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Tesla may have quietly acquired a new lithium-ion battery cell startup in CO

A peek inside a segment of a Tesla Model 3 battery pack.

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Recent observations by active members of the Tesla community suggest that the electric car maker may have acquired a lithium-ion battery cell specialist startup from Louisville, Colorado. If these speculations prove accurate, Tesla may very well be on the cusp of extending its lead in the electric vehicle market further. 

It is no secret that Tesla is always in the process of improving its battery cells. The company has expressed its intentions to start producing its own cells, even if it has to dip its toes in the mining business to get there. Interestingly, Tesla currently has job listings for “cell technicians” in Louisville, Colorado. The job’s requirements include, among other things, a background in electrode coating and cell assembly, suggesting that Tesla may be looking into battery innovations and cell manufacturing. 

As observed by TSLA retail investor Galileo Russell of YouTube’s Hyperchange channel, Louisville, Colorado happens to be a hotbed for next-generation battery startups, and several of them are working on lithium-ion technology. Some of these, such as battery startup Forge Nano, have already received investments from automakers such as Volkswagen. But among these, a company called SilLion Inc. may very well be the perfect fit for Tesla. 

SilLion is a small company that is specifically working on battery high-loading silicon anode and electrode technology for commercial cylindrical cells. The company’s tech delivers a breakthrough in high-energy batteries by simultaneously incorporating high-loaded silicon anodes, nickel-rich NMC cathodes, and a non-flammable ionic liquid electrolyte. Doing so allows batteries to be more energy-dense and safer while being cheaper to produce. Tesla, of course, just happens to be one of the few automakers that use cylindrical cells for its vehicles.

SilLion Inc. has since taken down its official website, unlike some of the other battery startups in Louisville. Some of the company’s employees, such as Research Scientist Simon Hafner, now list Tesla as an employer in their LinkedIn pages as well. SilLion co-founders Daniela Molina Piper and Tyler Evans have also listed Tesla in their interests in the professional social media platform. Looking at these, one can be compelled to speculate that Tesla may have acquired (or perhaps acqui-hired) SilLion Inc, and the electric car maker may be working on including the startup’s technology in its next-generation of batteries. 

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Tesla is no stranger to acquiring small companies whose work can improve the electric car maker’s innovations. Last year, Tesla used this exact same strategy with its DeepScale acquisition. DeepScale is pretty small, with a headcount of just about 40 employees, but it is working on technology that allows deep neural networks to work on smaller devices. The company’s Carver21 product, for one, was specifically designed to optimize the processing data from a full self-driving car’s forward-facing cameras. These innovations are valuable for Tesla, especially amidst the company’s push for Full Self-Driving. 

Whether Tesla has indeed acquired SilLion remains to be seen. That being said, one will be hard-pressed to find a reason why technology developed by the Louisville-based battery startup will not benefit the electric car maker. Ultimately, these speculations will likely be addressed soon, when Tesla holds its highly-anticipated Battery Day. 

H/T Galileo Russell

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.

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regrets not investing more in Elon Musk’s xAI

The CEO stated that Nvidia is already an investor in xAI, but he wished he had given the artificial intelligence startup more money.

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Credit: Elon Musk/X

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed that one of his investment regrets is not putting more money into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI. 

Speaking in a CNBC interview, Huang said Nvidia is already an investor in xAI but wished he had given the artificial intelligence startup more money. This was due to Musk’s record of building transformative companies such as Tesla and SpaceX.

A new wave of transformative AI firms

Huang said he’s very excited about xAI’s latest financing round. He described Musk’s company as part of a powerful new generation of AI developers, alongside OpenAI and Anthropic. that are reshaping the computing landscape.

“I’m super excited about the financing opportunity they’re doing. The only regret I have about xAI, we’re an investor already, is that I didn’t give him more money. You know almost everything that Elon’s pat of, you really want to be part of as well,” the Nvidia CEO stated.

The CEO also clarified Nvidia’s investment in xAI, revealing that Elon Musk had offered the investment opportunity to the chipmaker. “He (Musk) gave us the opportunity to invest in xAI. I’m just delighted by that,” Huang stated.

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AI investment boom

Huang contrasted today’s AI-driven economy with the early days of the internet. “Back then, all the internet companies combined were maybe $30 or $40 billion in size,” he said. “If you look at the hyperscalers now, that’s about $2.5 trillion of business already operating today.”

He also stated that the ongoing shift from CPU-based computing to GPU-powered generative AI represents a “multi-trillion-dollar buildout” that Nvidia is looking to support. Huang added that every Nvidia engineer now works with AI coding assistants such as Cursor, which he called his “favorite enterprise AI service,” and it has led to a major productivity boost across the company.

Watch Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s CNBC interview in the video below.

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Investor's Corner

Stifel raises Tesla price target by 9.8% over FSD, Robotaxi advancements

Stifel also maintained a “Buy” rating for the electric vehicle maker.

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Credit: Tesla China

Investment firm Stifel has raised its price target for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares to $483 from $440 over increased confidence in the company’s self-driving and Robotaxi programs. The new price target suggests an 11.5% upside from Tesla’s closing price on Tuesday.

Stifel also maintained a “Buy” rating despite acknowledging that Tesla’s timeline for fully unsupervised driving may be ambitious.

Building confidence

In a note to clients, Stifel stated that it believes “Tesla is making progress with modest advancements in its Robotaxi network and FSD,” as noted in a report from Investing.com. The firm expects unsupervised FSD to become available for personal use in the U.S. by the end of 2025, with a wider ride-hailing rollout potentially covering half of the U.S. population by year-end.

Stifel also noted that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet could expand from “tiny to gigantic” within a short time frame, possibly making a material financial impact to the company by late 2026. The firm views Tesla’s vision-based approach to autonomy as central to this long-term growth, suggesting that continued advancements could unlock new revenue streams across both consumer and mobility sectors.

Tesla’s FSD goals still ambitious

While Stifel’s tone remains optimistic, the firm’s analysts acknowledged that Tesla’s aggressive autonomy timeline may face execution challenges. The note described the 2025 unsupervised FSD target as “a stretch,” though still achievable in the medium term.

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“We believe Tesla is making progress with modest advancements in its Robotaxi network and FSD. The company has high expectations for its camera-based approach including; 1) Unsupervised FSD to be available for personal use in the United States by year-end 2025, which appears to be a stretch but seems more likely in the medium term; 2) that it will ‘probably have ride hailing in probably half of the populations of the U.S. by the end of the year’,” the firm noted.

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Tesla Cybertruck gets Full Self-Driving v14 release date, sort of

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Tesla Cybertruck owners are wondering when they will get access to the company’s Full Self-Driving version 14.1 that rolled out to other owners today for the first time.

Cybertruck owners typically receive Full Self-Driving updates slightly later than other drivers, as the process for the all-electric pickup is different. It is a larger vehicle that requires some additional attention from Tesla before FSD versions are rolled out, so they will be slightly delayed. CEO Elon Musk said the all-wheel steering technically requires a bit more attention before rollout as well.

After some owners got access to the v14.1 Full Self-Driving suite this morning, Cybertruck owners sought out a potential timeframe for when they would be able to experience things for themselves.

Tesla owners show off improvements with new Full Self-Driving v14 rollout

They were able to get an answer from Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, who said:

“We got you. Coming soon.”

The release of FSD v14.1 for Cybertruck will not be tempered, either. Elluswamy then confirmed that Tesla would be rolling out the full-featured FSD v14 for the pickup, meaning it would be able to reverse and park itself, among other features.

Elluswamy said it would be capable of these features, which were void in other FSD releases for Cybertruck in the past.

Tesla’s rollout of FSD v14.1 brings several extremely notable changes and improvements to the suite, including more refined operation in parking garages, a new ability to choose parking preferences upon arriving at your destination, a new driving mode called “Sloth,” which is even more reserved than “Chill,” and general operational improvements.

Those who were lucky enough to receive the suite have already started showing off the improvements, and they definitely seem to be a step up from what v13’s more recent versions were capable of.

CEO Elon Musk called v14 “sentient” a few weeks back, and it seems that it is moving toward that. However, he did state that additional releases with more capabilities would be available in the coming weeks, but many owners are still waiting for this first version.

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