Tesla Gigafactory Berlin is about to receive its final environmental approval, with Brandenburg Minister-President Dietmar Woidke holding a press conference later today to discuss the milestone. It took a long time to get to this point, but after two years, it appears that Tesla’s Model Y factory in Germany is finally about to wake up.
Information shared with Teslarati indicates that the press conference later will be attended not only by Brandenburg Minister-President Dietmar Woidke. Other key personalities in Giga Berlin’s development such as Environment Minister Axel Vogel and Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) will also be present at the event.
Ulrich Stock, the department head responsible in the State Office for the Environment, Sascha Gehm, the First Deputy of the Oder-Spree district, and Arne Christiani, the Mayor of Grünheide, are also expected to be present at the press conference.
A quick refresher of what’s been happening in Giga Berlin can be found below.
Another permit after the final environmental approval
It should be noted that the final environmental approval is a massive step forward for Gigafactory Berlin. However, the final environmental approval does not mean that vehicle production could immediately start. An operating license is still required before Model Ys can be produced. Tesla must then meet further requirements before Giga Berlin’s Model Y production lines could start operations.
Teslarati has contacted several local government offices to inquire about the requirements that Tesla needs to submit to secure Giga Berlin’s operational license for vehicle production. Local government offices have so far declined to provide additional information, at least for now.
An ongoing water dispute
Giga Berlin has a lot of critics, and it has faced opposition over the years. Among the most notable talking points against Giga Berlin as of late is its water supply. Conservationists and local resident groups have expressed their fear that Giga Berlin will put the local water supply at risk. Legal action has been taken about the issue. Local water association Strausberg-Erkner (WSE) believes that Tesla’s water supply for Giga Berlin could still be terminated, but such a development may result in Tesla taking legal action.
Tesla is set to receive a supply of 1.4 million cubic liters of drinking water every year, though this may increase as Gigafactory Berlin expands its operations. It should be noted that a nearby coal mine and an oil refinery in the area are consuming far more water annually than Tesla. CEO Elon Musk has also said that Tesla will “recycle as much as humanly possible,” adding that he’s “pretty confident that (Giga Berlin) will be the most environmentally friendly factory in the world.”
A summary of delays
Gigafactory Berlin started its construction about two years ago, and initially, the facility seemed to be progressing at around the same pace as its sibling, Gigafactory Shanghai. Tesla also planned to start vehicle production in summer 2021, a target that was ultimately not met. This was partly due to several delays, which included a time when construction had to be paused due to hibernating snakes in the area. Tesla also faced much opposition from environmentalist groups who opposed the tree-cutting on the site. The EV maker responded by planting more trees than it had cut.
Even Tesla itself became a source of delays for the launch of Giga Berlin. Tesla moves at a very quick pace, and it updates its plans for its facilities accordingly. In Giga Berlin’s case, the company decided to add the construction and operation of a battery factory. This resulted in Giga Berlin’s applications requiring updates, causing further delays. Thankfully, most of Giga Berlin’s delays seem to have been dealt with for now, and the facility is in its final stages before it could start its operations.
Future plans
Tesla’s Gigafactories are ever-developing, and the same is true for Giga Berlin. As per information shared with German news agency rbb24, new applications for further expansion are expected to be submitted soon. Battery recycling facilities are also reportedly planned for the site, and so is a production line for Powerwall batteries, which may be equipped with cells that are produced in the Giga Berlin complex. Teslarati has attempted to confirm these reports, but local office representatives have declined to comment on the matter.
Giga Berlin’s press conference for the facility’s final environmental approval is expected to start at 3:30 p.m. CET (6:30 a.m. PST).
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News
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo
“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class,” the Nvidia CEO said.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has offered high praise for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system during a Q&A at CES 2026, calling it “world-class” and “state-of-the-art” in design, training, and performance.
More importantly, he also shared some insights about the key differences between FSD and Nvidia’s recently announced Alpamayo system.
Jensen Huang’s praise for Tesla FSD
Nvidia made headlines at CES following its announcement of Alpamayo, which uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the development of autonomous driving solutions. Due to its focus on AI, many started speculating that Alpamayo would be a direct rival to FSD. This was somewhat addressed by Elon Musk, who predicted that “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.”
During his Q&A, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was asked about the difference between FSD and Alpamayo. His response was extensive:
“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class. They’ve been working on it for quite some time. It’s world-class not only in the number of miles it’s accumulated, but in the way it’s designed, the way they do training, data collection, curation, synthetic data generation, and all of their simulation technologies.
“Of course, the latest generation is end-to-end Full Self-Driving—meaning it’s one large model trained end to end. And so… Elon’s AD system is, in every way, 100% state-of-the-art. I’m really quite impressed by the technology. I have it, and I drive it in our house, and it works incredibly well,” the Nvidia CEO said.
Nvidia’s platform approach vs Tesla’s integration
Huang also stated that Nvidia’s Alpamayo system was built around a fundamentally different philosophy from Tesla’s. Rather than developing self-driving cars itself, Nvidia supplies the full autonomous technology stack for other companies to use.
“Nvidia doesn’t build self-driving cars. We build the full stack so others can,” Huang said, explaining that Nvidia provides separate systems for training, simulation, and in-vehicle computing, all supported by shared software.
He added that customers can adopt as much or as little of the platform as they need, noting that Nvidia works across the industry, including with Tesla on training systems and companies like Waymo, XPeng, and Nuro on vehicle computing.
“So our system is really quite pervasive because we’re a technology platform provider. That’s the primary difference. There’s no question in our mind that, of the billion cars on the road today, in another 10 years’ time, hundreds of millions of them will have great autonomous capability. This is likely one of the largest, fastest-growing technology industries over the next decade.”
He also emphasized Nvidia’s open approach, saying the company open-sources its models and helps partners train their own systems. “We’re not a self-driving car company. We’re enabling the autonomous industry,” Huang said.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk confirms xAI’s purchase of five 380 MW natural gas turbines
The deal, which was confirmed by Musk on X, highlights xAI’s effort to aggressively scale its operations.
xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, has purchased five additional 380 MW natural gas turbines from South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility to power its growing supercomputer clusters.
The deal, which was confirmed by Musk on X, highlights xAI’s effort to aggressively scale its operations.
xAI’s turbine deal details
News of xAI’s new turbines was shared on social media platform X, with user @SemiAnalysis_ stating that the turbines were produced by South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility. As noted in an Asian Business Daily report, Doosan Enerbility announced last October that it signed a contract to supply two 380 MW gas turbines for a major U.S. tech company. Doosan later noted in December that it secured an order for three more 380 MW gas turbines.
As per the X user, the gas turbines would power an additional 600,000+ GB200 NVL72 equivalent size cluster. This should make xAI’s facilities among the largest in the world. In a reply, Elon Musk confirmed that xAI did purchase the turbines. “True,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
xAI’s ambitions
Recent reports have indicated that xAI closed an upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion target to fuel rapid infrastructure scaling and AI product development. The funding, as per the AI startup, “will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products.”
The company also teased the rollout of its upcoming frontier AI model. “Looking ahead, Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and 𝕏 to transform how we live, work, and play,” xAI wrote in a post on its website.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI closes upsized $20B Series E funding round
xAI announced the investment round in a post on its official website.
xAI has closed an upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion target to fuel rapid infrastructure scaling and AI product development.
xAI announced the investment round in a post on its official website.
A $20 billion Series E round
As noted by the artificial intelligence startup in its post, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others.
Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.
As xAI stated, “This financing will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products reaching billions of users, and fuel groundbreaking research advancing xAI’s core mission: Understanding the Universe.”
xAI’s core mission
Th Series E funding builds on xAI’s previous rounds, powering Grok advancements and massive compute expansions like the Memphis supercluster. The upsized demand reflects growing recognition of xAI’s potential in frontier AI.
xAI also highlighted several of its breakthroughs in 2025, from the buildout of Colossus I and II, which ended with over 1 million H100 GPU equivalents, and the rollout of the Grok 4 Series, Grok Voice, and Grok Imagine, among others. The company also confirmed that work is already underway to train the flagship large language model’s next iteration, Grok 5.
“Looking ahead, Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and 𝕏 to transform how we live, work, and play,” xAI wrote.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo
Elon Musk confirms xAI’s purchase of five 380 MW natural gas turbines
