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A closer look at Joe Biden and Elon Musk’s feud, and the US President’s potential miscalculation
For all intents and purposes, US President Joe Biden and Tesla CEO Elon Musk should agree on a number of things. Both men have worked hard to fight climate change, and both openly support electric vehicles. Yet for the longest time now, a feud seems to have developed between Biden and Musk.
It’s not a stretch to state that a lot of the feud is due to Biden — and it will likely be a gross miscalculation on the President’s part.
It’s easy to shoehorn Elon Musk as a villain. The man’s a billionaire; he’s stated that he is voting against Democrats in the coming elections; he has even traded sarcastic barbs with popular left-leaning politicians over the past months. But what is easily forgotten these days is that Musk has, for the longest time, been a supporter of Democrats, including Biden himself.
Musk said as much recently on Twitter when he noted that he voted for both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the last two presidential elections. Musk was also quite close to the Obama administration. So what really encouraged Musk to switch to the right, even if Biden’s administration has characterized itself as one that is focused on climate issues and sustainability?
Some would note that the Musk and Biden feud started with the US President’s overt support for unions, but things actually started before that. As early as February 2021, Elon Musk hinted at some of his disagreements with the Biden administration. Musk was lobbying for a carbon tax then, but the CEO noted that the Biden team believed that such an initiative “seems too politically difficult.”
Musk has noted recently that his shift to the right is in no small part due to Biden’s administration doing “everything it can to sideline and ignore Tesla.” Musk critics would easily disregard these statements as entitled whining from the CEO (cue the aged Elon Musk Simpson’s “weird nerds” meme), but he does have a point. Since rejecting Musk’s suggestion for a carbon tax, the Biden administration has barely acknowledged Tesla, focusing instead on more traditional automakers that are, for the most part, doing far less for sustainability than Tesla.
This happened recently following what appeared to be Biden’s latest zinger against Musk, where he wished the CEO “lots of luck on his trip to the Moon” when asked about Musk’s concerns about the US economy. Biden proceeded to promote Ford’s efforts to hire 6,000 workers while conveniently denying that Tesla had nearly hired 50,000 people worldwide in the last two years.
Overall, the Biden and Musk feud is downright strange. From an outsider’s perspective, it really doesn’t make sense. Every person who has followed Tesla and SpaceX over the years would know that Musk’s companies are practically a perfect match for politicians on the left. Yet Biden, for some strange reason, opted to antagonize Musk instead. Biden’s not alone either, as other high-profile Democrats have also joined in on the anti-Musk bandwagon — to varying degrees of aggressiveness.
Such a strategy, however, may cost Biden in the upcoming elections. Musk is a prolific CEO, after all, and his social media presence — even if it is likely padded by bots considering Twitter’s issues with fake and spam accounts — is notable. By constantly beating on Musk while ignoring Tesla and SpaceX, Biden and his administration may end up alienating a significant part of the left’s voter base. The upcoming elections would likely show if this would be the case or not.
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Tesla gathers Cybercab fleet in Gigafactory Texas
Images and video of the Cybercab fleet were shared by longtime Giga Texas observer Joe Tegtmeyer in posts on social media platform X.
Tesla appears to be assembling a growing number of Cybercabs at Gigafactory Texas as preparations continue for the vehicle’s mass production. Recent footage shared online has shown over 30 Cybercabs being transported by trucks or staged near testing areas at the facility.
The images and video were shared by longtime Giga Texas observer and drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer in posts on social media platform X.
Interestingly enough, Tegtmeyer noted that many of the Cybercabs being loaded onto transport trucks were still equipped with steering wheels. This suggests that the vehicles are likely testing units rather than the final driverless configuration expected for the company’s Robotaxi service.
The vehicles could potentially be headed to testing sites across the United States as Tesla prepares to expand its Robotaxi fleet.
Additional footage captured at Gigafactory Texas also showed the Cybercab’s side and rear camera washer system operating as vehicles were being loaded onto transport trucks.
The growing number of Cybercabs at Giga Texas comes amidst the company’s announcement that the first production Cybercab has been produced at the facility. Full Cybercab production is expected to begin in April.
The vehicle is expected to play a central role in Tesla’s Robotaxi ambitions as the company looks to expand autonomous ride-hailing operations beyond its early deployments using Model Y vehicles.
Tesla has also linked Cybercab production to its proposed Unboxed manufacturing process, which assembles large vehicle modules separately before integrating them. The approach is intended to reduce production costs and accelerate output.
Musk has also noted that the Cybercab’s ramp will likely begin slowly due to the number of new components and manufacturing steps involved. However, he stated that once the process matures, Cybercab production could scale quickly.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI, creator of Grok and Grokipedia, celebrates its third birthday
xAI Memphis highlighted several of its milestones over the years in its celebratory post.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has marked its third anniversary. The update was shared in a post from the xAI Memphis account on social media platform X.
xAI Memphis highlighted several of its milestones over the years in its celebratory post.
As per xAI, it has built three massive data centers in the city, launched a coherent cluster of 330,000 GBs, created over 3,000 jobs, and paid over $30 million in taxes to local communities.
xAI’s Memphis operation has become a key part of the company’s infrastructure as the company works to train and deploy its Grok artificial intelligence models. Elon Musk has been quite optimistic about Grok’s potential, noting in the past that the large language model might have a shot at achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).
xAI’s Memphis’ crown jewel is its Colossus supercomputer cluster. The project was announced in 2024 and has since become the home of one of the world’s largest AI compute facilities. The first phase of Colossus reached its initial 100,000 GPU operational milestone in just 122 days, or just about four months.
Industry figures such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have praised the facility, noting that projects of similar scale typically take two to four years to complete.
xAI has cited Memphis’ central location, skilled workforce, and industrial infrastructure as key reasons for selecting the city as the home of its AI training operations. The company has also emphasized plans to expand the site further as it scales compute capacity for Grok and future AI models.
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Tesla Sweden’s Megapack Supercharger near Arlanda continues to aggravate IF Metall union
The charging site, located in Arlandastad outside Stockholm, appears to be operating despite ongoing union blockade measures tied to Tesla’s labor dispute in the country.
Tesla Sweden’s Megapack-powered Supercharger station near Arlanda Airport has continued to aggravate Swedish labor union IF Metall. The charging site, located in Arlandastad outside Stockholm, appears to be operating despite ongoing union blockade measures tied to Tesla’s labor dispute in the country.
Comments about the site were shared by IF Metall representatives in remarks to Swedish publication CarUp.
The Arlandastad location includes eight Tesla Superchargers powered by a Megapack battery system. Unlike traditional charging stations that rely on direct grid connections, the site uses a large battery installation to store electricity and power the chargers.
According to the Swedish publication, the setup allowed the station to come online despite sympathy measures from Sweden’s electricians’ union, which has attempted to prevent companies from cooperating with Tesla as part of the broader labor conflict.
IF Metall press manager Jesper Pettersson indicated that the union was not aware that the Superchargers had already been connected and activated.
“We do not know the details around this. But it is further proof of how Tesla systematically finds loopholes to circumvent the sympathy measures through active strikebreaking. Every time this happens it gives us reason to sharpen our conflict measures,” Pettersson said.
Union representatives also noted that the Megapack appears to be charged using electrical cables routed through nearby terrain, though the exact power source remains under review.
The Megapack-powered site has then prompted questions from Swedish labor unions about how electricity is being supplied to the system.
IF Metall has submitted a report to Sweden’s Energy Market Inspectorate asking the regulator to review whether the electricity supply arrangement complies with national regulations. The Megapack is reportedly charged using electricity from a local company, though the provider has not been publicly identified.
Peter Lydell, an ombudsman at IF Metall, previously stated that Swedish law limits electricity trading to companies with proper authorization.
“The legislation states that only companies that engage in electricity trading may supply electricity to other parties. You may not supply electricity without a permit, then you are engaging in illegal electricity trading. That is why we have reported this…
“This is about a company that helps Tesla circumvent the conflict measures that exist. It is clear that it is troublesome and it can also have consequences,” Lydell said.
IF Metall and Tesla Sweden’s conflict has been going on for over two years now.