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Tesla Gigafactory 3 is what happens when Elon Musk’s vision is taken seriously
To say that the buildout of Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in China is fast is a gross understatement. Within a few months, Tesla’s 864,885-square meter lot in Shanghai’s Lingang Industrial Area has been transformed from a large, muddy field into a site where a massive electric car factory is taking shape. Every update of Gigafactory 3 shows the facility making visible progress. This week alone, footage from the site revealed that workers have practically completed the roof of Tesla’s general assembly building, and walls are already being set built.
Back in March, Shanghai official Chen Mingbo stated that the initial buildout of the factory should be completed by May. Considering the speed of the facility’s construction, this insane timeframe seems to be on track. If this target is accomplished, Tesla could start Model 3 trial production as early as September. That’s significantly ahead of Elon Musk’s own estimates, which pointed to initial production starting near the end of 2019. Reports from China also indicate that Gigafactory 3 could set a record for fastest factory buildout in the country.
The original timeline for Gigafactory 3 was actually far more conservative, with Tesla noting that it expected vehicle manufacturing to start roughly two years after construction begins. The timeframe, which was classic Elon Musk in the way that it is optimistic and ambitious, faced relentless skepticism in the United States. Consumer Edge Research senior auto analyst James Albertine, in a segment of Bloomberg Markets, flat-out stated that Tesla’s targets for Gigafactory 3’s construction were simply “not feasible.”
The reaction to Gigafactory 3’s initial timetable is quite reflective of the amount of skepticism and criticism thrown at Tesla and Elon Musk on a rather consistent basis. In the United States, Musk pretty much faces opposition at every turn. It is not uncommon to see reports about Tesla having a negative slant. People betting on Tesla’s failure such as short-sellers consistently accuse Musk of being a fraud as well, while mocking him on social media platforms such as Twitter for his alleged shortcomings. One particularly passionate short-seller actually received a restraining order after allegedly trespassing, harassing, and causing harm to Tesla employees.
With the drama surrounding Tesla, it is no wonder that Elon Musk wanted to take the company private last year. When Musk pitched the idea to investors, he argued that it would be a lot easier for Tesla to pursue its goals if it could operate without the short-term pressures of Wall St and the constant barrage of noise from critics that stand to receive financial gain if the electric car maker were to fall. The take-private attempt ultimately fell through after Elon Musk backed out of a ~$30 billion deal from investors that included Volkswagen AG. In the Q1 2019 earnings call, the CEO noted that a non-public Tesla will not be happening anytime soon. “Unfortunately, that ship had sailed,” Musk said.
It could be said that the nearly unbelievable pace of Gigafactory 3’s construction is what happens when Elon Musk’s ambitious vision is embraced without noise or unnecessary drama. There were no controversies among China’s workforce when Elon Musk noted that he expects electric car production to begin by the end of the year. Instead, the company’s construction partner took the CEO’s ambitious timeframe seriously and did what was necessary to build Gigafactory 3 as quickly as possible, including adopting 24/7 work. Going a step further, the country even pursued a target completion date that exceeds Elon Musk’s already ambitious timeframe. Today, Model 3 trial production is expected to start as early as September.
If there is a lesson that can be learned from Gigafactory 3, it is that visionaries such as Elon Musk could accomplish great things if their targets are supported and taken seriously. This is something that China seems to be all too willing to give Elon Musk, as could be seen when he met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing last January. During his meeting with Li, Musk acted like his usual self, throwing out grand ideas about Gigafactory 3 and mentioning his vision of creating a facility that acts almost like a “living being.” Li proved quite open to Musk’s ideas, even offering the CEO a ‘Chinese Green Card’ so he could openly pursue his plans in the country.
Demonstrating this point, here’s the Gigafactory 3 site in early March.
And here’s a flyby of Gigafactory 3 on May 7, 2019, roughly two months later.
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Tesla’s AI Chief just hinted at something big for FSD v14 lite owners
Tesla’s AI chief suggests the newest FSD v14 Lite build may finally go wide release.
Tesla’s head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, noted on Sunday that the newest FSD v14 Lite build rolling out to Hardware 3 cars is likely the version that goes to wide release, the strongest signal yet that Tesla is near to closing out an early access phase that Hardware 3 owners have waited more than a year for.
Elluswamy made the comment in response to an extensive review from Tesla owner Zack, known on X as @BLKMDL3, who tested software version 2026.20.6.10 and detailed the changes in a lengthy post. “FSD v14 Lite (for Tesla AI3 hardware vehicles) review.
The update restarts a rollout that had stalled after its initial release. Tesla began pushing FSD v14 Lite to Hardware 3 early access drivers on June 29, bringing driving behavior learned on the newer Hardware 4 computer down to the more limited chip that has powered Tesla vehicles built between 2019 and early 2023. That release, as we covered in detail, gave roughly 4 million HW3 vehicles their first meaningful update since being frozen on version 12.6 in early 2025.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
The latest build adds features that bring Hardware 3 closer in line with what Hardware 4 owners already have. FSD can now start directly from park without a brake pedal confirmation, a change Zack called a small but meaningful quality of life improvement. The interface also picks up the blue “P” park icon, approaching destination alerts, and a dedicated Self-Driving app with streak tracking, all details previously exclusive to the AI4 branch of v14, as outlined in Tesla’s original release notes.
The stakes around Hardware 3 go beyond software polish. Tesla sold the Full Self-Driving package for years on the promise that every vehicle equipped with it had the hardware needed to eventually drive itself without supervision. That promise broke down during Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call, when Musk acknowledged HW3 cars could not run unsupervised FSD, prompting Tesla to offer trade-in discounts and hardware retrofits alongside the Lite software track.
Tesla confirmed HW3 can’t do Unsupervised FSD but there’s more to the story
Tesla has continued to frame v14 Lite as the primary path forward for the HW3 fleet, telling owners in April that international markets would follow the U.S. rollout once regulatory approvals came through. For now, HW3 owners in the early access group are the only ones running the new build. A broader rollout would mark the second major software delivery to the legacy fleet since Tesla first released FSD v14 to Hardware 4 vehicles, and the first sign since June that the Lite program is still moving rather than stuck in early access limbo.
In a pointed message on X, Elon Musk warned that firms maintaining significant short positions in SpaceX over time face “very low” survival probability.
The statement comes amid post-IPO volatility for the rocket company, now trading under the ticker $SPCX.
The survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2026
Five weeks after what was described as the largest IPO in history, the stock had fallen roughly 30% from its peak above $2.6 trillion, briefly surpassing Microsoft and Amazon in market value. Short sellers celebrated gains of about $8.7 billion, but Musk’s reply underscores his long-term conviction.
The warning directly echoes a detailed bullish analysis arguing that Starship’s cost reductions could unlock a multi-trillion-dollar space economy. Projects ranging from solar power beamed from orbit and asteroid mining to orbital data centers and Mars terraforming were projected to create over $100 trillion in new market capitalization.
In this vision, SpaceX acts as the essential infrastructure provider, akin to AWS for cloud computing, capturing monopoly-like revenues from launches, crew transport, and data traffic across a rapidly expanding frontier.
This is far from the first time Musk has targeted short sellers. With Tesla, he has repeatedly framed persistent bears as destined for major losses. In July 2024, Musk declared that once Tesla achieves full autonomy and volume production of Optimus robots, “anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated. Even Gates,” referencing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ reported short bets.
Elon Musk reveals what Tesla stock surge could do to Bill Gates
Earlier, in 2018, he taunted shorts that they had “about three weeks before their short position explodes,” a remark followed by sharp stock gains. Musk has also called short selling “value destroying” and once suggested it “should be illegal,” viewing it as betting against innovation and progress.
Critics often dismiss Musk’s optimism as hype, especially when near-term metrics like quarterly deliveries or stock fluctuations disappoint.
Yet his pattern remains consistent: framing short positions against his companies as fundamentally misjudging exponential technological leaps. For SpaceX shorts, the message is clear: betting against multi-planetary ambitions and the infrastructure monopoly they enable carries existential risk for the firms involved.
As Musk and supporters see it, the space economy’s upside dwarfs Earth-bound valuation models, making today’s dips temporary in a decades-long ascent.
Tesla has evidently revealed which of its vehicle models will be the first to receive Starlink integration: the Cybercab.
Tesla’s Santana Row showroom now has a full-fledged display of the Cybercab, with an extensive bit of information hung around an exhibit that seems to reveal the vehicle’s newest feature: an integrated Starlink antenna that will enable secure and reliable internet access during trips.
Credit: @Starscream_SJC | X
Cybercab is geared toward autonomous ride-hailing for one or two passengers. The production units rolling off the lines at Gigafactory Texas are built without steering wheels or pedals, meaning when public rides begin, passengers will not need to interact with a human being or control the vehicle in any way outside of what appears on the center screen for their entertainment during the ride.
Tesla Santana Row will be reopening tomorrow with a full focus on self-driving. Everything in the showroom is about Robotaxi and Cybercab with stats and information about the technology. The Cybercab on display is the production model. pic.twitter.com/yIUYdOGFOp
— Shaun Cassidy (@Starscream_SJC) July 20, 2026
Along the display, Tesla wrote this message about Cybercab:
“Cybercab is built for autonomy. It has no steering wheel, no side mirrors, and no pedals. It goes where you tell it to go and how you want it to, so you can relax along the way. It is hyper aware and responsive to your surroundings, monitoring other drivers, responding to emergency vehicles, utilizing its expertise in the rarest scenarios to help keep you safe.”
Tesla has been teasing a potential Starlink integration for quite some time now. In December, the company hinted at potential Starlink internet terminal integration within its vehicles in a patent that described a vehicle roof assembly with integrated radio frequency (RF) transparency.
The company wrote in its patent application that a new roof design built with materials that differ from the standard metallic or glass elements used in today’s cars would allow it to integrate modern vehicular technologies, in particular, ones that require radio frequency transmission and reception.
Tesla suggested high-strength polymer blends, like Polycarbonate, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, or Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate.
This is the first time we’ve seen Tesla officially confirm the Starlink integration into the Cybercab. It’s not much of a surprise considering the company’s intention behind the Cybercab, which is to make travel autonomous.
Productivity will now be at a maximum during a work-related commute, while the center screen could be utilized for Netflix or potentially even live TV for those who are heading to dinner or to a fun activity.
Tesla’s AI Chief just hinted at something big for FSD v14 lite owners
Elon Musk sends first warning to SpaceX short sellers
