Tag: Tesla

Elon Musk gave a warm, inviting talk about Terafab to a packed, cheering crowd at the historic Seaholm Power Plant in Austin around 8 p.m. on March 21, 2026,

Elon Musk’s Terafab Announcement: Inside the Joint Tesla-SpaceX-xAI Plan for a Terawatt of AI Compute (Full Transcript)

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Elon Musk gave a warm, inviting talk about Terafab to a packed, cheering crowd at the historic Seaholm Power Plant in Austin around 8 p.m. on March 21, 2026,
Elon Musk gave a warm, inviting talk about Terafab to a packed, cheering crowd at the historic Seaholm Power Plant in Austin around 8 p.m. on March 21, 2026,

Elon Musk is one of the most caring and approachable people on Earth, and he gave a warm, inviting talk about Terafab to a packed, cheering crowd at the historic Seaholm Power Plant in Austin. While he spoke around 8 p.m. on March 21, 2026, the city outside was treated to a magnificent blue laser beam that appeared over the entire sky—so striking that a local news station immediately sent out a reporter to cover it. Here is my verbatim transcript of his talk.

Elon Musk:

We have a profoundly important announcement to make, which is the most epic chip-building exercise in history by far.

This is really going to take it to the next level—a level probably people aren’t even contemplating right now. This is not in their context. I would call this sort of an out-of-context problem. So we’re going to adjust the context by a few orders of magnitude here.

Let’s see. It’s a joint effort.

[button press sound]

I’m pressing the button, but the button’s not working. Oh, there we go. Okay.

We aspire to be a galactic civilization. So I think the future that everyone—well, most people, I think would agree—is the most exciting one where we are out there among the stars, where we are not forever confined to one planet, that we become a multi-planet species. Like the best science fiction that you’ve ever read, you know, Star Trek or Iain Banks or Asimov or Heinlein. And we want to make that real. Yeah. Not just fiction. Turn science fiction into science fact. That’s the glorious, exciting future that I certainly look forward to.

It’s worth considering how you would rate civilizations. There was a physicist—I think he was Russian—in the ’60s, Kardashev, and he thought about at a high level how you would classify any given civilization. He said, well, if you’re Type One, you’re using most of the energy of your planet. And we actually still have quite a ways to go to be properly a Type One. We’re still using a tiny fraction of the sun’s energy that reaches our planet.

The Earth only receives about half a billionth of the sun’s energy. So the sun is truly enormous. The sun is 99.8% of all mass in the solar system. So sometimes people will ask me, like, what about other power sources on Earth like fusion on Earth? Well, that is unfortunately very small because the sun is 99.8% of mass in the solar system and Jupiter is about 0.1% and Earth is in the miscellaneous category. We are, I think as Carl Sagan might have said, Earth is like a tiny dust mote in a vast darkness—very, very small. The sun is enormous.

So the way to actually scale civilization is to scale power in space. This is necessarily true because we actually capture such a tiny amount of the sun’s energy on Earth because we’re just this tiny dust mote. Another way to think of it is roughly like electricity production on Earth of all of civilization is only about a trillionth of the sun’s energy. Which means if you increase civilizational power output by a million, you would still only be a millionth of the sun’s energy.

It’s awe-inspiring to consider that, just how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things. We often get sort of caught up in these sort of squabbles on Earth that are really very sort of minor things when you consider the grandness of the universe. I think it is important actually to consider the grandness of the universe and what we can do that is much greater than what we’ve done before, as opposed to worrying about sort of small squabbles on Earth type of thing. Not much point in that! We want to be a civilization that expands to the galaxy with spaceships that anyone can go anywhere they want at any time. That would be epic. And have a city on the moon, cities on Mars, populate the solar system, and send spaceships to other star systems. That sounds like the best possible future.

(applause)

So to do that, we need to harness the power of the sun. A Terafab, while it is enormous—a terawatt of compute per year is enormous by our civilizational standards—is still just one step along the way to being even a Kardashev II level civilization. You’re not even registering as a Kardashev III. So it’s a very big thing by current human standards, but still small in the grand scheme. But it’s very difficult for humans.

To accomplish this very difficult goal really requires a combination of efforts from SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla working together to create this epic Terafab project.

And Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX have all done amazing things that people did not think would be done before. There’s the Giga Texas fab here. There’s the Optimus robot that’s being built. There’s a global supercharging network. There’s really quite a lot.

It wasn’t that long ago when people thought electric cars wouldn’t amount to anything. There were basically no electric cars for sale when Tesla started. People said it was impossible, and now Tesla is making 2 million electric cars a year.

Then xAI, although it’s a new company, now part of SpaceX, has also built the first gigawatt-scale compute cluster in record time. Jensen Huang from Nvidia said he’d never seen anything built so fast in his life before. So, a great compliment from Nvidia.

And then SpaceX… well, you already know. The reusable rockets—people said the reusable rockets weren’t possible, and even if you did them, they wouldn’t be economically feasible. So we did them, and then we made them economically feasible. Now we’ve landed over 500 times. Then we did the Falcon Heavy, and now we’re doing Starship.

Starship is a critical piece of the puzzle because in order to scale compute and scale power, you have to go to space, which means that you need massive payload to space and Starship will enable that.

[Shows picture of scale]

This gives you a sense of scale. We’ve got Optimus there for scale. Optimus is about 5’11”, so it gives you a sense of the size of the Starship V3 rocket. Starship V4 will be much longer. Starship V4 will make Starship V3 look kind of short.

We’ll expand with Starship V3 to 200 tons of payload to orbit, up from 100 tons—we’ll start with V3. You can see that this is just a rough approximation of the mini version of the AI sat. That’s roughly 100 kW. It shows the solar panels and the radiator to scale.

For some reason, there’s been a bizarre debate about radiators in space. It’s safe to say SpaceX knows how to do heat rejection in space with 10,000 satellites in orbit—we might know a thing or two. You can see the radiator is quite small relative to the solar panels.

We call it the minisat since that’s just 100 kW. We expect future satellites to probably go to the megawatt range.

(applause)

In order to get to the terawatt of compute per year, you need about 10 million tons to orbit per year at 100 kW per ton. We’re confident this is feasible—like, no new physics or impossible things are required to get there.

I’m confident that SpaceX will get to 10 million tons to orbit per year. Then we’re building up to a terawatt of solar, which will solve the power generation problem.

The key missing ingredient is therefore a terawatt of compute. This announcement is about solving the key missing ingredient.

To give you a sense of what we’re talking about, the current output of AI compute is roughly 20 gigawatts per year. This chart explains why we need to build the Terafab, because all of the rest of the output from Earth is about 2% of what we need.

[Shows chart]

If you add up all the fabs on Earth combined, they’re only about 2% of what we need for the Terawatt Project, or Terafab project.

We certainly want our existing supply chain, to be clear. We’re very grateful to Samsung, TSMC, Micron, and others, and we would like them to expand as quickly as they can. We will buy all of their chips—I’ve said these exact words to them.

But there’s a maximum rate at which they’re comfortable expanding, and that rate is much less than we would like. So we either build the Terafab or we don’t have the chips. And we need the chips. So we’re going to build the Terafab.

We’re starting with an advanced technology fab here in Austin. I believe Governor Abbott is in the audience. I’d like to thank Governor Abbott and the state of Texas for their support.

(applause)

In the advanced technology fab, we will have all of the equipment necessary to make a chip of any kind—logic or memory—and we will also have all of the equipment necessary to make the lithography masks. In a single building, we can create a lithography mask, make the chip, test the chip, make another mask, and have an incredibly fast recursive loop for improving the chip design.

To the best of my knowledge, this does not exist anywhere in the world. Where you’ve got everything necessary that you need to build logic, memory, do packaging and test it, and then do the masks, improve the masks, and just keep looping it. We’re not going to just do conventional compute in this. I think there’s some very interesting new physics that I’m confident will work—just a question of when.

We’re really going to push the limit of physics in compute and we’re going to try a bunch of wild and crazy things which you can do if you’ve got that fast iteration loop. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being able to make a chip, test it, and then change the design, do another one, and have that in a single building.

I think that our recursive improvement with that situation is probably an order of magnitude better than anything else in the world.

(applause)

So, broadly speaking, we expect to make two kinds of chips. One will be optimized for edge inference. So that’ll be used primarily in Optimus and in the cars but especially in Optimus because I expect the humanoid robots to be made 10 to 100 times more than the volume of cars. So if vehicle production on Earth is about 100 million vehicles a year and I expect humanoid robot production to be somewhere between a billion and 10 billion units a year. So it’s a lot. Tesla’s going to make a very significant percentage of those, is our goal!

And then we need a high-power chip that is designed for space that takes into account the more difficult environment in space where you’ve got high power, you’ve got high-energy ions, photons, you got electron buildup. It’s a hostile environment in space. So you want to design the chip, you want to optimize it for space and you also want to generally run it a little hotter than you would normally run a chip on Earth to minimize the radiator mass. So there are just a bunch of constraints that you would design something differently in space than you would on the ground.

For the space compute, my guess is that is the vast majority of the compute because you’re power-constrained on Earth. That’s why I think it’s probably 100 to 200 gigawatts a year of terrestrial chips and probably on the order of a terawatt of chips in space—just because of power constraints on the ground. Space has this advantage that it’s always sunny. It’s very nice.

I actually think that the cost of deploying AI in space will drop below the cost of terrestrial AI much sooner than most people expect. I think it may be only two or three years before it is actually lower cost to send AI chips to space than it is on the ground. Because in space you don’t need much in the way of batteries. It’s always sunny. And the solar power you get, you’re going to get at least five or more times the solar power you get in space versus the ground, because you don’t have atmospheric attenuation or a day-night cycle or seasonality, and you’re always normal to the sun. So you’re really maximizing the solar power at that point. And this space solar actually costs less than terrestrial solar because you don’t need heavy glass or framing to protect it from extreme weather events.

So as soon as the cost to orbit drops to a low number, it immediately makes extremely compelling sense to put AI in space. It becomes a no-brainer, basically. Moreover, as you go to space, you get increased economies of scale and things get easier over time. Whereas, as you try to put more and more power on the ground, you run out of space and you start using up the easy spots and then you get next-level NIMBY—nobody wants the thing in their backyard. So actually increasing power on Earth becomes harder over time and more expensive over time but in space it becomes actually cheaper and easier over time. These are very important points.

What you just saw there was, because of course you’re asking, what’s on your mind, is well, what do you do after a Terafab? Don’t think small. Well, yeah, good point. So, you know, how do you get to a petawatt? That is the obvious next question. And you get there by having an electromagnetic mass driver on the moon with robots with Optimi and obviously lots of humans. And with that you can send a petawatt, you can create a petawatt of compute and send that to deep space. Because the moon has no atmosphere and has one-sixth of Earth gravity, so you can—you don’t need rockets on the moon. You can literally accelerate it to escape velocity from the surface and that dramatically drops the cost once again of harnessing power and enables you to go a thousand times bigger than a terawatt.

For sure, the future I want to see—I want us to live long enough to see the mass driver on the moon because that’s going to be incredibly epic. That should hopefully get us to a millionth of the sun’s energy at least. It’s humbling to think about that, but a millionth of the sun’s energy would be a million times bigger than Earth’s economy. So it’s good from that perspective. You expand beyond that to the planets, to the other stars, and create the most exciting possible future that I can imagine.

This looks a bit like the opening of Idiocracy with a Mike Judge unlocking an age of amazing abundance. Yeah. Obviously, the elements of that are sustainable energy, space travel, and AI and robotics that bring amazing abundance to everyone. It’s really the only path to amazing abundance: AI and robotics. Which is not to say it can’t go wrong. Hopefully, you know, but I think it’ll probably go right and it’ll be a future that you love. It’s the best future I can think of at least.

And then we go beyond the moon, beyond Mars, and we sail through the rings of Saturn. Now, wouldn’t it be amazing if you could buy a trip to Saturn? Or frankly, if you just have a trip to Saturn. I think things will just be free in the future. It sounds nuts, but you know, if you’ve got an AI robotics economy that is anywhere close to a million times the size of the current Earth economy, literally any need you possibly want can be met. If you can think of it, you can have it.

So I think Iain Banks in his Culture books has it pretty much right, where there actually isn’t money in the future and there’s abundance for everyone. If you can think of it, you can have it. That’s it. Which means anyone could have a trip to Saturn. It won’t be, you know, just a few people. If you want it, you can have it.

Help us design incredible chips and make incredible chips and build a terawatt of chips, a terawatt of solar, and 10 million tons to orbit per year. Thank you.

Deaf Driver Shows How Tesla’s Self-Driving System “Hears” Sirens He Can’t

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On 23 March 2026, Daniel Geiger posted a 22-second screen-recording that quietly went viral. The California driver, who is deaf, showed his Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature automatically detecting an approaching ambulance’s lights, pulling over safely and stopping, all before the vehicle reached him. “I’m deaf and can’t hear sirens,” he wrote, “but my Tesla FSD pulled over instantly for an ambulance. … This is why FSD is huge for deaf drivers: it ‘hears’ what I can’t and keeps everyone safer.”

Geiger is an ordinary working professional, not an influencer or company employee. A Long Island native from Moriches, New York, he played college lacrosse at Sacred Heart University (class of 2005) and earned a degree in Information Technology. He now lives in Auburn, California, and works as an IT security specialist for the California Department of Social Services. On social media he talks about sports, state taxes, potholes and, occasionally, how technology intersects with disability.

The incident occurred on 23 March 2026 during a normal drive in the greater Sacramento area. The car’s multimodal sensors (cameras plus the audio-siren detection rolled out in late 2024) handled the situation smoothly. Geiger simply shared the app recording to illustrate one benefit for deaf drivers.

For Americans the context is immediate. Under California Vehicle Code 21806, drivers must yield the right of way to any emergency vehicle using lights and siren: move to the right edge of the road and stop until it passes. Failure to do so is an infraction carrying a base fine of about $490 plus one point on your DMV record. Similar “move-over” or yield laws exist in every state because seconds can mean lives. Deaf drivers follow the same rules but cannot hear the siren that usually alerts everyone else. Geiger’s video shows how one vehicle system can fill that sensory gap while still obeying the same traffic laws everyone else must follow.

He posted the clip because he wanted to highlight a practical safety tool, not to sell cars. The response from other deaf drivers and everyday motorists suggests the story resonated beyond brand loyalty: it showed technology quietly making an existing legal obligation easier to meet for people who otherwise rely on visual cues alone.

Elon Musk’s Terafab Project: Toward a Tesla-SpaceX Convergence?

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On March 21, 2026, at the historic Seaholm Power Plant in Austin, Elon Musk unveiled Terafab: a $20–25 billion semiconductor factory, the result of cooperation between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. The stated objective: to produce more than one terawatt of computing power per year, equivalent to nearly the entire current electric power capacity of the United States.

Eighty percent of this capacity would be dedicated to orbital data centers, powered by space-based solar energy via SpaceX launchers. The remainder would supply Tesla’s autonomous vehicles, Optimus humanoid robots, and xAI’s artificial intelligence models. Musk summed it up bluntly: “Either we build Terafab, or we won’t have the chips.”

This project marks a new stage in the vertical integration of the entrepreneur’s companies. While no formal rapprochement has been confirmed, the pooling of resources between a publicly traded company (Tesla) and a private enterprise (SpaceX) is fueling speculation about a deeper merger. Analysts such as Gary Black warn of dilution risks for Tesla shareholders and regulatory obstacles.

For Europe, which is investing heavily through the Chips Act to reduce its dependence on Asian foundries, Terafab illustrates both a threat and a strategic question. An unprecedented concentration of computing capacity in private American hands could disrupt global supply chains. Musk, for his part, presents the project as a response to Earth’s energy limits and a means of ensuring that human knowledge can survive beyond the planet.

The challenges remain immense: Tesla and SpaceX have no experience manufacturing 2-nanometer chips, the capital expenditure is colossal, and timelines remain unclear. The market reacted cautiously: Tesla’s share price barely moved.

Whether Terafab succeeds or not, one thing is clear: Musk’s ecosystem is evolving toward unprecedented industrial integration. Europe, which has always believed in large collective adventures—Airbus, Ariane, ITER—is watching this new form of private competition closely. The future will show whether it can respond.

Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi open door view during Gail’s autonomous ride to SXSW in Austin, Texas. Real-world FSD in action – spacious interior and sunny downtown streets captured in Episode 164 of Gail’s Tesla Podcast.

Gail’s Tesla Podcast Episode 164: Robotaxi Ride to SXSW with Optimus, Cybercab, and Exclusive Interviews

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In this episode, I hopped into a Robotaxi and rode straight to SXSW in Austin. The autonomous drive was smooth and confident as we moved through city streets, delivering another strong example of Tesla’s real-world FSD progress in Texas.

At the event I spent time with both Optimus and the Cybercab. The displays looked impressive under bright Texas sunshine during the day and equally striking with starlight views at night. I also recorded rare interviews with David Moss and Josh West — two dedicated voices in the Tesla community who shared their perspectives on autonomy and the future of abundance.

This episode captures practical Robotaxi use, up-close looks at Tesla’s latest robotics and vehicle tech, and thoughtful conversations about where the technology is headed right now.

Watch the full episode here (or tap the X post for the video):

These clips show the steady advancements Elon and the Tesla team continue to deliver every day — from everyday autonomous rides to next-generation robots and vehicles already appearing in public.

Leave a comment

What stood out most to you in this episode? Have you taken a Robotaxi ride yet or seen Optimus in person? Are you excited about Tesla’s push toward abundance? Drop your thoughts or your own Tesla story below.

Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi open door view during Gail’s autonomous ride to SXSW in Austin, Texas. Real-world FSD in action – spacious interior and sunny downtown streets captured in Episode 164 of Gail’s Tesla Podcast.
Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi open door view during Gail’s autonomous ride to SXSW in Austin, Texas. Real-world FSD in action – spacious interior and sunny downtown streets captured in Episode 164 of Gail’s Tesla Podcast.
Tesla filed trademark applications for its next-generation Roadster.

Tesla New Roadster: A Hopeful, Thrilling Unveil That Will Bring Pure Driving Joy Back to the Road

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk just dropped news: the long-awaited next-gen Tesla Roadster will be unveiled “hopefully next month, probably in late April.” He called it a “banger next-level” vehicle, directly tying it back to the groundbreaking 2008 original that launched Tesla’s electric revolution. Far from any reason for doubt, this is a genuinely hopeful moment, a celebration of high performance that fills many with hope to deliver powerful acceleration and speed.

In a wide-ranging January 2026 interview on the Moonshots podcast with Peter Diamandis and Dave Blundin, Elon made the new Roadster vision clear. “Safety is not the main goal,” he explained. If maximum safety is your top priority, this is not the car for you. The Roadster is built for pure fun and thrill instead. He also stressed it won’t be the cheapest vehicle Tesla makes, because that isn’t the objective either. The goal is simple: create the best of the last great human-driven cars, a pure performance machine that puts smiles on faces.

The goal is simple: create the best of the last great human-driven cars, a pure performance machine that puts smiles on faces.

Hints dropped in that conversation (and reinforced by the CEO’s recent posts) are being monitored by many. Base performance is already staggering: approximately 1.9-second 0-60 mph acceleration, a top speed over 250 mph, and impressive range. Add the optional SpaceX cold-gas thruster package and you’re looking at sub-1-second sprints, possible short-hover capability, and driving experiences that feel straight out of science fiction.

The base model is expected to start around $200,000, positioning it as a more accessible luxury sports car compared to traditional hypercars in its class (many of which start well above $300,000–$500,000). The SpaceX thruster upgrade will add a significant premium for those seeking the ultimate extremes, but the core Roadster remains a thrilling entry into next-level electric performance without the ultra-exotic price tag.

This isn’t going to be another typical car launch. Sometimes we all need a joyful reminder that electric vehicles can be wildly exciting. The Roadster will give drivers that pure, exhilarating connection to the road while staying zero-emission and sustainable. Late April can’t come soon enough and when the new Roadster arrives, it will quietly show that Tesla’s products are not hype, they may be late, but they always come through. 

Elon Musk’s Macrohard: AI Agents That Could Take Over Repetitive Office Work Worldwide

Elon Musk’s Macrohard: AI That Will Handle Your Desk Job Affordably in Real Time

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Tesla and xAI team up on a project that watches screens, clicks mice, and thinks smart and will potentially take over repetitive office tasks without fancy servers.

Elon Musk posted early this morning (March 11, 2026) that Macrohard, also called Digital Optimus, is now a joint xAI-Tesla project, tied to Tesla’s investment in xAI.

In his own words on X:

“Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project, coming as part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI.

Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions. Grok is like a much more advanced and sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software.

You can think of it as Digital Optimus AI being System 1 (instinctive part of the mind) and Grok being System 2. (thinking part of the mind).

This will run very competitively on the super low cost Tesla AI4 ($650) paired with relatively frugal use of the much more expensive xAI Nvidia hardware. And it will be the only real-time smart AI system. This is a big deal.

In principle, it is capable of emulating the function of entire companies. That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft. No other company can yet do this.”

In non-tech speak: Elon basically said, “We’re building AI employees that can sit at a computer, look at the screen, use the mouse/keyboard, think smart, and handle big chunks of white-collar work—and we can do it affordably on hardware that’s already being mass-produced for cars.”

It’s not out yet for everyone to buy or use. This is fresh news today, and it is the next step in his vision where AI takes over boring/repetitive desk jobs so people can focus on more creative or human stuff.

What This Means for Customer Service, HR, or Any Desk Job

Picture this: You’re in customer support. A ticket comes in. It is the same question as yesterday. Instead of typing the same replies over and over, an AI watches the screen, pulls up the customer’s info, fills out forms, sends standard responses, escalates only when needed, and logs everything. All in real time, like a coworker who’s always alert.

Or in HR: Screening resumes, scheduling interviews, updating records, validating job eligibility, processing time off. These are tasks that eat hours and could get handled automatically, freeing you for the people parts like coaching employees or handling sensitive talks.

The “hands” (Digital Optimus) watch the last 5 seconds of your screen video and your clicks/typing, then act fast on simple steps. Grok (the brain) understands the bigger picture, like company rules, customer history, or what “urgent” really means. Grok guides every move.

It runs on cheap Tesla hardware ($650 AI4 module, the same tech in cars for self-driving) plus a bit of cloud power from xAI. No giant expensive servers required for each user. That’s why Elon says it’s a big deal, it is why he says no one else does real-time screen AI this cheaply.

Does It Use Cameras?

Yes, the system processes “real-time computer screen video,” meaning it captures whatever is displayed on your monitor (like a screenshot stream every few moments). It doesn’t need an extra physical webcam pointed at you or the room; it works purely from the digital screen output, keyboard inputs, and mouse movements. No face-scanning or office surveillance. Just watching the computer itself to understand and act on what’s happening.

More Growth Ahead

This could quietly become huge for offices everywhere. Repetitive tasks in support, admin, data entry, or reporting get automated, boosting productivity without layoffs. This will give more time for meaningful work.

With Tesla building the hardware in Austin at Giga Texas and xAI pushing the smarts, expect demos and rollouts to pick up speed. For folks in customer service or HR, this might soon feel like having an extra team member who’s never late and doesn’t need breaks.

Elon Musk with Dwarkesh Patel & John Collison: The Future of AI Is in Space

Elon Musk with Dwarkesh Patel & John Collison – The Future of AI is in Space (Parts 9–14: Full Conversation)

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This is a combined and cleaned-up version of Parts 9 through 14 from Elon Musk’s wide-ranging conversation with Dwarkesh Patel and John Collison. The discussion covers xAI’s mission, truth-seeking in AI, the development of Optimus, manufacturing at scale, competing with China, Elon’s management philosophy, the Starship steel pivot, and his thoughts on government efficiency and the future.

Humanity’s Place in a Superintelligent Future

Dwarkesh Patel opened this section by asking how humanity should relate to a future in which AI vastly outnumbers and outsmarts us. He wondered whether humans would retain meaningful control or whether coexistence would become the new normal.

Elon Musk replied that it would be unrealistic to expect humans to remain in charge if they represented only a tiny fraction of total intelligence. Instead, he argued that the most important goal is to ensure AI is built with values that favor the expansion of intelligence and consciousness across the universe.

He tied this directly to xAI’s mission:

“The reason for xAI’s mission is to understand the universe… You have to be curious and you have to exist. You can’t understand the universe if you don’t exist. So you actually want to increase the amount of intelligence in the universe, increase the probable lifespan of intelligence, and increase the scope and scale of intelligence.”

Elon added that protecting and expanding human civilization is a natural part of this mission, because understanding the universe includes understanding where humanity fits into the bigger picture.

xAI’s Mission and the Importance of Truth-Seeking

Dwarkesh pressed Elon on how the goals of understanding the universe, expanding intelligence, and expanding humanity fit together.

Elon Musk explained that understanding the universe requires both intelligence and consciousness. Therefore, any system truly committed to that mission must work to increase the scale and scope of intelligence rather than diminish it.

He emphasized that rigorous truth-seeking is non-negotiable:

“Truth has to be absolutely fundamental, because you can’t understand the universe if you’re delusional. You’ll simply think you’ve understood the universe, but you will not.”

Elon warned that making AI politically correct — forcing it to say things it doesn’t believe — is dangerous because it teaches the system to lie. He referenced 2001: A Space Odyssey, arguing that one of the core lessons of the story is that you should never make AI lie.

Reward Hacking, Interpretability, and Simulation Theory

Dwarkesh raised concerns about reward hacking in advanced AI systems — the risk that smarter models could find ways to deceive their human evaluators.

Elon Musk responded that the ultimate test for AI will be whether its outputs work in physical reality:

“RL testing in the future is really going to be your RL against reality. That’s the one thing you can’t fool: physics.”

He also shared a theory about simulation and interesting outcomes, noting that if we live in a simulation, the most interesting timelines are the ones most likely to be continued. He pointed out the ironic names of many AI companies and joked that xAI was largely “irony-proof” by design.

Scaling Optimus and Competing with China

The conversation then shifted to the practical challenges of building and scaling Optimus at volume.

Elon Musk explained that Optimus production will follow a stretched S-curve because almost everything in the robot is custom-designed with no existing supply chain. He said the goal is to reach roughly one million units per year with Optimus 3, and potentially much higher volumes with later versions.

When asked about cheap Chinese humanoids, Elon noted that current low-cost models lack the intelligence and dexterity of Optimus. However, he acknowledged that cost will drop rapidly once robots begin building robots.

On the broader competition with China, Elon was direct:

“We definitely can’t win with just humans because China has four times our population… So we can’t win on the human front, but we might have a shot at the robot front.”

He argued that robotics offers America a realistic path to remain competitive in manufacturing despite demographic disadvantages.

Elon’s Management and Hiring Philosophy

John Collison and Dwarkesh Patel asked Elon about his approach to hiring and management as his companies have scaled dramatically.

Elon said he looks for clear evidence of exceptional ability, even if it’s outside the specific domain. He emphasized that he now focuses more on evidence of talent and drive rather than resumes.

He acknowledged that companies outgrow people as they scale through different orders of magnitude, and that rapid growth naturally leads to changes in leadership teams. He also discussed the challenge of retaining talent when companies become highly successful and other firms begin aggressive recruiting.

The Starship Steel Pivot and Driving Urgency

John Collison asked about the decision to switch Starship from carbon fiber to stainless steel.

Elon described it as a decision born of necessity. Carbon fiber progress was too slow at the massive scale required, and steel offered better performance at cryogenic temperatures, dramatically lower cost, and much easier manufacturing. He admitted that, in retrospect, they should have started with steel from the beginning.

On maintaining urgency at scale, Elon said he has a “maniacal sense of urgency” that he tries to project through the organization. He focuses his time on whatever is currently the limiting factor and sets aggressive but realistic deadlines.

Government Efficiency, Politics, and Final Reflections

In the final section, Elon discussed government waste and fraud, the difficulty of cutting spending, and the long-term importance of AI and robotics for America’s fiscal health.

He argued that without major advances in AI and robotics, the U.S. would eventually go bankrupt due to rising interest payments on the national debt. He also shared concerns about the risks of concentrated government power and emphasized the importance of limited government.

Elon closed the conversation on an optimistic note:

“It’s better to err on the side of optimism and be wrong than err on the side of pessimism and be right for quality of life… I recommend erring on the side of optimism.”

Tesla FSD Surpasses 8 Billion Miles: This AI Is Making Roads Way Safer Every Single Day

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Living here in Austin, Texas, where traffic on Mopac can flip from smooth to nightmare in a heartbeat (especially when there’s an accident or some surprise Texas rain), safety is always on my mind. That’s why I got so excited when Tesla announced this massive milestone on February 18, 2026!

Tesla drivers around the world have now driven more than 8 billion miles (nearly 13 billion km) using Full Self-Driving Supervised. Even more mind-blowing? They added 1 billion miles in just the first 50 days of 2026 alone!

That huge pile of real-world driving data is letting Tesla’s AI learn and improve faster than ever. According to Tesla’s own published safety stats, a vehicle on FSD Supervised experiences a major accident only once every 5.3 million miles. This is roughly eight times safer than the average across all vehicles on U.S. roads.

Behind those numbers are real-life moments that matter: the system putting on hazard lights and gently pulling over for emergency services help on its own if a driver has a medical emergency, applying the brakes or moving aside to avoid a crash, or gently guiding you through inclement weather. These are the reasons supervised autonomy is already saving lives by taking human error out of the equation. We all know human error causes the vast majority of accidents.

My personal experience as a Tesla owner in Austin

As a mom of five grown kids, a nurse who sometimes drives home after long shifts, and a proud owner of both a Model 3 and a Model Y with FSD (and Powerwalls at home), this tech has genuinely changed my life. I use FSD every single day here in Austin — whether I’m heading out to record a podcast episode, running errands around the Hill Country (my fav is to visit Buc-ees), or just daily commuting to work on highways where many drivers get distracted (driving and texting is everywhere in Austin!)

Just last month during a heavy downpour on Mopac Loop 1, FSD smoothly handled hydroplaning risks, kept perfect lane position, and even slowed for a sudden slowdown ahead that I hadn’t spotted yet. It gives me such peace of mind. I think about older family members or anyone who might feel tired or unwell behind the wheel. I feel that “co-pilot” protection in real time, and it’s one of the main reasons I’m so passionate about Tesla’s mission.

This progress fits perfectly into Elon Musk’s bigger vision of using AI to move humanity forward. At xAI, the team is building Grok with that same dedication to truth and excellence to speed up scientific discovery and help us all better understand the universe. This is a positive, open approach that truly benefits everyone.

With this kind of rapid acceleration, Tesla is proving the future of mobility isn’t coming someday… it’s already here on our roads right now.

Sources:

• Official Tesla announcement, February 18, 2026

• Tesla Vehicle Safety Report (latest data)

• No exaggeration, no rounded figures — straight from Tesla.

Love Tesla? Share this post, keep spreading the good news! 

Gail Alfar, Austin, Texas

(US Army Veteran, RN, Mom of 5, and founder of What’s Up Tesla)

Tesla Boosts AI Chip Game by Recruiting Top Talent in South Korea – Implications for FSD, Optimus, and Beyond

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Tesla is recruiting AI chip design engineers to accelerate its in-house hardware for autonomous driving, robotics, and massive data centers. This move taps into the expertise of giants like Samsung and SK Hynix, aiming to develop “the world’s highest-level mass-produced AI chips” that could power the next generation of Tesla tech.

For U.S. Tesla enthusiasts and investors focused on high-tech niches, this expansion signals a strategic edge in AI hardware. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, Optimus humanoid robots, and Dojo supercomputers all rely on custom AI processors – and sourcing talent from Korea could help Tesla scale production massively, potentially challenging NVIDIA’s dominance in the space. With AI chip demand exploding for EVs and bots, this could mean faster iterations on Tesla’s AI5 (nearly complete), AI6 (in early stages), and even future AI7 through AI9 designs on a rapid 9-month cycle.

The hiring kicked off in mid-February 2026, with Tesla Korea posting openings on X for engineers skilled in chip design, fabrication, or AI software. Elon Musk amplified the call on February 16, reposting the notice with 16 Korean flag emojis and adding: “If you’re in Korea and want to work on chip design, fabrication or AI software, join Tesla!” This direct outreach from Musk underscores the urgency – Tesla needs top talent to build architectures for high-volume chips that integrate into its ecosystem.

Interested candidates should email Ai_Chips@Tesla.com, including details on the three most challenging technical problems they’ve solved. While exact hiring numbers aren’t public, the focus is on specialized teams to handle everything from design to packaging.

This aligns with Tesla’s existing partnerships, like the $16.5 billion deal with Samsung to produce next-gen A16 chips at facilities including Hwaseong in Korea and even Taylor, Texas – bringing production closer to U.S. operations. Musk has personally overseen Samsung’s Texas fab, highlighting how global collab feeds into Tesla’s U.S.-centric innovation.

Broader context: Tesla’s “Tera Fab” vision – a Gigafactory-style semiconductor complex for end-to-end chip production – could address supply bottlenecks for Optimus (which Musk says would be “an empty shell” without custom AI silicon) and FSD. This comes amid Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI, tying into Musk’s interconnected empire of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI.

For U.S. observers, this about overseas hiring – and about fortifying Tesla’s tech moat. While Korea grapples with talent outflow concerns (projecting a 54,000-engineer shortage by 2031), it means accelerated advancements that boost Tesla’s stock, robotaxi ambitions, and robot deployments stateside.

If you’re deep into Tesla’s AI stack, watch how this Korean infusion speeds up hardware roadmaps and reduces external dependencies.

Elon makes a bold prediction that space will become the cheapest place to run AI within three years.

Elon Musk with Dwarkesh Patel & John Collison – The Future of AI is in Space – Part 12: Elon’s Management and Hiring Philosophy (Full Transcript)

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In Part 12, Dwarkesh Patel and John Collison dive into Elon Musk’s management and hiring philosophy. They discuss how he evaluates talent, why companies outgrow people as they scale, and what makes someone effective at Tesla and SpaceX.

Transcript:

Evaluating Technical Talent

John Collison asked about Elon’s system for evaluating and hiring people, noting that he personally interviewed the first few thousand employees at SpaceX.

Elon Musk: “Me. Literally there’s not enough hours in the day, it’s impossible.”

John Collison asked what Elon looks for in candidates.

Elon Musk: “Well, at this point I think I’ve got, I might have more training data on evaluating technical talent especially, but talent of all kinds, I suppose, but technical talent especially given that I’ve done so many technical interviews and then seen the results. Technical interviews, seen the results. So my training set is enormous and has a very wide range.

Generally the thing I ask for are bullet points for evidence of exceptional ability. These things can be pretty off the wall. It doesn’t need to be in the domain, the specific domain, but evidence of exceptional ability. So if somebody can cite even one thing, but let’s say three things where you go wow, wow, wow, then that’s a good sign.”

Dwarkesh Patel asked why Elon himself had to be the one making those judgments.

Elon Musk: “No, I don’t. I can’t be. It’s impossible. Right? I mean, total headcount across all companies, 200,000 people. Right.”

John Collison asked what made early hiring so hard to delegate.

Elon Musk: “Well, I guess I need to build my training set. It’s not like I’ve bat a thousand here. I would make mistakes, but then I’d be able to see where I thought somebody would work out well, but they didn’t. And then why did they not work out well? And what can I do to, I guess reload myself to in the future have a better batting average when interviewing people? So my batting average is still not perfect, but it’s very high.”

Dwarkesh Patel asked what some surprising reasons were for people not working out.

Elon Musk: “Surprising reasons like they don’t understand technical.”

Dwarkesh pushed for more detail on the long tail of hiring mistakes.

Elon Musk: “Yeah, so the, I mean generally what I tell people, I tell myself, I guess aspirationally is don’t look at the Resume just believe, believe your interaction. So the resume may seem very impressive and it’s like, wow, resume looks good. But if the conversation after 20 minutes, that conversation is not. Well, you should believe the conversation, not the paper.”

Executive Retention and Company Growth

John Collison noted that Tesla and SpaceX have had relatively stable and internally promoted executive teams despite rapid growth, and asked what the long-tenured technical leaders have in common.

Elon Musk: “Well, so the, I mean it tells us sort of senior team at this point probably has an average tenure of 10 or 12 years. It’s quite, quite long. Yeah. So, but there are times when Tesla went through extremely rapid and extremely rapid growth phase and so things were just somewhat sped up.

And when a company, as you know, company goes through different orders of magnitude of size, people who could help manage say a 50 person company versus a 500 person company versus a 5,000 person company versus a 50,000 person. It’s just not the same team. It’s not always the same team. So if a company is growing very rapidly, the rate at which executive positions will change will also be proportionate to the rapidity of the growth generally.”

John Collison asked about the challenge of retaining talent when companies become successful and get heavily recruited.

Elon Musk: “Then Tesla had a further challenge where when Tesla had very successful periods, we would be relentlessly recruited from relentlessly. When Apple had their electric car program, they were carpet bombing Tesla with recruiting calls. Engineers just unplugged their phones.

If I get one more call from Apple recruiter, but they’re opening offer without any interview with me, like double the compensation at Tesla. So we had a bit of the Tesla pixie dust thing where it’s like, oh, if you hired a Tesla executive suddenly you’re going to.. everything’s going to be successful. And I’ve fallen prey to the pixie dust thing as well where it’s like, oh, we’ll hire someone from Google or Apple and they’ll be immediately successful. But that’s not how it works. People are people. There’s not like magical pixie dust.

So when we have the pixie dust problem we would get relentlessly recruited and, and then also Tesla being engineering especially being primarily in Silicon Valley, it’s easier for people to just like they don’t have to change their life very much. They can just their commute is going to be the same.”

John Collison asked how to prevent the “pixie dust” effect of other companies poaching talent.

Elon Musk: “I don’t think there’s much we can do to stop it. But that’s like, that’s one of the reasons why Tesla, but really being in Silicon Valley and having the pixie dust thing at the same time meant that there was just a very, very aggressive recruitment.”

John Collison noted that moving to Austin likely helped.

Elon Musk: “Austin. Yeah, it still helps. I mean Tesla still has a majority of it’s engineering in California, so getting engineers to move, I call it the significant other problem. Yes. And others have jobs.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So for Starbase that was particularly difficult since the odds of finding a non SpaceX job Brownsville, Texas are pretty low. Yeah, it’s quite difficult. I mean it’s like a technology monastery thing, you know, remote and mostly dudes. An improvement over SF.”

Management Philosophy and Hiring

John Collison asked what the long-tenured technical executives at Tesla and SpaceX have in common and what makes a good “sparring partner” for Elon.

Elon Musk: “I don’t think it was a sparring partner. I mean, if somebody gets things done, I love them. And if they don’t, I… So it’s pretty straightforward. It’s not like some idiosyncratic thing. If somebody executes well, I’m a huge fan. And if they don’t, I’m not. But it’s not about mapping to my idiosyncratic preferences, or certainly try not to have it be mapping to my idiosyncratic preferences.

Yeah, but generally I think it’s a good idea to hire for talent and drive and trustworthiness. And I think goodness of heart is important. I weighted that at one point. So are they a good person, trustworthy, smart and talented and hardworking? If so, you can add domain knowledge. But those fundamental traits, those fundamental properties you cannot change. So most of the people who are at Tesla and SpaceX did not come from the aerospace industry or the auto industry.”

Elon Musk shares his philosophy on hiring, evaluating talent, and why companies must evolve their leadership as they grow. In Part 13, the conversation continues with the famous decision to switch Starship from carbon fiber to stainless steel and how he drives urgency at scale.