Investor's Corner
Tesla explores safer battery production with novel DCM recovery system patent
In what appears to be yet another step towards its goal of operating the safest car factory in the industry, Tesla has been granted a patent that could pave the way for a safer process in battery production. Published today, the electric car maker’s recent patent describes a system to treat and recycle Dichloromethane (DCM), which is among the materials used in the production of electric car batteries.
DCM is utilized in a variety of industrial processes, particularly in chemical plastic welding, wherein softened plastic pieces or surfaces are welded together. The material is also used to soften plastic sheets for stretching or shaping, and as a solvent to remove unwanted compounds. In Tesla’s case, DCM is among the materials used in the forming of a separator base film for an electric car’s battery system. While DCM is invaluable in manufacturing, though, the material carries some health risks.
Dichloromethane is the least toxic among the simple chlorohydrocarbons, but its high volatility makes it an inhalation hazard nonetheless. Prolonged skin contact with DCM could also result in the material dissolving some of the skin’s fatty tissues, causing irritation or chemical burns. With these risks in mind, the manufacturing industry employs ways to recover DCM. Tesla notes that current systems for DCM treatment and recovery are capital intensive, particularly since the process involves expensive components such as activated carbon beds, condensers, steam boilers and distribution systems, density separation vessels, and waste water treatment systems.
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- Tesla’s DCM treatment system. [Credit: US Patent Office]
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- A flow chart illustrating operation of an exhaust treatment system for treating a waste exhaust stream containing dichlorom ethane. [Credit: US Patent Office]
Tesla’s diagrams outlining its Dichloromethane recovery system. [Credit: US Patent Office]
Tesla describes conventional DCM treatment systems as follows:
“The DCM itself may then be removed through a heating and/or evaporation process with the exhaust collected. This exhaust containing DCM is then combined with the exhaust from other tools and systems used in the manufacturing process. The combined exhaust may then be fed to a recovery plant to recover DCM. In the recovery plant, the waste exhaust stream is typically treated with activated carbon. This scrubbing process requires high capital expenditure (many expensive components), high operating cost (extensive steam and cooling water consumption which accounts for >20% of total process cost), large footprint requirements, and large amounts of waste water that need to be processed. In order to address these cost and environmental-remediation issues, an improved process for the removal of DCM from exhaust streams is needed.”
Tesla’s take on DCM treatment and recovery utilizes a wet scrubber and a density separator vessel as key components of the system. The wet scrubber in Tesla’s patent has a scrubbing chamber, where water is utilized to scrub the waste exhaust stream containing the DCM. Tesla notes that the wet scrubber could adopt a variety of designs to remove DCM from the waste exhaust stream, including a venturi scrubber design, a condensation scrubber design, an impingement-plate scrubber design, or a packed bed tower design, among others.
Tesla’s use of a density separator vessel is described in the following section from the patent.
“The density separator vessel has an inlet to receive the liquid water and DCM mixture, an outlet to expel DCM, and an outlet to expel waste water. The DCM may be routed back to the industrial process for reuse and/or collected for later use. The waste water may be routed back to the wet scrubber, as shown along (the) waste water return loop. Waste water may also or alternately be routed to waste water treatment system for processing for subsequent treatment by (the) waste water treatment system.
“Typically, a large portion of the waste water is returned to the wet scrubber via (the) waste water return loop and a small portion of the waste water is treated by the waste water treatment system. Even though the waste water may contain small amounts of DCM, the waste water will still retain its ability to scrub the exhaust containing DCM. An advantage of the wet scrubber over the activated carbon beds is that all or most of the water used by the wet scrubber is the waste water from the density separator vessel, resulting in substantial savings of water and energy, and resultantly, substantial cost savings.”
Tesla states that compared to more traditional exhaust treatment systems, the DCM treatment and recovery model outlined in its patent effectively eliminates the use of steam and cooling, while also reducing the amount of throughput needed by a waste water system. With these efficiencies in mind, Tesla notes that it could reduce capital expenditures and operating costs “for the same amount of DCM processed processing.” The increased simplicity of the system and reduced airflow rates are expected to help the company get more savings in both capital expenditures and operating costs as well.
More than a way to optimize its operations, Tesla’s recent patent is also a notable way for the company to keep its battery production lines safer for its employees. Such a system would definitely be invaluable for the company, particularly as Tesla is now preparing the Model 3 for a global rollout. With the Model 3 ramp ever-expanding, and with high-volume vehicles like the Model Y and possibly the Tesla pickup truck in the pipeline, optimizations such as a better DCM treatment and recovery system are all but necessary.
Tesla’s recently published patent on its DCM treatment system could be accessed here.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions
SpaceX reveals plans for one million Starmind AI satellites and calls out operators hiding maneuvers.
SpaceX has put the largest satellite count it has ever published into writing, and it says that plan only works if every other operator in orbit starts sharing what it knows.
In a new Space Safety page highlighted Tuesday morning by Sawyer Merritt on X, SpaceX said it “plans to operate up to 100,000 Starlink satellites and up to 1 million Starmind AI satellites to meet the growing demand for broadband and supercompute.” Starlink has a little over 11,000 satellites in orbit today, so the target alone implies roughly a ninefold expansion of the broadband network.
Starmind is SpaceX’s orbital AI compute constellation. Elon Musk confirmed the Starmind name in June after an xAI trademark filing surfaced, and in August SpaceX said it was working with Nvidia on the compute payload. The FCC accepted the filing for up to one million satellites back in February.
FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan
SpaceX also released a new render of what a full Starmind constellation could look like. Alongside it, SpaceX VP Michael Nicolls explained why the satellites will not operate on their own. “We need to operate clusters of satellites in tight formation to get enough coherent compute to run AI models efficiently,” Nicolls said. “A cluster will be 10-ish satellites connected with 10 terabits or so of bandwidth between them, and interconnected to the broader constellation.”
That is the most specific detail SpaceX has given on how Starmind will be built. Instead of a million independent servers, the network would work as tightly packed groups of about 10 satellites acting as one compute unit, with Starlink’s laser links carrying results back to Earth.
There is a bright and exciting future for humanity ahead – and space is fundamental to that future.
To achieve this, space safety must be done right. We encourage every operator to not only share ephemeris data proactively the same way Starlink already does, but to also adopt the high standards of space safety that SpaceX and Starlink use every day → https://t.co/QizAkQZvEm
— Starlink (@Starlink) October 6, 2026
Packing satellites that close together, at that scale, makes collision avoidance the central problem, and most of the Space Safety page is aimed at other operators. SpaceX said Starlink encountered collision risks with about 650 unique maneuvering third party satellites in 2026, and only about half of them shared data. Over six months, Starlink recorded roughly 164,000 more collision risks where the closest approach came within four hours of an unannounced maneuver.
Some operators keep maneuver plans private over proprietary concerns, while others cannot get government permission to share them. SpaceX called those policies “counterproductive,” saying they “largely only serve to create preventable collision risk between satellites.” Starlink is also offering a free ephemeris sharing and screening platform that returns risk results within a minute, backed by its Stargaze network of 30,000 optical sensors.
The push comes as the Starmind application draws opposition from astronomers and environmental groups. In a September filing with the FCC, SpaceX said each Starmind satellite could weigh up to 4,000 kg, nearly seven times the mass of a Starlink V2 Mini. Musk has brushed off crowding concerns before, telling viewers in June that “space is enormous” and that SpaceX already knows how to run very large constellations safely.
SpaceX’s Starmind page says its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, is designed to produce AI satellites at scale, with deployment of thousands of units starting as soon as late 2027.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported strong delivery figures that beat Wall Street guesses, and they were revealed alongside the company’s second-best quarter in terms of energy deployments ever.
Tesla announced this morning that it delivered 486,532 cars in Q3, while producing 464,391, exceeding analyst consensus, which sat around 462,000 units.
Meanwhile, Tesla reported 13.7 GWh of energy storage deployed for the quarter. That’s the second-best quarter Tesla has ever reported on that side of things.
🚨 Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3, beating expectations at 464,391.
Big Q from the Tesla team, also 13.7 GWh of energy was deployed. pic.twitter.com/olioLWgG7a
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 2, 2026
Vehicle Deliveries
Deliveries were strong, and it was another quarter when Tesla had the opportunity to outshine the Wall Street pundits who are quick to criticize and slow to give credit. Tesla saw a slight decrease in deliveries compared to Q3 2025, but Tesla still had the $7,500 EV Tax Credit to use to help incentivize consumers to pick an EV.
A small decrease of 2.1 percent is pretty telling because it shows Tesla does not need massive federal credits to convince consumers to purchase its vehicles.
It was also the company’s third-best performance all-time in terms of deliveries, trailing that of Q3 2025 with 497,099 deliveries and Q4 2024, when the company handed over 495,570 cars.
We reported several days ago that Tesla Showrooms across the United States were completely bare of inventory or unclaimed units. Many locations also removed Demo Drive units, which had been bought by customers looking to take delivery sooner.
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
Energy Generation
Tesla’s Energy Generation performance in Q3 was also very strong, as the company deployed 13.7 GWh of energy storage over the past three months. The only quarter when Tesla reported stronger energy deployment figures was Q4 2025, when 14.2 GWh of energy storage was deployed.
Tesla’s Q3 performance in energy generation has continued to grow each quarter, with the company increasing its deployments by ten-fold since Q3 2021, when just 1.3 GWh was deployed.
It is also nearly double what it was in Q3 2024, when the company reported 6.9 GWh. This is one of Tesla’s quickest-growing divisions, and it flies under the radar with fans and analysts, as many are focused on self-driving or the vehicles themselves.
Tesla Stock
Shares rose 5.07 percent to $372.06 at just after 10 a.m. on the East Coast. This is a rarity for Tesla after a strong delivery report, as positive news usually brings the stock down. Many quarters with extremely robust delivery reports have not been as kind to the Teslanaires of the world.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner
Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.
Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.
A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
🚨 Elon Musk is currently speaking to the media alongside President Trump after a meeting with AI Leaders in Washington today
Trump says AI is now being called “Super Intelligence” or SI pic.twitter.com/woJJqUVP9B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 29, 2026
After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.
Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.
“I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”
“Thank you.”@elonmusk catches his own slip after calling the technology “A.I.” while speaking alongside President Trump and other tech leaders, quickly correcting himself to “super… pic.twitter.com/fH7CFileNb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 29, 2026
SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center
Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.
The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.
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