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Tesla Model Y from Giga Texas will equip Structural Battery Pack, 4680 cells
Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas-built Model Y will equip the company’s Structural Battery Pack and revolutionary 4680 cells, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on the company’s Q4 2021 Earnings Call.
Musk confirmed that Tesla has been building many Model Y units at Gigafactory Texas in recent days as the factory nears production approval. Upon updating listeners that Tesla would begin deliveries of the Texas built-Model Y when the vehicle receives an approval certification, Musk confirmed that the 4680 battery cells and Structural Battery Pack system would be used in vehicles built at Gigafactory Texas.
Tesla updated the timeline for the plant in its Shareholder Deck by stating, “Builds of Model Ys started in late 2021 at Gigafactory Texas. After final certification of Austin-made Model Y, we plan to start deliveries to customers.”
4680 Cells
Interestingly, Tesla also stated in its Q4 2021 Shareholder Deck that Model Ys built at Gigafactory Berlin in Germany would not initially equip the 4680 cells. These vehicles will equip 2170 battery cells at first, which have been used in the Model 3 and Model Y since their early production days.
The 4680 cell aims to revolutionize lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. It is 46 millimeters wide and 80 millimeters long and will increase energy density by five times, increase range by sixteen percent, and improve power output by six times. The cell has been in development since 2020, kept behind the doors of the Kato Road facility.
Drew Baglino, SVP of Powertrain for Tesla, said that “4680 cells are not a constraint to our 2022 volume plans.” He added that he expects the first vehicles equipping the 4680 cells to be delivered by the end of Q1 2022.
Structural Battery Pack
Musk also confirmed the Gigafactory Texas Model Ys would equip the Structural Battery Pack, which will increase vehicle rigidity and structural integrity.
Tesla hinted that the Structural Pack was being included in cars when it released the Shareholder Deck just before the Earnings Call began.

Credit: Tesla
The Structural Battery Pack works like an aircraft wing and will improve the structural integrity of Tesla vehicles. While the casting improves manufacturing efficiency and strength, the positioning of structural batteries eliminates excess structure from the battery packs, increasing density. “The non-cell portion of the battery has negative mass,” Musk said. “We saved more mass in the rest of the vehicle than in the non-cell portion of the battery. So how do you really minimize the mass of the battery? Make it negative.”
The idea is that individual cells could be positioned more efficiently because excessive structures within the pack itself were eradicated. The new Structural Battery Pack design is completely free of any negative mass, which improves pack density along with structural integrity. It will only make the vehicles safer, already improving upon the world-class crash safety ratings that Tesla has across its product line.
Now that Model Y vehicles being manufactured at Gigafactory Texas are confirmed to have the Structural Battery Pack and 4680 cells, Tesla’s long-standing projects to revolutionize castings and EV battery tech are here.
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Starlink goes mainstream with first-ever SpaceX Super Bowl advertisement
SpaceX used the Super Bowl broadcast to promote Starlink, pitching the service as fast, affordable broadband available across much of the world.
SpaceX aired its first-ever Super Bowl commercial on Sunday, marking a rare move into mass-market advertising as it seeks to broaden adoption of its Starlink satellite internet service.
Starlink Super Bowl advertisement
SpaceX used the Super Bowl broadcast to promote Starlink, pitching the service as fast, affordable broadband available across much of the world.
The advertisement highlighted Starlink’s global coverage and emphasized simplified customer onboarding, stating that users can sign up for service in minutes through the company’s website or by phone in the United States.
The campaign comes as SpaceX accelerates Starlink’s commercial expansion. The satellite internet service grew its global user base in 2025 to over 9 million subscribers and entered several dozen additional markets, as per company statements.
Starlink growth and momentum
Starlink has seen notable success in numerous regions across the globe. Brazil, in particular, has become one of Starlink’s largest growth regions, recently surpassing one million users, as per Ookla data. The company has also expanded beyond residential broadband into aviation connectivity and its emerging direct-to-cellular service.
Starlink has recently offered aggressive promotions in select regions, including discounted or free hardware, waived installation fees, and reduced monthly pricing. Some regions even include free Starlink Mini for select subscribers. In parallel, SpaceX has introduced AI-driven tools to streamline customer sign-ups and service selection.
The Super Bowl appearance hints at a notable shift for Starlink, which previously relied largely on organic growth and enterprise contracts. The ad suggests SpaceX is positioning Starlink as a mainstream alternative to traditional broadband providers.
Elon Musk
Tesla engineers deflected calls from this tech giant’s now-defunct EV project
Tesla engineers deflected calls from Apple on a daily basis while the tech giant was developing its now-defunct electric vehicle program, which was known as “Project Titan.”
Back in 2022 and 2023, Apple was developing an EV in a top-secret internal fashion, hoping to launch it by 2028 with a fully autonomous driving suite.
However, Apple bailed on the project in early 2024, as Project Titan abandoned the project in an email to over 2,000 employees. The company had backtracked its expectations for the vehicle on several occasions, initially hoping to launch it with no human driving controls and only with an autonomous driving suite.
Apple canceling its EV has drawn a wide array of reactions across tech
It then planned for a 2028 launch with “limited autonomous driving.” But it seemed to be a bit of a concession at that point; Apple was not prepared to take on industry giants like Tesla.
Wedbush’s Dan Ives noted in a communication to investors that, “The writing was on the wall for Apple with a much different EV landscape forming that would have made this an uphill battle. Most of these Project Titan engineers are now all focused on AI at Apple, which is the right move.”
Apple did all it could to develop a competitive EV that would attract car buyers, including attempting to poach top talent from Tesla.
In a new podcast interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, it was revealed that Apple had been calling Tesla engineers nonstop during its development of the now-defunct project. Musk said the engineers “just unplugged their phones.”
Musk said in full:
“They were carpet bombing Tesla with recruiting calls. Engineers just unplugged their phones. Their opening offer without any interview would be double the compensation at Tesla.”
Interestingly, Apple had acquired some ex-Tesla employees for its project, like Senior Director of Engineering Dr. Michael Schwekutsch, who eventually left for Archer Aviation.
Tesla took no legal action against Apple for attempting to poach its employees, as it has with other companies. It came after EV rival Rivian in mid-2020, after stating an “alarming pattern” of poaching employees was noticed.
Elon Musk
Tesla to a $100T market cap? Elon Musk’s response may shock you
There are a lot of Tesla bulls out there who have astronomical expectations for the company, especially as its arm of reach has gone well past automotive and energy and entered artificial intelligence and robotics.
However, some of the most bullish Tesla investors believe the company could become worth $100 trillion, and CEO Elon Musk does not believe that number is completely out of the question, even if it sounds almost ridiculous.
To put that number into perspective, the top ten most valuable companies in the world — NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Meta, Saudi Aramco, Broadcom, and Tesla — are worth roughly $26 trillion.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
Cathie Wood of ARK Invest believes the number is reasonable considering Tesla’s long-reaching industry ambitions:
“…in the world of AI, what do you have to have to win? You have to have proprietary data, and think about all the proprietary data he has, different kinds of proprietary data. Tesla, the language of the road; Neuralink, multiomics data; nobody else has that data. X, nobody else has that data either. I could see $100 trillion. I think it’s going to happen because of convergence. I think Tesla is the leading candidate [for $100 trillion] for the reason I just said.”
Musk said late last year that all of his companies seem to be “heading toward convergence,” and it’s started to come to fruition. Tesla invested in xAI, as revealed in its Q4 Earnings Shareholder Deck, and SpaceX recently acquired xAI, marking the first step in the potential for a massive umbrella of companies under Musk’s watch.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
Now that it is happening, it seems Musk is even more enthusiastic about a massive valuation that would swell to nearly four-times the value of the top ten most valuable companies in the world currently, as he said on X, the idea of a $100 trillion valuation is “not impossible.”
It’s not impossible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2026
Tesla is not just a car company. With its many projects, including the launch of Robotaxi, the progress of the Optimus robot, and its AI ambitions, it has the potential to continue gaining value at an accelerating rate.
Musk’s comments show his confidence in Tesla’s numerous projects, especially as some begin to mature and some head toward their initial stages.