News
Elon Musk’s efforts of giving back continue with $5M COVID-19 research donation
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has continued a trend of giving back with a $5 million donation to Boston researchers who aim to create a COVID-19 vaccine and diagnostic tool.
The Musk Foundation donated to Dr. Dan Barouch, the Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Barouch is also a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Additionally, Galit Alter, a Ragon Institute Professor of Medicine, also received the donation.
The two researchers have made several large strides in the fight against the pandemic. Dr. Barouch developed a COVID-19 vaccine with Johnson & Johnson, and it is currently in the late-stage clinical trial. Alter has developed tests to screen for COVID antibodies that indicate exposure to the virus. One is begin used by Musk’s SpaceX to prevent the spread of the virus, Boston Globe reports.
The $5 million donation will be split equally between Barouch and Alter’s labs. “We’re delighted that he has provided this generous support for our program,” Dr. Barouch said about the donation.
Musk has had several conversations with both doctors. Alter said that Musk was always “polarizing” to her, but conversations showed that the Tesla CEO is caring as he opened up plenty of dialogue on how COVID can be attacked with vaccines. Barouch agreed and was impressed with Musk’s desire to learn about vaccines and how fighting the virus can make the world a better place. “[Elon] has always been very open to the emerging science,” Barouch said.
It is not the first time that Musk has donated some of his substantial net worth to others. Over the past few weeks, Musk has been using his money to contribute to the development of other programs, including the Khan Academy and Barstool’s #BarstoolFund that aims to help small businesses survive the pandemic. Musk, a humanitarian whose goal was to save the Earth from dependency on fossil fuels, obtained the “World’s Richest Person” label in January 2021. Evidently, money was never a concern for Musk. He has spent the last several weeks giving back to various charitable causes and research facilities to expedite small business survival and COVID-19 prevention.
Elon Musk donates to Barstool Fund in support of small business relief fund
Musk was one of the earliest proponents in the fight against COVID-19. The CEO offered ventilators to any hospital that could prove it needed breathing assistance machines and had them shipped to those within Tesla’s delivery regions. Tesla even made an effort to build its own ventilators with car parts, but the project was never completed, and it is unclear if the automaker will ever attempt to release a version of the breathing apparatus.
Musk’s humanitarian efforts continue as the pandemic continues to heat up. 400,000 deaths have been reported in the United States alone, and vaccines and other measures have been taken to prevent the virus’s spread. However, the development of new technologies is emerging forward in the fight against the Coronavirus, and Musk’s donation could help the Boston doctors uncover the true cure to the illness.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.
The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.
Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.
Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand
Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla’s long-standing saga regarding its door handles and a manual release has entered its latest chapter, and as a result, a big change is coming.
On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied Tesla’s petition that was seeking a defect investigation into roughly 180,000 Model 3 vehicles for an issue involving the emergency mechanical door release.
🚨 The NHTSA denied a petition from Tesla that would have thrown out concerns regarding its door handles.
NHTSA said Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect warranting an investigation. The agency said a rulemaking process would be a better strategy. pic.twitter.com/j6PzUBM1mT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
NHTSA said that Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect in the door handles or their emergency releases. Instead, the agency determined that it would rather solve the issue of the lack of labeling or location of emergency mechanical door releases and the federal safety rules that govern them.
Essentially, the NHTSA wants to create and enforce rules that would require automakers to make emergency door latch releases more clearly labeled in a car. Despite a Tesla having manual door releases on all four passenger doors, many people do not know they exist or how they work.
Tesla addresses door handle complaints with simple engineering fix
In recent times, Tesla has faced some criticism involving its door handles, specifically because some occupants have reported that they are unable to exit their vehicles after losing power. The door handles on a Tesla are electronically operated, but in the event that the 12V battery dies, there is a manual release that can be used.
The NHTSA only identified a single complaint involving the mechanical door releases: a 2022 Model 3 owner said the release was concealed and unlabeled after the vehicle lost power after a front-end collision. It has also already started to create a separate rulemaking process to make emergency door-egress systems more obvious.
It should be noted that all Teslas have mechanical emergency door releases, but they are placed in various locations as the vehicles have aged and been redesigned from year to year. Refer to the safety manual for your vehicle if you have any confusion about where the emergency releases are and how they work.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
