S.E. Robinson, Jr.

ELON CHRON: Your 24hr Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

Published:

2025-04-11 20:19:07

Imported:

2026-06

Tags:

Elon Musk ElonMusk Grok Neuralink SpaceX Starlink Starship TSLA Tesla The Boring Company X xAI

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Content

11th of April, 2025

"X is the global town square, the group chat of Earth..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($252.24, -0.064%):

- Tesla's launch event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Pics from across the socials.

Tesla is already setting up Popup stores in Riyadh. This is at Nakheel Mall today. Pic by Tesla Sales Advisor Ebtisam Alwasel. The first Superchargers are also open in Dammam, Jeddah, and Riyadh; eight stall each with more coming. Additional Superchargers will open in Taif, Medina, and Buraydah in 2026.

- Tesla updated the referral program in the US yesterday. Buyers no longer get a discount. Instead, they now get 3 free months of FSD. Referrers now get $250 of Tesla credits instead of the $500. Loyalty discounts have not changed.

- Tesla has halted all orders of the imported Model S and X into China.

- Tesla will be at the Manila International Auto Show in the Philippines from the 10th - 13th of April. Check them out at the World Trade Center Metro Manila.

- At Giga Berlin, Tesla Energy hosted their top 40 UK Certified Installers. Emma Bradley, Tesla Account Manager, "What a brilliant couple of days at Giga Berlin. A big thanks to our top performing partners that joined us this week - it’s been great spending time with you, showcasing Giga Berlin and learning about your experiences with Powerwall."

- Today is the last day to check out Tesla at Future Stores on Oxford Street in London. Cybertruck, Optimus, Model 3 Performance and the New Model Y al under 170 million pixels! Pics by Matthew Stobbart.

- The Tesla Shop now has the Cybertruck Soft Tonneau Cover ($750) for the new RWD. There is also a new Powershare Outlet Adapter ($80).

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 11th of April, '25. New Solar Panels installation has started on the south end. More footings for the Support Facility. Megapacks continue to be installed. Oh, there a bunch of Cybertrucks! Subscribe to Joe!

Fremont Factory: MetGod, 10th of April, '25.

■ SPACEX:

- Last night, demolition of the STARGATE building continues. All that remains is the entrance sign. The new Gigabay will consume this area.

- Awesome vid of Booster 14 grid fin rotation by Jack!

- "Starship Engine Install - Path to Static Fire - Night Shift Crew." Pic by ex-SpaceX Morgan Khan.

- SpaceX HQ Starbase, Texas, by @StarshipGazer.

- Elon on the Trump NASA budget cuts. "Troubling. I am very much in favor of science, but unfortunately cannot participate in NASA budget discussions, due to SpaceX being a major contractor to NASA." The proposed cut is 20% ($5 billion) with the majority to NASA's Science Mission Directorate. They oversee planetary and Earth science, astrophysics research, and more.

- Amazing shots around Starbase by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer! Subscribe to Carlos!

Countdown to 180 (40 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

Launch 43! Friday, 11th of April, at 9:15 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-17 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Pic by Adam Bernstein (@ABernNYC) for @SpaceflightNow.
Launch 44! Saturday, 12th of April, at 5:17 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 NROL-192 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 a batch of Starshield satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.
Launch 45! Sunday, 13th of April, at 9:59 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-73 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 46! Wednesday, 16th of April, at 10:24 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-73 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 47! Saturday, 19th of April, TBD, Falcon 9 NROL-145 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 a batch of Starshield 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:

- Congratulations to Nick Galano (@nickgalano)! He is now the Vice President of Business Development at The Boring Company. Nick was previously the SpaceX Director of Sales for Starlink Aviation for the past 5 .5 years driving Starlink adoption across the Airline industry worldwide. Qatar Air, airBaltic, Air France, and more. He also played a major role in bringing Direct-to-Cell to the major carriers.

- On their latest episode, YouTube Channel Transit Unplugged has added a brief segment on the Vegas Loop and the their future plans.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- Today at the US-Vietnam Business Forum in Washington DC, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc met with SpaceX Sr Vice President Tim Hughes, and presented the agreement to pilot Starlink in the country. According to Vietnamese Decision 659 by the Prime Minister, SpaceX is allowed to pilot Starlink for a period of 5 years across the entire country. The maximum number of subscribers allowed to pilot is 600,000. The regulation also states that SpaceX is required to establish a local company in Vietnam to implement the service.

- Today, Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Samuel Nartey George, stated in a TV3 interview that Starlink must establish a physical office in Accra to continue operating. He criticized the initial licensing decision for not requiring a local presence, arguing it complicates consumer protection and regulatory oversight causing delays of up to three weeks. George has directed the National Communications Authority to notify Starlink of this requirement.

■ X:

- X's Zach Warunek (@ZachWarunek) has posted an update to the X Analytics. The audience tab is more usable on mobile with a grid layout "where you can see everything at a glance. Click on any box for some more info." Premium > Analytics > Audience

- In the last half of 2024, X suspended 335 million accounts worldwide for manipulation and spam. According to X Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs), this reduced manipulation and spam by 28%. Over 11 million posts were removed or labelled for breaching their hateful conduct policy, and over 4 million posts were removed or labelled for breaching their abuse and harassment policy.

- Today, Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) launched an investigation into X's use of EU users' personal data from publicly accessible posts to train its Grok. The probe examines whether X complied with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding lawful and transparent data processing. The DPC can impose fines up to 4% of X’s global revenue for GDPR violations.

■ xAI:

- The latest image on xAI's Colossus facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Notice all the Tesla Megapacks and Nat Gas Turbines to keep the Super Cluster running.

- Grok Web will soon allow you to connect Google Drive.

- xAI improved Voice in respect to Real Time web search. Instead of used phrases like "Let me see" or "One moment please", there is a sound effect as the Voice searches.

- Grok 3 is now integrated into Cursor, a code editor, known for its speed and capabilities like code generation in files such as "page.tsx."

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $150 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $931.68

- The improper Unemployment Insurance claims noted earlier in the week are mostly accounted by California, New York, and Massachusetts. They total $305 million in unemployment benefits. California accounted for 68% of the unemployment benefits paid to parolees identified by CBP on the terrorist watchlist or with criminal records.

- The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has identified a subset of 6.3k individuals paroled into the United States since 2023 on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center watchlist or with criminal records. These paroles have since been terminated with immediate effect. Despite having no other legal status, among these 6.3k paroled aliens with criminal or terrorist records (all have a social security number):

905 collecting Medicaid (including 4 on the terrorist watch list). $276k was paid out.
41 collecting Unemployment Insurance, receiving $42k in benefits.
22 received federal student loans totaling $280k.
409 received {net} tax refunds (2024 only) for $751k.
Several (final number TBD) received SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

- The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) secured a deal with Google, reducing Google Workspace costs by 71% for all federal agencies. This follows President Trump’s March 2025 Executive Order to consolidate procurement and cut waste.

■ ELON NEWS:

- "Top Secret" by Elon Musk

■ SUBSCRIBERS:

For April, I am giving away the new official Tesla Business Backpack ($90)! This backpack is a Tesla China exclusive and not sold outside of the APAC region. Like always, one random subscriber's name will be drawn at the end of the month. Good luck!

Also, if you are interested in getting Tesla products, please use my referral. You can get 3 free months of FSD or $400 Off Solar Panel Installation. Just click here: ts.la/stephen746292

Have a great weekend!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS: