Want to Know: Your Daily Elon Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

19th of February, 2025

"Tempting fate is never wise..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

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■ TESLA $TSLA ($360.56, +1.82%):

- The Tesla showroom on Southeast Mission Street in Salem, Oregon, was targeted and shot up today. This is the second criminal incident at the location in a month. On January 20th there was an arson attack and the store was smashed up. The Salem police, with FBI assistance, are investigating both events.

- Cybercab at the Tesla Center in Fuenlabrada, Spain. Pic by Tesla's Mar Santos Sanz.

- Looks like I was correct about Tesla searching for showrooms in New Delhi and Mumbai. Tesla finalized two locations yesterday evening. One will be in New Delhi’s Aerocity near Indira Gandhi International Airport and the other will be in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Each is around 5,000 square feet. Tesla has not confirmed this.

- It is now being rumored that Tesla is looking for a location in Maharashtra to establish an factory... Tesla nor the Indian government have confirmed this.

- The Tesla Malaysia refresh Model Y launch event. Pics by Tesla APAC Lead Recruiter Ricky Ip (@ipwaikrazy).

- Tesla Energy will beat at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, for the International Roofing Expo. It started today and runs until the 21st. Go check them out at booth #7031.

- Team VisionGuard - David Aror, Timothy Gao, Julia H., and Jay Yeung - won the Tesla’s Autonomy Track Grand Prize and Tesla’s Excellence Prize at TreeHacks, Stanford's premier and largest hackathon. "Huge thank you to Nvidia for allowing us to train our models on 4xA100 GPUs and huge thanks to Google Cloud for their $300 Credit API’s to use on our models."

- Per Meghan Stimmler, Sales Director at SolarHut of Placerville, California, "My baby, I think this one will be my favorite residential installation for awhile. 26.4 kW ground mount solar with 6 Tesla Powerwall 3 and a 48 k generator." This is exactly what I want to do for my home.

- Today a Tesla Semi was spotted in Kitwanga, British Columbia, on BC Highway 37. Tesla Semi Lead Dan Priestley (@danWpriestley) has confirmed more Alaskan cold weather testing incoming! Past tests were conducted near Delta Junction, Alaska. H/T Drive Tesla Canada (@DriveTeslaca).

- Refresh Model Y in the Sweden. Test drive available at the Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö Tesla Centers. Pic by Tesla's Karin Birgerson.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Nevada Semi Factory: Zanegler (@HinrichsZane), 19th of February, '25. Zane spotted Semi Stamped Frames. "I have been the Tesla Semi Advocate for close to three years and this is a first. Forgive me for being easily amused but I was stoked to see the cab frames and space frames for the area behind the cab."

■ SPACEX:

- Yesterday evening, launch 22 of Falcon 9 Starlink 10-12 launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This is the 16th flight for the first stage booster. It previously launched Ax-2, Euclid, Ax-3, CRS-30, Astra 1P, NG-21, and 9 Starlink missions. Full launch video in the sources section.

The booster landed on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of The Bahamas. 23 Starlinks were deployed.

Per SpaceX's Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver), "The cosmos is within us - Carl Sagan... Congrats to SpaceX and The Bahamas for an epic Falcon launch, space jelly, and landing!"

Philip Edward Davis, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of The Bahamas, with Bahamian aerospace engineer and future astronaut, Aisha Bowe, witnessing the first SpaceX Falcon 9 landing in The Bahamas. Per Philip, "It was a proud moment for our nation... As we continue to expand our role in the global space industry, this project also comes with STEM advancements as we received a $1 million investment in The University of The Bahamas to inspire the next generation of Bahamian scientists, engineers, and innovators.

- Tim Hughes, Senior Vice President for Global Business and Government Affairs at SpaceX (center), with Hungary Ambassador Szabolcs Takács (left) and Gellért Jászai 4iG Space and Defence Technologies Chairman (right) in Washington D.C. The meeting was to discuss potential collaborations and partnership opportunities in space technologies, launch services, and Starlink solutions.

- Looks like 6 of SpaceX's propellant tanks departed Kennedy Space Center's Turn Basin today. Next stop the Port of Brownsville, then the Starbase tank farm expansion.

- Great view of SpaceX's Rio West shopping area along the Rio Grande. Lot's of progress. Pic by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages).

- Hwy 4 road closure will be in effect tomorrow between 12:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. CT for transportation operations from the Port of Brownsville to the Launch Pad.

- Starship 35 is getting doubler plates over the catch points. You can see the cut-out to go over the catch pin and all the small holes for the tile pins.

- Starship 36's Forward Dome was spotted by @LabPadre rolling out of the Starfactory into Mega Bay 2.

- The Polish Space Agency's Department of Space Security (DBK) confirmed that the 2nd stage of Falcon 9 Starlink 11-4 had an uncontrolled entry into the atmosphere over Polish territory today. The trajectory of this object was known and the services responsible in Europe for monitoring the risk were aware. The debruis landed near the city of Poznań, Poland.

Countdown to 180 (21 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

• Launch 23! Wednesday, 19th of February, at 4:01 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 15-1 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 24! Friday, 21st of February, at 6:31 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-14 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 25! Wednesday, 26th of February, at 7:17 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Nova-C IM-2 & Lunar Trailblazer will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the second mission of Nova-C lunar lander developed and built by Intuitive Machines. This time it carries a NASA payload called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), which is to be the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon. PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: TRIDENT drill and Msolo mass spectrometer.

• Launch 26! Thursday, 27th of February, at 7:10 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 SPHEREx & PUNCH will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to Vandenberg and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).

• SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission that will survey the sky in near-infrared light to explore the origins of the universe and the evolution of galaxies, while also searching for water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries and planet-forming disks around stars. It aims to collect data on over 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars within our Milky Way, providing insights into the conditions necessary for life.

• NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) consists of four suitcase-sized satellites, which will focus on the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) and how it generates the solar wind. The spacecraft also will track coronal mass ejections – large eruptions of solar material that can drive large space weather events near Earth – to better understand their evolution and develop new techniques for predicting such eruptions.

• Launch 27! TBD, Falcon 9 NROL-57 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. This is the eighth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- The Bored Tunnelers of Bangladesh in the final stretch of building their micro Tunnel Boring Machine for the Not-A-Boring-Competition. Per Dewan Alif, "We are working tirelessly in our dedicated teams, pushing boundaries and giving our best to bring our vision to life. Every challenge we tackle brings us closer to making a real impact."

- TUM Boring of Munich, Germany, is ready for the Not-a-Boring-Competition. "The micro tunnel boring machine has already reached speeds of up to 50 cm per minute in the tests. This value is to be increased even further for the competition. The next update from our team comes from Texas."

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- Some of Karibu Connect's latest Starlink installs in Kenya to help tackle environmental challenges, connect schools, and support animal sanctuaries.

- Today Vietnam's National Assembly approved raising the economic growth target for this year and backed major infrastructure projects. Parliament adopted rules that will allow Starlink services in the country, while also maintaining full ownership of any local subsidiary.

- Per spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has halted discussions with Elon about introducing Starlink to South Africa. They claim this is due to Elon’s criticism of the country’s Expropriation Act and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies, which he said "openly racist" towards white South Africans.

■ X:

- According to Bloomberg, X is reportedly in discussions to raise funds at a $44 billion valuation, matching the price Elon paid for Twitter in 2022. If true this will be the first investment round since Elon took it private. Keep in mind that Morgan Stanley just led a consortium of banks to sell $13 billion in debt tied to the original deal.

- Updates to X Premium+ pricing (H/T Aaron (@aaronp613)):

• Premium+ on web is $40/month, up from $22/month, due to Grok 3.

• Premium+ on mobile is $30/month, due to slower updates to Grok compared to web.

• You can get a 50% discount on "SuperGrok" if you are subscribed to Premium+ or a lower 25% discount for standard Premium.

- X Japan launched its 2025 Agency Certification Program to recognize top marketing agencies for their sales achievements and operational excellence on the X platform. Agencies are ranked into four tiers; Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. It is based on metrics like ad revenue, campaign performance, and user engagement. Dentsu Inc. earned Platinum status for generating $50 million in X ad sales, Hakuhodo DY Holdings secured Gold for innovative ad operations, CyberAgent achieved Silver for regional growth, and Bronze rank was awarded to ADK Creative One, which achieved $5 million in X ad sales, and GMO Digital Lab, recognized for strong regional campaign performance in Hokkaido.

■ xAI:

- Yesterday evening, the Memphis City Council unanimously approved the sell of 13 acers to xAI for the $80 million graywater facility. Per xAI's Brent Mayo (@BrentM_SpaceX), "Further proof that sustainability doesn’t sit on one side or the other, it matters to all and that’s what’s critically important. Building in America is BACK!"

Per Memphis Mayor Paul Young, "xAI have found a solution our community has been asking for since 2017. I think this is a really good deal for our community."

- Elon on choosing Memphis, "We needed a building. Well, we can’t build a building, so we must use an existing building. So we found an Electrolux factory in Memphis. That’s why it is in Memphis. Home of Elvis. It was a very nice factory, for whatever reason, Electrolux left. That gave us shelter for the computers."

- Per Elon, "Grok will also be offered as a standalone application for the MacOS and Windows."

- Grok on X got a UI update. It includes a Bookmark feature, Chat Style UI, and Personalities.

- Per Elon, "Join us to make revolutionary video games using AI. The potential for a dynamically generated video game using AI is incredible!" They are pushing xAI Game Studio hard now. Per Neuralink's Shivon Zilis (@shivon), "The richness of digital worlds for gaming is about to go bananas."

■ DOGE:

- DOGE reported that the U.S. government’s FY24 credit card program had 4.6 million active accounts, processing 90 million transactions worth $40 billion, with the Department of Defense spending $1,761,159 and Health and Human Services at $1,370,459. DOGE aims to simplify the program and reduce administrative costs.

- Yesterday, Kentucky state senator Lindsey Tichenor filed SB257 to create the Kentucky Office of Government Efficiency (KOGE) within the state Auditor’s office, aiming to improve transparency and accountability in state government operations by ensuring responsible use of taxpayer dollars. Simultaneously, Representative TJ Roberts introduced HCR 50, establishing a task force to review executive branch spending and enhance efficiency for the 2026 budget.

- DOGE highlighted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) reduction of Affordable Care Act Navigator program funding from $98 million in 2024 to $10 million. They did this and maintained similar enrollment rates as in 2019. Cost were lowered from $1,061 to $211 per enrollment. This will save taxpayers $360 million over four years through 2029.

- "Will check with the President," replied Elon about a proposal for a “DOGE Dividend". The proposition would give taxpayers a refund check of $5,000 funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE. H/T Tina Bloomfield (@TinaABloomfield).

■ ELON NEWS:

- Tech Support with President Trump and Sean Hannity.

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Have a great day!

__________

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Zanegler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEjXgaRAZ9A

Tesla:

• https://www.autocarindia.com/industry/tesla-delhi-and-mumbai-showroom-location-finalized-report-434610

• https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/salem-tesla-dealership-vandalized/283-ffd127af-5486-4b97-95c4-344da913075b

X:

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-19/musk-s-x-is-in-talks-to-raise-money-at-a-44-billion-valuation?utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

• marketing.x.com/ja/agency-certification-program

xAI:

• https://wreg.com/news/local/xai-memphis/elon-musk-finally-reveals-why-memphis-for-xai-supercomputer/

Elon News:

• Elon Quote: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1891762422668554319