News
Dandelion’s geothermal system looks to heat and cool homes with renewable energy
Dandelion Energy, an energy startup conceived at Google’s Alphabet X innovation lab, is looking to bring affordable geothermal heating and cooling solutions to homeowners in the United States. Over the years, the clean energy company has grown its operations across New York State and is looking to expand its operations further, pursuing more research, opening new warehouses, and growing its team. The company has completed a $16 million Series A round that was led by Comcast Ventures and Google Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding to $23 million.
Similar to other clean energy companies such as Tesla, Dandelion Energy aims to liberate American homeowners from dependence on fossil fuels. Homes in the US typically utilize oil furnaces, which are costly and dangerous. A typical 2,500-square-foot Victorian home in Poughkeepsie, for example, could spend around $3,500 in winter for heating, and an additional $300 in the summer for air conditioning. Geothermal energy solutions, such as those offered by Dandelion, aim to cut these costs significantly.
A graphic depicting how Dandelion Energy’s residential geothermal energy solutions work. (Credit: Dandelion Energy)
At the core of Dandelion Energy’s vision is the Air, a heating and cooling system capable of harvesting energy from the ground. Unlike conventional geothermal residential systems that involve invasive, messy digging projects, Dandelion’s geothermal digging solutions are clean and efficient, resulting in deep holes that are only a few inches wide. Similar to other geothermal heat pumps, the Dandelion Air works by utilizing the difference in temperatures underground from the outside air. Thus, if the ground is warmer, the system would move heat from the ground inside to heat the home. During summers, the system would pump warm air from the house outside and underground. In true Silicon Valley fashion, the Air manages these processes automatically through software.
Geothermal heating and cooling systems present a notable advantage for the environment. Last year alone, the US saw its carbon emissions rise by 3.4% — the second-largest margin in two decades and reversing a three-year decline. In a report, the Rhodium Group listed buildings in the country as a factor in the emissions increase, partly thanks to unusually cold weather at the beginning of the year. This led to more demand for heating than expected, resulting in the increased carbon dioxide footprint of homes, offices, and buildings, many of which were using fossil fuel-powered furnaces. Had the use of residential geothermal solutions been widespread across the United States, these figures would have been notably lower.
With Silicon Valley roots, like fellow Alphabet X projects that eventually became their own companies, Dandelion Energy’s geothermal heating & cooling system has the potential to disrupt utilities by offering alternatives to conventional gas, oil, propane or electric heating. Other projects from Alphabet’s X labs that ultimately came into their own include self-driving car company Waymo, health data company Verily, and wearable tech platform Google Watch, which is now part of Android.
Dandelion Air’s upfront price is $29,247, though the company notes that the system would cost $19,423 after incentives are applied. Customers who wish to pay for the system through a loan are estimated to pay a monthly cost of $135 for the system. With the Air in place, homeowners could see savings of up to 20% for their heating and cooling needs.
More information on the Dandelion Air could be found here.
News
Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.
In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.
Tesla has officially ended the option to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, a move that was announced for the United States market in January by CEO Elon Musk.
The driver assistance suite is now exclusively available in the U.S. as a subscription, which is currently priced at $99 per month.
Tesla moved away from the outright purchase option in an effort to move more people to the subscription program, but there are concerns over its current price and the potential for it to rise.
In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.
Although Tesla moved back the deadline in other countries, it has now taken effect in the U.S. on Sunday morning. Tesla updated its website to reflect this:
🚨 Tesla has officially moved the outright purchase option for FSD on its website pic.twitter.com/RZt1oIevB3
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 15, 2026
There are still some concerns regarding its price, as $99 per month is not where many consumers are hoping to see the subscription price stay.
Musk has said that as capabilities improve, the price will go up, but it seems unlikely that 10 million drivers will want to pay an extra $100 every month for the capability, even if it is extremely useful.
Instead, many owners and fans of the company are calling for Tesla to offer a different type of pricing platform. This includes a tiered-system that would let owners pick and choose the features they would want for varying prices, or even a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual pricing option, which would incentivize longer-term purchasing.
Although Musk and other Tesla are aware of FSD’s capabilities and state is is worth much more than its current price, there could be some merit in the idea of offering a price for Supervised FSD and another price for Unsupervised FSD when it becomes available.
Elon Musk
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. A new financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year.
Elon Musk’s bankers are looking to trim the debt that xAI has taken on over the past few years, following the company’s merger with SpaceX, a new report from Bloomberg says.
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. Bankers are trying to create some kind of financing plan that would trim “some of the heavy interest costs” that come with the debt.
The financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year. Musk has essentially confirmed that SpaceX would be heading toward an IPO last month.
The report indicates that Morgan Stanley is expected to take the leading role in any financing plan, citing people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley, along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are all expected to be in the lineup of banks leading SpaceX’s potential IPO.
Since Musk acquired X, he has also had what Bloomberg says is a “mixed track record with debt markets.” Since purchasing X a few years ago with a $12.5 billion financing package, X pays “tens of millions in interest payments every month.”
That debt is held by Bank of America, Barclays, Mitsubishi, UFJ Financial, BNP Paribas SA, Mizuho, and Société Générale SA.
X merged with xAI last March, which brought the valuation to $45 billion, including the debt.
SpaceX announced the merger with xAI earlier this month, a major move in Musk’s plan to alleviate Earth of necessary data centers and replace them with orbital options that will be lower cost:
“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution, therefore, is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called “space” for a reason.”
The merger has many advantages, but one of the most crucial is that it positions the now-merged companies to fund broader goals, fueled by revenue from the Starlink expansion, potential IPO, and AI-driven applications that could accelerate the development of lunar bases.
News
Tesla pushes Full Self-Driving outright purchasing option back in one market
Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.
Tesla has pushed the opportunity to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright in one market: Australia.
The date remains February 14 in North America, but Tesla has pushed the date back to March 31, 2026, in Australia.
NEWS: Tesla is ending the option to buy FSD as a one-time outright purchase in Australia on March 31, 2026.
It still ends on Feb 14th in North America. https://t.co/qZBOztExVT pic.twitter.com/wmKRZPTf3r
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 13, 2026
Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.
If you have already purchased the suite outright, you will not be required to subscribe once again, but once the outright purchase option is gone, drivers will be required to pay the monthly fee.
The reason for the adjustment is likely due to the short period of time the Full Self-Driving suite has been available in the country. In North America, it has been available for years.
Tesla hits major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions
However, Tesla just launched it just last year in Australia.
Full Self-Driving is currently available in seven countries: the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
The company has worked extensively for the past few years to launch the suite in Europe. It has not made it quite yet, but Tesla hopes to get it launched by the end of this year.
In North America, Tesla is only giving customers one more day to buy the suite outright before they will be committed to the subscription-based option for good.
The price is expected to go up as the capabilities improve, but there are no indications as to when Tesla will be doing that, nor what type of offering it plans to roll out for owners.
Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
