S.E. Robinson, Jr.

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

Published:

2025-05-07 20:14:41

Imported:

2026-06

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Content

7th of May, 2025

"Coding in comic sans is cool..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($276.22, +0.32%):

- Yesterday, SpaceX's Sergio Lara hosted a group of Tesla employees at Starbase, Texas. The group included leaders and top performers from sales, service, and delivery teams based in the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston. Per Sergio, "From one sister company to another, welcome to SpaceX. Hope y’all finally tried a true RGV taco… it’s basically a rite of passage."

- Tesla has started offering Cybertruck owners a free 1-year trial of FSD. This appears to be random, so keep an eye out.

- Samtrans of Swiss company Nobina Care, hosted Tesla at the facility in Stockholm for employees to test drive and experience the new Model Y. Samtrans is a specialty transport agency that help those who do not have any means of travel.

- Last month, Tesla's Imani Salazar-Nahle, Rosalie Nathans, and Melanie Richards hosted the Women in Leadership Spotlight Speaker Series, presented by Women in Tesla. Nathans captivated attendees with her insightful philosophies, showcasing her grit, integrity, and ability to manage numerous stakeholders while authentically engaging in every interaction. With support from Nathans and Melanie Richards, Salazar-Nahle seamlessly facilitated this event, fostering professional and personal growth for all.

- H&E Equipment dropping off a deliver a JLG 1250AJP at the Tesla Lithium Refinery in Robstown, Texas. Pics by Lauren Burgess.

- The new Tesla App Version 4.44.5 update has the full functional Robotaxi ride hale service behind the scenes and ready to launch next month. Oddly, the Robotaxi is referred internally as Project Alicorn. H/T Tesla App Updates (iOS) (@Tesla_App_iOS) The App functions include:

Adjusting and confirming pickup locations.
Entering destinations.
Displaying real-time ETA.
Managing trip cancellations.
Facilitating passenger egress with live updates.
Access to vehicle controls.
Dispatching pickups.
Confirming pull-over actions.

- Tesla China President Wang Hao visited some Tesla stores in Jiangsu Province today. H/T Tsla Chan (@Tslachan).

- For April. Tesla China insured roughly 33,380 vehicles.

- For 2024 in Australia, Tesla earned more than $5 billion in revenue from its Megapack/Powerwall division. Battery storage overtook EV sales for the first time during that year.

- Tesla's Manufacturing Development Program (MDP) Lead, Aimee Frugoli, congratulated the latest cohort of MDPs who completed their coursework at Truckee Meadows Community College. They are now transitioning to Giga Nevada. "Their dedication and hard work paid off, and I’m so excited to see the impact they’ll make as they bring their skills to life at Tesla. Huge thank you to Kimberley Harrell, PhD and her TMCC staff for this incredible partnership."

- Today, new Model Y deliveries started in Israel from their delivery center in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv. H/T Esther Rebers (@EstherRebers).

- On Monday, the Junior Chambers of Central Thuringia, Germany, had the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of the Tesla Erfurt Center. "After an exciting insight into Tesla's philosophy, work ethics, and refreshments, we went to the highlight of the evening: test drives with various Tesla models - an impressive driving experience that we will remember for a long time!"

- The first-ever Supercharger in Estonia.

- Yesterday evening, Tesla launched the Model Y Long Range RWD in the U.S. starting at $44,990. It has an EPA range of 357 miles and goes 0-60mph in 5.4s.

- Tesla is contacting customers to freely replace the high-voltage battery pack seals in Model S and X vehicles manufactured from January 2021 to September 22, 2022.

- Tesla now has Cybertruck mobile service vehicles in the New England area and California.

- Northland Power announced the Oneida Energy Storage project is online. It has 278 Tesla Megapacks at 250 MW / 1,000 MWh. "We’re incredibly proud to announce the safe and successful completion of the Oneida Energy Storage project – an important milestone for Northland, our project partners, and for Canada." Of note, the Tesla Logos are blurred out... Ohhh Canada.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 7th of May, '25. Another gorgeous flyover by Joe. Welcome Center ground leveling. Cortex 2 progress and much more. Subscribe to Joe so you do not miss out on his flyover photo dumps. They are fantastic.

Giga Nevada Semi Factory: Zanegler (@HinrichsZane), 7th of May, '25. Megacharger and Stamping Pit extension updates. Subscribe to Zane and support his work. We are lucky to have him flying for us.

■ SPACEX:

- Last night launch 55 of Falcon 9 Starlink 6-93 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the seventh flight for first stage booster B1085. It previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, Fram2, and two Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. 28 Starlinks were deployed.

- "Stack Me ❤️" Last night, SpaceX rolled Pad B's launch mount to the launch complex! It is now sitting by near Pad B. The roughly 1,200 ton structure still has work to be done, but we may see it lifted into position very soon. This thing is amazing! Pics by @StarshipGazer and Shaun Gisler (@lifeatstagezero).

- Amazing shots at Pad B of the new Launch Mount by Carlos (@cnunezimages).

- Now that Starbase is an official city of Texas, the Cameron County Election Supervisor will formally canvass the election results to confirm all valid ballots are accurately counted and included in the final tally. Simultaneously they will collaborate with federal agencies to assign Starbase a new ZIP code and officially rename the area, enabling residents to update their driver’s licenses.

- A new NOTAM (Air Hazard Notice) has been published and has a new area area north of Cuba added. This is SpaceX's response to the debris in the Caribbean after the last 2 flights.

Countdown to 180 (52 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

Launch 56! Friday, 9th of May, at 5:01 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 15-3 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 57! Saturday, 10th of May, at 2:28 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-91 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 58! Sunday, 11th of May, at 12:24 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-83 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.
Launch 59! Monday, 12th of May, at 5:00 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 15-4 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.

If you would like to have access to the ELON CHRON daily, just Subscribe for only $4/month. That's less than .18¢/daily.

■ THE BORING COMPANY: N/A... boring.

■ NEURALINK:

- Michael T. Lawton, MD, (@mtlawton) neurosurgeon at Barrow Neurological Institute, shared his experience with Neuralink Patient #3 (NP3), Brad Smith (@ALScyborg). "When I met Brad, it was difficult to know him b/c of the enormous effort for him to communicate thru eye tracking devices while on a ventilator. With Neuralink's brain-computer interface, his character gushes out thru his videos & writings. Life-altering, game-changing…" Michael posted the pic of the his Barrow and Neuralink Team. I see a lot of familiar faces; Elon, Shivon, DJ, Dan, Romina, Michael, and many more.

Per Brad, "Your team has been a pleasure to work with. I felt completely safe in your hands!"

Per Romina Nejad (@RominaNejad), "Couldn’t ask for a better team!"

■ STARLINK:

- Entel Chile has announced they will soon launch Starlink Direct-to-Cell. "We're committed to keeping all Chileans connected. Soon you'll be able to stay connected in remote areas via mobile satellite messaging (SMS), no matter what happens."

- Today, the Indian government issued a Letter of Intent to Starlink to offer satcom services in the country. SpaceX has agreed to comply with security norms, including data localization and interception capabilities. On Tuesday, while addressing reporters during the Bharat Telecom event in Delhi, Indian Union Minister of State for Telecom, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, stated that while the issue remains a little complicated, the proposal is in its last stages of review.

- At Saint Peter's Square in Rome, journalists are using Starlink for live broadcasts as black smoke emerged from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel. The first ballot has been held at the conclave and has concluded without the election of a Pope. Pic by Andrea Stroppa (@andst7).

- Official images of the new Starlink Router Mini. Compatible with Starlink Mini, Gen 3 Router, and Gen 2 Router. Now available for $40 in the US for Starlink customers.

■ X:

- X is working on a completely new Android app!

- The Saudi Investment Bank (@SAIBLIVE) has partnered with X and Forbes Middle East (@ForbesME) to reinforce the bank’s commitment to financial literacy. SAIB has over 4 million social media followers and will use them to enhance financial literacy in Saudi Arabia. So far, SAIB produced 17 educational posts on X, covering budgeting, saving, investing, and fraud protection, achieving a 99.4% positive sentiment rate and reaching over 6 million users. The campaign included four Forbes articles and two videos, driving a 150% increase in SAIB’s X followers, a 4.2% engagement rate, and reinforcing its role in empowering informed financial decisions.

- Per xAI's Greg Yang (@TheGregYang) on adjustments and fixes to how the Grok recommendation algorithm, "We made some fixes to your recommendation algorithm earlier this week. This improves some longstanding issues with...

Your negative feedback not being taken into account.
Repeatedly seeing the same video.
The SimCluster algorithm recommending irrelevant content.
Tuned one of our neural networks to suggest more relevant posts to show you.

Early reception seems very positive so far, but let me know if your feed still sucks! Or you want to come fix it yourself at X."

- The new update for the X iOS App is rolling out and there are a few changes. The Like ❤️button is now a Thumbs Up 👍 button. The Like button has moved to the left-hand side. The view count is now at the top-right. Quote-posts are now harder to access. Some users are reporting there is also now a Thumbs Down 👎 option, but this may be only for testers.

- New York lawmakers, including Assemblyman Micah Lasher and Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, are pressing the state’s Department of Financial Services to reject a money transmitter license for X Payments LLC. They argue that Elon’s leadership of X has led to relaxed content moderation, resulting in a surge of hate speech and misinformation on the platform, raising concerns about its trustworthiness. The lawmakers further contend that granting X the payments license would jeopardize New Yorkers’ financial security, as Elon could access sensitive consumer financial data through the proposed peer-to-peer payment system. There is no evidence presented by the Democrat's to justify there claims, which leads to the assumption of more political activism.

- The new GTA VI trailer generated over 30 million views in under 4 hours.

- X Japan CEO Ayumu Matsuyama (@ayumu_matsuyama) will give a talk at the Web Manager Forum Meeting 2025 Spring Special Lecture at the Tokyo Shibuya Solasta Conference Center on the 29th of May. The talk is entitled "Grok; Accelerating Super App Development and Marketing at the Forefront." You can participate both online and offline. The link to attend is in the sources section.

■ xAI:

- PDF generation is now available in beta in the Grok Studio, on your desktop, at grok.com.

- Today, the Greater Memphis Chamber announced that as of May 1st, xAI’s Colossus facility has reached full operational capacity for Phase I and is now powered by a 150-megawatt electric substation from Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). They also stated the facility is supplemented by 150 megawatts of Tesla Megapacks for backup and that the temporary natural gas turbines used for Phase I are being demobilized and will be removed within two months. About half of the turbines will remain to power Phase II until a second substation is completed in Fall of the year, after which they will serve as backup.

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $165 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $1,024.84

- DOGE and the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGEFla), announced that the University of West Florida's (UWF) grant of over $800,000 from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program has been canceled. Its aim was to train science and math teachers for high-needs schools in Northwest Florida by incorporating "social justice" and "cultural responsiveness" in its project abstract. Governor DeSantis argues it detracts from classical STEM education. The UWF claims these themes are not part of the program’s implementation.

- Yesterday evening, DOGE announced that The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted states free access to the SAVE database, enabling bulk voter verification, with the Texas Secretary of State, Jane Nelson (@SecJaneNelson), identifying several potential voter fraud cases in an initial pilot. Texas gained access to SAVE earlier in 2025 after negotiations with the Department of Homeland Security.

- DOGE announced that the U.S. Department of Labor canceled $13.6 million in DEI grants totaling $8.4 million in savings. This included:

$716k for “DEIA materials, training modules, and support networks”
$398k for “gender equity awareness training”
$350k to “migrant sending or receiving communities”

■ ELON NEWS:

- House Democrats, led by Washington's Adam Smith and Zoe Lofgren, sent letters yesterday, to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, requesting information on potential conflicts of interest involving Elon's roles as SpaceX CEO and head of DOGE. They are searching for conflicts with oversees federal spending reforms, and concerns about SpaceX’s foreign investments, particularly from Chinese entities. The letters highlight SpaceX’s recent multibillion-dollar Pentagon contract for launch services and NASA’s $15 billion in contracts. They are demanding transparency on Elon's access to sensitive data, foreign ownership reviews, and measures to prevent undue influence. Keep in mind that SpaceX is the most dependable and cost effective way to space. They win contracts from the Pentagon and NASA because of this.

■ WAYS TO SUPPORT:

If you enjoy the ELON CHRON, know that you can get it every Monday thru Friday by subscribing for only $4/month. That's less than .18¢/update! When you subscribe you also get first access to any weekend articles and become instantly eligible for the random subscriber giveaway.

For May, I am giving away the new official SpaceX Insulated Stainless Steel Starlink Bottle ($40)! Like always, one random subscriber's name will be drawn at the end of the month. Subscribe here and Good luck!

Check out my linktree for all my socials and various ways to support: https://linktr.ee/serobinsonjr

REFERRALS:

Tesla: 3 free months of FSD or $400 Off Solar Panel Installation. ts.la/stephen746292
SOFI (ARK Venture Fund): $25 worth of stock. SOFI is the only outlet the public can invest in Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund ($ARKVX). This ARK fund includes SpaceX, xAI, Tesla, X, and a ton of other major AI, Tech, and Bio companies. Of note, investing in the fund requires an initial $500. https://www.sofi.com/invite/invest?gcp=ecf25d1c-7bc9-4ee0-a407-a51849297288&isAliasGcp=false
T-Mobile (Starlink Direct-to-Cell): $50 credit 45 days after you activate. Direct-to-Cell has dropped from $20 to $10 per month! https://share.t-mobile.com/stephenr-3419
Robinhood: Get a Free stock. https://join.robinhood.com/stepher-fcc938

Have a great day!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS: