary Barra at a women's-only event ... before the two toured a factory and spoke with about 200 GM employees."
• Sandberg: "Our industries are converging. Detroit's writing software and Silicon Valley is building hardware."
• "Mark Zuckerberg visited Ford ... headquarters and an F-150 truck plant in April to rub elbows with Executive Chairman Bill Ford."
• The plot: "Facebook is focused on boosting sales for video advertising, ... which should help take a cut of the $70 billion television ad market."
• Key stat: "The U.S. automotive industry is the second-largest spender on digital advertising behind retail."
• Why it matters: "Autos and real estate are among the last categories that aren't transacting online, and it's taken longer for Facebook to break into categories with expensive purchases like travel and cars."

After staying silent all day yesterday during James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump is back on Twitter, and says he feels completely vindicated after the hearing.

Go deeper: As Axios' Jonathan Swan reported yesterday, the White House will likely harp on the fact that Comey authorized a friend to release his private memo to the New York Times and will relentlessly attack Comey as a "leaker." Marc Kasowitz, Trump's personal lawyer, started that criticism yesterday during his public remarks following the testimony.

After testing it quietly for a few months, BMW is expanding a new ride-hailing service's test program to anyone in Seattle, the company said on Thursday. Ride is a new service under BMW's ReachNow division, which began with short-term car rentals.

How it works: Seattle residents can sign up for the service by downloading the ReachNow app. They can summon a ride immediately or book one anywhere from 20 minutes to seven days in advance, and can pre-set their car temperature and radio stations. ReachNow Ride has about 80 drivers who work for an independent company, according to the New York Times, unlike Uber and Lyft, which manages drivers themselves.

Why it matters: Although both ride-hailing companies and automakers are investing in self-driving technology, some automakers have also been exploring alternatives to traditional car ownership as services like Uber and Lyft have made it clear that changes are afoot. Others like General Motors, Ford, and Daimler are also experimenting in those areas.

The story has been updated to clarify that ReachNow Ride is still in its testing phase.

Yahoo's shareholders signed off Thursday on the sale of the company's core assets to Verizon, with the deal expected to close on Tuesday.

Worth noting: Job cuts are expected to accompany the deal. TechCrunch reported on Thursday that cuts are expected to amount to about 15% of the firms' combined workforce, echoing an earlier report from Recode that layoffs were coming.

Why it matters: It's been a long road to this deal because of revelations about breaches that hit Yahoo's user data and ultimately resulted in a price reduction for Verizon. But the merger is an important part of Verizon's strategy to become a bigger player in the digital ad world dominated by Facebook and Google.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe this morning signs a bill designed to speed up the deployment of the small cell infrastructure needed to support 5G wireless networks. The bill provides a uniform process for installing the new network equipment on lamp posts, utility poles, buildings and public rights of way.

Why it matters: Permitting for new wireless facilities in municipalities can take a long time. So a number of states are trying to make the process less painful (and expensive) to encourage more rapid deployment of the networks, which require 10 to 100 times more antenna locations than 4G or 3G. Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana and Iowa passed similar bills this year.