ELON CHRON: The Daily Chronicle of Elon Musk's Companies

“We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form…” – Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA ($305.30, -8.20%):

– Aurelio Rosa, a Senior Software QA Engineer at Tesla, shared a sneak peek of an upcoming film that intertwines nature, technology, and Tesla’s vision, featuring bees and Cybertruck. The project reflects Tesla’s commitment to sustainability and innovation. “To us, it makes perfect sense. It’s part of our daily life, part of how we care for the planet and imagine the future. Can’t wait to share the final piece. But for now, here’s a sneak peek!“

2025 Q2 Financials:

Revenue: $22.5 billion, down 12% YoY. Street Estimate of $22.7 billion.
Regulatory Credit Revenue: $439 million, down from $890 million YoY.
Non-GAAP EPS: $0.40, Street Estimate of $0.39.
GAAP Operating Income: $900 million, down 42% YoY. Street Estimate of $1.23 billion.
Operating Margin: 4.1%
Non-GAAP Net Income: $1.4 billion, down % YoY. Sharp decline in operating income highlights R&D investments.
GAAP Net Income: $1.17 billion, down 16% YoY.
Operating Cash Flow: $2.5 billion.
Free Cash Flow: $100 million. Street Estimate of $760 million. Indicates heavy investment spending (Cortex 2, etc).
Cash & Investments: $36.8 billion.
Gross Margin: 17.2%, down 71% YoY. Street Estimate of 16.5%.
Adjusted EBITDA: Margin at 14.4% (non-GAAP).

Operations:

Robotaxi Launch and World’s first autonomous customer delivery.
More affordable model in H1 2026 and Cybercab volume production in 2026.
Giga Nevada LFP Cell Production planned for 2025.
Lithium refining and cathode plants on track for 2025.

Energy Storage:

Deployments achieved a 12th consecutive quarterly record with 9.6 GWh in Q2, up from 9.4 GWh YoY.
Record Powerwall deployments for the fifth straight quarter.
Energy storage gross profit increased sequentially and YoY, reaching a record (exact figure not provided). Outlier: Consistent growth in energy storage deployments and profitability underscores this segment’s strength amid automotive challenges.
Megafactory Shanghai deployed first Megapacks.

Core Tech:

Expanded AI training compute with 16k H200 GPUs at Giga Texas (Cortex at 67k H100 equivalents).
Robotaxi app launched, integrating Tesla Profile features for a seamless user experience.

Elon Highlights:

“When we do an AI day, we find that some of our competitors have done a frame by frame examination of our slides and everything we do, and then copy us. It does help with recruiting, but then competitors look close and copy us. We can go into some amount of depth at the shareholder meeting with Optimus and AI.”
“It (AI5) will be a profound game changer. It’s so powerful we’ll have to nerf to some degree for markets outside of the U.S. because it blows way past the export restrictions.”
“I don’t want to have so little control that I can easily be ousted by activist shareholders after having built an army of Robots. My control of Tesla should be enough to ensure that it goes in a good direction but not so much that I can’t be thrown out if I go crazy.”
“I’m working on a new master plan; The future of Tesla will profoundly change the world.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re always on time, but we get it done. And our naysayers are sitting there with egg on their face.”
“Autonomy is the story. It is what amplifies the value to stratospheric levels.”

– Hyacine Kaddouh, Store Supervisor at Tesla Normandy, France, led the successful conclusion of Tesla’s Electric Summer Tour of the Cybertruck in north France. They hit three iconic locations: Casino of Forges-les-Eaux, Casino of Cabourg, and Casino de Granville. The Cybertruck captivated visitors, as others test-drove the S3XY lineup. The events featured a DJ, a caterer, and motivated Tesla teams. The Electric Summer Tour will now move to southwest France.

– Edify Energy’s 185 MW / 370 MWh Koorangie Energy Storage System (KESS) in Victoria, Australia, is now fully operational. It was built by Consolidated Power Projects and has 100 Megapacks, capable of supplying electricity to 350,000 homes for two hours.

– Tesla has implemented congestion fees at the Tesla Diner, but only when all 80 Supercharger stalls are nearly full and your vehicle is at a 100% charge. You get an additional 35-minute grace period, with notifications sent via the Tesla App. Per Tesla Charging, “Our goal is to make the Tesla Diner an epic charging experience, for as many customers as possible. Charge & park as long as desired during off-peak times. Only if there is a charging queue do we prioritize letting others charge too. We’ll adjust based on food ordering speed and customer feedback.”

– Tesla partnered with Sunrun (@Sunrun) to launch the Tesla Electric + SunRun Flex plan in Texas. It offers fixed electricity and sellback rates for excess solar energy, Tesla Powerwall batteries for backup, and participation in Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program. The plan includes system monitoring, maintenance, repairs, performance guarantees, and rollover credits for unused energy. Tesla manages battery settings and solar crediting.

– Enacon Group, led by Executive Operations Manager Andrew Hanger, is partnering with Tesla to construct the largest EV charging station in the Southern Hemisphere, featuring a 1500kVA 33kV substation and high-voltage network extension to support Tesla’s expanding charging infrastructure, advancing Australia’s transition to net zero emissions. Pics by Andrew.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Giga Texas: Brad Sloan, 24th of July, ’25. Cortex 2 progress. Outbound is lot low. Switch yard vault progress. Megapack 2 work continues.

Fremont Factory: MetGod, 24th of July, ’25. End of Line is empty. The outbound lot is half full with a Tesla Semi shipping cars. Lots of castings and the Watt EV Tesla Semi is delivering materials.

■ SPACEX:

– After fishing out Super Heavy Booster 13’s engine section from the Gulf, SpaceX moved it from the Port of Brownsville to the Massey’s. Pic is by @StarshipGazer of the section at Massey’s.

– Mexico has forced a SpaceX-contracted platform from the Mexican water of the Gulf of America due to unauthorized debris recovery operations following Starship 36’s explosion. Mexican Navy Secretary Raymundo Pedro Morales Angeles said, “The platform had permission to enter the country to retrieve rocket debris but did not meet the requirements to work, and has now been withdrawn.” Not sure what “platform” they are talking about. If you do, let me know.

– Last night, Crew Dragon Endeavour (C206) arrived at Hangar X ahead of it’s July 31st Crew-11 launch from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. This will be the capsules sixth flight to the ISS.

– SpaceX’s Bob steaming into port with the catch of the day; two fairing halves. According to NSF’s Alex Romera (@Alexphysics13), these fairing halves have flown a combined 30 missions (one has done 9 flights, the other 21 flights).

Starbase City Commission Meeting:

Regular Meeting: 20th of August, at 7:00 p.m. CT. Located at 39046 LBJ Blvd, Unit 2, Brownsville, TX 78521

Countdown to 180 (90 – Falcon 9, 0 – Falcon Heavy, and 3 – Starship):

Launch 94! Saturday, 26th of July, at 4:28 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-26 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 95! Saturday, 26th of July, at 7:09 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-2 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch 96! Tuesday, 29th of July, at 11:30 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-29 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 97! Wednesday, 30th of July, at 8:39 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 13-4 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch 98! Thursday, 31st of July, at 12:09 p.m. ET, NASA SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew-11 will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This will be Crew Dragon Endeavour’s 6th flight. Booster B1094 will return to site and land at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Launch 99! Saturday, 2nd of August, at 7:05 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-4 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch ??! Flight 10 NET August 4th.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY: N/A… boring.

■ NEURALINK:

– According to Bloomberg, Neuralink investor documents show the company aims to generate $1 billion in annual revenue by 2031 by implanting BCIs in 20,000 people annually. Neuralink plans to operate five large clinics and offer three devices:

Telepathy: The already in use brain-machine communication implant.

Blindsight: Vision restoration and eventually multi-light spectrums.

Deep: Treatment for tremors and Parkinson’s disease.

They expect regulatory approval for Telepathy by 2029 to perform 2,000 surgeries annually for $100 million and Blindsight by 2030 for 10,000 surgeries and over $500 million. This is based on a $50,000 per surgery reimbursement.

■ STARLINK:

– Starlink is currently in a network outage. Per Elon, “Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.“

– Today, Tajikistan’s Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies met with SpaceX’s Director Starlink Global Licensing and Market Activation, Rebecca Silk Hunter, and her team to discuss accelerating digital transformation and expanding high-speed internet access across the country. The Agency presented its mandate, focusing on national digital policy, innovative solutions, IT infrastructure development, and digital inclusivity.

– Today, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services donated 250 Starlink kits to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works at the Harare International Conference Centre. ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera emphasized internet access as a basic service, while Minister Daniel Garwe highlighted its role in enabling data-driven governance. The kits are to improve council operations through real-time communication, digitized records, and online payment systems, supporting Zimbabwe’s e-government strategy and National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

■ X:

– Per Elon, “We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form.”

– X Devs hosted a Spaces on how to get started with the new Account Activity API v2. Account Activity API v2

– XChat will let you soon search inside a specific conversation. H/T P4mui (@P4mui).

– Today, Community Notes launched a pilot test that highlights posts liked by users with opposing views, with the hopes of a 15% reduction in polarization from cross-ideological interactions. This expands from the program’s misinformation countering success of a 20% drop in false claim believability from diverse contributors. The open-source algorithm challenges the 30% engagement boost from divisive content.

■ xAI:

– New images of xAI’s Colossus 2 Datacenter in Whitehaven, Memphis, Tennessee. The area being worked will be home to the world’s largest Tesla Megapack site and the center’s chiller yard.

– Elon’s chart showing Grok’s #1 ranking on the LLM Leaderboard originates from the Open LLM Leaderboard on Hugging Face, developed with UC Berkeley’s LMArena. The Artificial Intelligence Index placed Grok at 73, beating models like OpenAI’s o1-preview and Google’s Gemini 2.5.

– xAI announced their partnership with Kalshi to integrate Grok starts now! Kalshi’s prediction markets with Grok is expected to enhance their accuracy.

– Today, the White House, with the support of xAI, unveiled President Trump’s “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan.” This is a 28-page document outlining over 90 policy actions to secure U.S. dominance in AI. The plan includes fast-tracking data center permits, promoting AI technology exports, and ensuring ideological neutrality in government-used AI models by banning biases. Per xAI, “Today’s announcement by the White House is a positive step toward removing regulatory barriers and enabling even faster innovation for the benefit of Americans and for humanity as a whole. We are pleased to see the White House prioritize AI innovation.”

– Raquel Nevar (@NevarRaquel) worked at the xAI office this week. “I was surrounded by some of the most intelligent people in the world. I’m inspired by their dedication, tenacity, and focus in creating the world’s best AI. I look forward to returning soon!” She enjoyed a Mitsuya cider from the Andon Labs Grok vending machine.

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $190 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $1,180.12

■ ELON NEWS:

– Per President Trump via Truth Social, “Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so! I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!“

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