Connect with us

News

Tesla Model S with cryptic ‘deep crimson’ paint spotted at SpaceX headquarters

Tesla Model S with new paint color. (Photo via Ryan McCaffrey of the Ride the Lightning Podcast)

Published

on

In recent interactions on Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned that he is particularly excited about a new paint option called “deep crimson,” which would be offered on vehicles that are produced in Gigafactory Berlin. A recent photo taken of a Model S at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, may have just revealed what the mysterious shade could look like. 

Tesla owner Ryan McCaffrey, who also hosts the Ride the Lightning Podcast, was recently given a rather interesting set of photos by one of his listeners. The images were quite unique since they feature a Model S painted in a shade that’s currently unavailable in Tesla’s current configurator. The paint itself is close to red, and it’s very reminiscent of the “crimson” shade used by other automakers. 

https://twitter.com/DMC_Ryan/status/1287966900442419202?s=20

What’s even more interesting is that the Model S was parked at a reserved spot in the SpaceX headquarters. In a conversation with Teslarati, the Ride the Lightning host remarked that his listener is quite sure that the vehicle is actually painted and not just wrapped. There is also strong speculation that the Model S is currently being used by none other than CEO Elon Musk himself.  

Elon Musk has stated that Gigafactory Berlin will have a next generation paint shop that would allow the company to offer new, unique shades to customers. Musk was quite optimistic about Giga Berlin’s paint shop, stating that vehicles from the plant will have “more layers of stunning colors that subtly change with curvature.” Additionally, Musk further stated that such upgrades will be rolled out to vehicles manufactured in Fremont and Gigafactory Shanghai as well. 

Advertisement
-->

Tesla Model S with new paint color. (Photo via Ryan McCaffrey of the Ride the Lightning Podcast)

Tesla may only offer a handful of paint options today, but there was a time when the company was quite generous with its cars’ paint choices. The original Tesla Roadster, for example, had a whopping 13 different colors, and they included cool, playful ones like Racing Green, Brilliant Yellow, Very Orange, Twilight Blue, and Electric Blue. These colors help the original Roadsters stand out today, even when they are beside their newer, more futuristic siblings. 

The Model S started off with some unique colors as well, such as Signature Red, Green Metallic, and Brown Metallic. Overall, it is quite exciting to see Tesla expanding its paint options at this point. The company, after all, is already sailing on calmer waters with four profitable quarters. Its mass market vehicles, the Model 3 and the Model Y, are also gaining ground. With new paint options, Tesla could add more dimensions to its vehicle lineup, making them even more attractive to mainstream consumers. 

A crimson paint job on a Ford Mustang. The shade of red in this vehicle and in the Model S at the SpaceX headquarters is quite similar. (Credit: paintref.com)

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo

“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class,” the Nvidia CEO said.

Published

on

Credit: Grok Imagine

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. 

Advertisement
-->

“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.”

Advertisement
-->

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.

Continue Reading

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.

Published

on

Credit: xAI/X

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.”

Advertisement
-->

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. 

Continue Reading

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. 

Published

on

xAI-supercomputer-memphis-environment-pushback
Credit: xAI

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.”

Advertisement
-->

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. 

Continue Reading