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Bill Gates follows Musk into cleantech with $1 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund
Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, is joining a cleantech fund that will invest in companies developing low-cost, low-carbon technologies. The announcement comes as Tesla, which over the past year and a half has evolved from a premium electric car maker into a multifaceted sustainable energy company, is at the pinnacle of cleantech innovation and investment. In fact, Tesla, has continually modeled how sustainable energy generation, and storage, can both revolutionize global energy consumption and be a profitable business venture.
The Gates fund, called Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), intends to provide reliable and affordable power without contributing to climate change. Their goals are to address emissions in five key areas: electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and buildings. “Many people aren’t willing or able to pay a huge premium (for clean energy), beyond what they pay for hydrocarbon energy,” Gates stated. “The way you get to success is to get lower carbon energy at a lower cost.”
Gates added that he and other investors, who include Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos, LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman, Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, and retired hedge fund manager John Arnold, hope to convince the Trump administration to maintain or increase government funding for energy research and development. “It’s a fantastic investment, even if you don’t look at the climate change piece of this.”
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, on the other hand, has never dismissed the importance of accelerating the advent of sustainable energy as integral to continued healthy life on the planet. He understands that runaway global warming is an existential threat to Earth-based human civilization. He acknowledges readily that “virtually all scientists agree that dramatically increasing atmospheric and oceanic carbon levels is insane” and has been a vocal proponent of the intersection of technology, alternative energy investments, and worker training for a stable energy future with the incoming Trump administration.
With the launch of Tesla’s battery business and the recent acquisition of the SolarCity, the nation’s leading rooftop solar installer, Tesla is already immersed in most of the capital ventures that Gates’ BEV group is targeting. Musk has led a renewable energy enterprise network of companies, so that solar roofs are seamlessly integrated with battery storage systems. In essence, Tesla’s multiple energy interfaces have the capacity to turn individuals into their own utilities, decentralizing energy conglomerates while reducing carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
The Gates’ BEV group acknowledges that moving into the arena of renewable energy is likely fraught with challenges. Concerns particularly surround investing in early-stage companies against the backdrop in which fund investors expect to make a profit. “Some of these investments will result in ideas that move forward and some won’t; developing some may even make work on others unnecessary,” they outline. “The Breakthrough Energy Coalition believes, though, that all of them are avenues worth investigating to get the world to a zero-emissions future. Nobody knows yet what the energy mix of tomorrow is, so investors need to explore all possible paths.”
The lure of opportunities in the U.S. $6 trillion global energy market drives the BEV group forward, hoping their U.S. $1 billion cleantech fund will circumvent the tenuous nature of technology startups. Tech startups have highest rate of failure among all industries mainly due to number of uncertainties that come with launching a new yet unproven company.
Meanwhile, Tesla, with its years of R&D, is moving ahead with plans for an expanded vehicle product line that includes heavy-duty trucks and large passenger transport vehicles. Musk wants to expand Tesla’s line to “cover the major forms of terrestrial transport,” which are, in short, trucks, busses, and a ride-sharing system based on full self-driving capabilities.
If you’re interested in seeing how the BEV group’s vision compares to Tesla’s, download their mission statement here.
Elon Musk
xAI’s Grok approved for Pentagon classified systems: report
Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations.
Elon Musk’s xAI has signed an agreement with the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to allow Grok to be used in classified military systems.
Previously, Anthropic’s Claude had been the only AI system approved for the most sensitive military work, but a dispute over usage safeguards has reportedly prompted the Pentagon to broaden its options, as noted in a report from Axios.
Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations.
The publication reported that xAI agreed to the Pentagon’s requirement that its technology be usable for “all lawful purposes,” a standard Anthropic has reportedly resisted due to alleged ethical restrictions tied to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons use.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to meet with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in what sources expect to be a tense meeting, with the publication hinting that the Pentagon could designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” if the company does not lift its safeguards.
Axios stated that replacing Claude fully might be technically challenging even if xAI or other alternative AI systems take its place. That being said, other AI systems are already in use by the DoD.
Grok already operates in the Pentagon’s unclassified systems alongside Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google is reportedly close to an agreement that will result in Gemini being used for classified use, while OpenAI’s progress toward classified deployment is described as slower but still feasible.
The publication noted that the Pentagon continues talks with several AI companies as it prepares for potential changes in classified AI sourcing.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk denies Starlink’s price cuts are due to Amazon Kuiper
“This has nothing to do with Kuiper, we’re just trying to make Starlink more affordable to a broader audience,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
Elon Musk has pushed back on claims that Starlink’s recent price reductions are tied to Amazon’s Kuiper project.
In a post on X, Musk responded directly to a report suggesting that Starlink was cutting prices and offering free hardware to partners ahead of a planned IPO and increased competition from Kuiper.
“This has nothing to do with Kuiper, we’re just trying to make Starlink more affordable to a broader audience,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “The lower the cost, the more Starlink can be used by people who don’t have much money, especially in the developing world.”
The speculation originated from a post summarizing a report from The Information, which ran with the headline “SpaceX’s Starlink Makes Land Grab as Amazon Threat Looms.” The report stated that SpaceX is aggressively cutting prices and giving free hardware to distribution partners, which was interpreted as a reaction to Amazon’s Kuiper’s upcoming rollout and possible IPO.
In a way, Musk’s comments could be quite accurate considering Starlink’s current scale. The constellation currently has more than 9,700 satellites in operation today, making it by far the largest satellite broadband network in operation. It has also managed to grow its user base to 10 million active customers across more than 150 countries worldwide.
Amazon’s Kuiper, by comparison, has launched approximately 211 satellites to date, as per data from SatelliteMap.Space, some of which were launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Starlink surpassed that number in early January 2020, during the early buildout of its first-generation network.
Lower pricing also aligns with Starlink’s broader expansion strategy. SpaceX continues to deploy satellites at a rapid pace using Falcon 9, and future launches aboard Starship are expected to significantly accelerate the constellation’s growth. A larger network improves capacity and global coverage, which can support a broader customer base.
In that context, price reductions can be viewed as a way to match expanding supply with growing demand. Musk’s companies have historically used aggressive pricing strategies to drive adoption at scale, particularly when vertical integration allows costs to decline over time.
News
Tesla Giga Berlin makes a statement of solidarity amid IG Metall conflict
The display comes as tensions between Tesla and IG Metall continue to escalate.
Tesla Giga Berlin is sending a strong message of solidarity amid its ongoing legal dispute with German union IG Metall.
In a post on social media platform X, Giga Berlin plant manager André Thierig shared an image of the facility’s lobby covered with a large banner that reads: “Progress. Innovation. Success.” He added that the slogan reflects what the facility has stood for since Day One.
“Our lobby at Giga Berlin covered in a huge banner these days. Progress. Innovation. Success – this is what we stand for since we started production in 2022 and how we will go into our future!” Thierig wrote in his post on X.
The display comes as tensions between Tesla and IG Metall continue to escalate.
The dispute began after Tesla accused a union representative of secretly recording a works council meeting at Giga Berlin. Tesla stated that it filed a criminal complaint after the alleged incident. Police later confirmed they had seized a computer belonging to an IG Metall member as part of their investigation.
“What has happened today at Giga Berlin is truly beyond words! An external union representative from IG Metall attended a works council meeting. For unknown reasons he recorded the internal meeting and was caught in action! We obviously called police and filed a criminal complaint!” Thierig wrote on X at the time.
IG Metall denied the accusation and characterized Tesla’s move as an election tactic ahead of upcoming works council elections. The union subsequently filed a defamation complaint against Thierig. Authorities later confirmed that an investigation had been opened in connection with the matter.
Giga Berlin began production in 2022 and has since become one of Tesla’s key European manufacturing hubs, producing the Model Y, the company’s best-selling vehicle. The facility has expanded capacity over the past years despite environmental protests, labor disputes, and regulatory scrutiny.
xAI’s Grok approved for Pentagon classified systems: report
Elon Musk denies Starlink’s price cuts are due to Amazon Kuiper
