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Tesla CEO Elon Musk kicked off the new year by springing several eye-popping surprises on shareholders, including a $2 billion Tesla investment in one of his own companies (the artificial intelligence firm xAI), and the abrupt elimination of two of the company\u2019s car models, the Model S and the Model X.<\/p>\n
The moves, remarkable even in the context of Musk\u2019s unfettered management style, underscore the profound transformation underway at the car maker as it loses ground in the EV market to Chinese rivals. In place of the discontinued car models, Musk said that Tesla will use the freed up factory space to build Optimus robots, a still largely experimental line of humanoid robots that Musk says will eventually perform everything from household chores to surgery.<\/p>\n
Tesla executives emphasized that the investment in xAI would build efficiencies for Tesla, as it wouldn\u2019t have to expend similar resources on AI, and Musk said it would ultimately help Tesla manage the enormous fleets of autonomous vehicles and Optimus robots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just doing what shareholders asked us to do, pretty much,\u201d Musk said Wednesday evening on the call, noting that \u201ca lot\u201d of investors had asked for the investment in xAI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shares of Tesla were up about 1.8% in after-hours trading on Wednesday following the results.<\/p>\n
Revenue was down 3% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, which some analysts have cited due to a slowdown in EV sales because of the end of federal tax credits. Still, Tesla beat Wall Street targets, posting $24.9 billion in revenue versus $24.8 billion estimates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Musk highlighted that Tesla had changed its mission to \u201cbuild a world of amazing abundance,\u201d from \u201cto accelerate the world\u2019s transition to sustainable energy,\u201d and spoke about how the most likely path of AI was to help all humans obtain \u201cuniversal high income\u201d and better medical care. The language used on the call, which included mention of a hypothetical rare earth refinery, which \u201cwe do desperately need in America\u201d hinted at the time he has spent with President Trump over the last year.<\/p>\n
Tesla has been pulling away from its roots as a carmaker recently, in favor of autonomous software and robotics. \u201cIt\u2019s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge, because we\u2019re really moving into a future that is based on autonomy,\u201d Musk said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Musk said that Tesla was operating 500 robotaxis across both Austin and San Francisco, and he said that it was conducting \u201crandomly selected paid rides\u201d with no safety driver in Austin, though it\u2019s unclear at this time how many unsupervised rides have taken place. For the first time, Tesla shared this quarter how many of its customers were purchasing its Full Self Driving (FSD) software. There were 1.1 million subscriptions in 2025, up from 800,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n
Musk has been making promises on autonomy for over a decade, though he has been far behind in his timelines and the company has yet to deliver much profit from this line of its business. On Wednesday\u2019s earnings call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said of Tesla\u2019s robotaxi fleet that, because Tesla was still in the \u201cearly phase\u201d of its fleet deployment and still doing a lot of validation and testing, the \u201crevenue and cost per mile metrics are not meaningful to discuss at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taneja also talked up the investment in xAI, noting that Grok, the chatbot made by xAI, was already in use across Tesla\u2019s fleet. \u201cToday, if you look at Tesla vehicles, we are using Grok in there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this month, Musk said that Tesla planned to begin selling Optimus robots by the end of next year. By repurposing the space in its Fremont factory, Tesla said Wednesday, it will be able to build 1 million Optimus robots each year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Tesla #reveals #billion #investment #Elon #Musks #xAI #officially #kills #Model #Model<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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