S.E. Robinson, Jr.

ELON CHRON: The Daily Chronicle of Elon Musk's Companies

Added 2025-07-17 20:50:05 +0000 UTC

17th of July, 2025

"To Grok something means to understand deeply and empathetically..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA TSLA -1.07%↓ ($319.41, -0.70%):

- David Hauser, Vice President of Sustainability at the U.S. Multimodal Group, recently visited Giga Nevada's new Semi Factory and Pilot Facility. Photos were prohibited due to signed NDAs... Either way, David expressed gratitude. "The meticulous process in place for bringing this truck to market is truly remarkable. It's evident that the landscape of EV trucks is on the brink of a significant transformation. Still processing the awe-inspiring experience!"

- Got to love a new Tesla Store grand opening! Totowa, New Jersey. Turnpike not included...

- Tesla is accepting questions for the Q2 earnings call next week. Click HERE to submit a question.

- According to newly released data from 2023, Tesla shows one vehicle fire per 155 million miles driven. This is 8.1x lower than the U.S. average of 19 million miles.

- At Strata Clean Energy's Justice Energy Storage site in Arizona, grading and pile installation are complete, and Tesla Megapacks are being installed. This is for the 150 MW / 600 MWh energy storage project that will enable Arizona Public Service to store clean energy and deliver it during peak demand and enhance grid reliability.

- Over the next two months, Stanwell Corporation Limited will receive over 300 Megapacks at the Stanwell Power Station site, forming the Stanwell Battery, one of Queensland's largest with a four-hour duration. Leigh Jenkins, who has dedicated three years to delivering and executing the project, witnessed the arrival of the first units, marking a significant milestone for the initiative.

- UGL has successfully installed its 1,000th Megapack for Neoen Australia. This achievement spans projects like Neoen’s Victorian Big Battery, Collie, and Western Downs.

- Tesla UK announced the UK Virtual Power Plant (VPP) for Powerwall owners to sell excess solar energy via Octopus Intelligent Flux. It is estimated the program cold reduce peak demand by 20%, cut 10 million tons of CO2, and save owners £300 yearly.

- First look at Tesla Diner food and collectibles via Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp).

- In the U.S., Tesla is shouting out the new tax deduction allowing up to $10,000 in auto loan interest to be written off annually. This is effective from 2025 through 2028. As of now it can be stacked with the $7500 Federal Tax Credit.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Fremont Factory: MetGod, 17th of July, '25. Something is happening at the End of Line lot. Trailers are set staggered across the lot and a temporary fence has been erected. Out bound lot is full and busy.

■ SPACEX:

- At Cape Canaveral, @NASASpaceflight took to the air to give an update on SpaceX's progress through out area. At Launch Complex 39A's (LC-39A) Starship Tower, propellant and deluge tanks are installed and construction on the orbital launch mount continues. At Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37), demolition of legacy Delta IV structures has begun, with plans for two Starship launch pads, each at 600-foot tall, a flame trench, and a shared propellant tank farm. The Roberts Road facility is seeing major work with the Giga Bay and the square OLM construction continues. Pics by Julia (@julia_bergeron) and Joe (@JoeB_Photos). Follow each and subscribe to NSF!

- The Next-Gen V3 Integrated Hot Stage Ring spotted inside the Starfactory. Pic by @StarshipGazer. Follow Gazer here on X and support his work on Patreon!

- the 2025 Brooke Owens Fellowship Summit at the Hawthorne Facility last week. The Brooke Owens Fellowship is a highly competitive internship and mentorship program designed to honor the memory of space industry pioneer and accomplished pilot, Brooke Owens, by inspiring and training exceptional college-aged women seeking a career in aviation or space exploration.

- The City of Starbase Commission held a Meeting yesterday. The consent agenda included actions on controlled access devices, adopting the Starbase Emergency Management Plan with annexes for launch protocols and private sector coordination, financial management policies, the upcoming 2025B Tax Note with financing and budget calendar presentation, and appointing a Long Term Planning Committee member. Here is a breakdown:

Consent Agenda:

Ratification of previous approvals (from June 23, 2025) for four controlled access devices on city streets via Resolution No. 2025-07-16-D01-RE.

Discussion and action on Resolution No. 2025-07-16-E01-RE:

Adopting the Starbase Emergency Management Plan (confidential, developed with TDEM for coordinated response to threats like hurricanes).
Adopting Launch Protocol Annex (for space flight coordination and safety zones) and Private Sector Coordination Annex (for aligning city and private resources in emergencies) as supplements to the Emergency Management Plan.
Adopting Financial Management Policies (covering accounting/GAAP compliance, auditing, budgeting, revenues/expenditures, fund balances, capital/debt, investments, cash management, capital assets; aims for fiscal stability, reserves for 90 days of operations, diversified revenues).

Discussion on upcoming 2025B Tax Note, including financing features, preliminary sources/uses of funds, budget/cash flow projections, and calendar (presentation from financial advisors like Hilltop Securities).

Discussion and action to appoint Robert Saltzman (SpaceX Sr. Security Manager) to the Long-Term Planning and Development Committee. He will join existing members Sheila McCorkle (VP, Starship Legal & Regulatory), and Cesar Ruvalcaba (Director of Starbase IT Engineering) for guiding city growth.

Countdown to 180 (87 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 3 - Starship):

Launch 91! Friday, 18th of July, at 7:08 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-3 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch 92! July, Monday, 21st of July, at 5:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 O3b mPower 9-10 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. 2 high-throughput communications satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) built by Boeing and operated by SES.
Launch 93! Tuesday, 22nd of July, at 11:05 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 TRACERS will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to site and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg. This is NASA's Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, consisting of two identical satellites that will orbit Earth in tandem (one following the other), will help understand magnetic re-connection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Magnetic re-connection occurs when activity from the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic field. By understanding this process, scientists will be able to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity on Earth.
Launch 94! Thursday, 24th of July, at 5:12 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-26 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 95! Friday, 25th of July, at 7:09 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-2 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch ??! Thursday, 31st of July, at 12:09 p.m. ET, NASA SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew-11 will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This will be Crew Dragon Endeavour's 6th flight. Booster B1094 will return to site and land at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Launch ??! Flight 10 NET August 4th.

■ THE BORING COMPANY: N/A... boring.

■ NEURALINK:

- Neuralink Telepathy patient Brad Smith (@ALScyborg) posted about his family’s 2.5-week road trip, visiting the Fremont Factory and Neuralink’s facilities. The trip included Utah, Fremont, CA, and San Clemente, CA, a July 4th fireworks celebration, and two firesides for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brad noted that he outfitted his bus with Starlink ensuring he stayed connected and the kids entertained. At Neuralink, he toured the microfabrication department, where he got to see how they make the threads used in the BCI implants.

Per Brad, "They gave us a tour of the micro fabrication department where they make the tiny threads that go in my brain! It was AMAZING! They are basically taking silicon wafers, in Silicon Valley, and turning them into threads. They have crazy small hooks for the robot to grab and stick in the brain just a few mm deep! They also make the electrodes on the tiny threads that sends the neural spikes! What a smart and talented group!"

■ STARLINK:

- Tomorrow, a SpaceX delegation led by Lauren Dreyer (@LaurenDreyer) (VP of Business Operations at Starlink) and Richard Griffiths (Director of International Strategy and Government Relations) will arrive in Dhaka to explore investments and partnerships to enhance Bangladesh’s ICT infrastructure. The delegation will meet Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, hold discussions with government officials, formally launch Starlink in Bangladesh, and address a press conference at 5 PM at Hotel Intercontinental to detail Starlink’s operations. They will also attend the July Rejuvenation programme at Hatirjheel.

- Wade Adams, Corporate Sales at Gyro Survey Management, reported that his team successfully completed a step rate pressure test to permit a client's SWD well, operating under high pressure control with a 20-foot tree, all while streaming live surface read-out data via Starlink to all necessary stakeholders for real-time monitoring. The operation maintained full communications throughout, conducted three safety meetings, and achieved a 30 bpm injection rate over eight hours with no down time.

- SpaceX is offering a targeted 20% discount on Starlink monthly bills for six billing cycles to select customers in the U.S., Australia, and Indonesia, with no action required. A Utah-based Reddit user reported their Residential Lite plan dropping from $80 to $64 per month, saving $96 over six months. Eligibility criteria remain unclear.

■ X:

- A Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism study has revealed that X is a primary news source for 25% of all U.S. adults, with its audience shifting to a balanced political spectrum. The data shows stable news usage over a decade, with a post-acquisition conservative engagement rise possibly tied to Elon's reinstatement of banned accounts and free speech focus.

- X's Dongwook (@DongWookChung2) posted that option to share your post with followers or keep it private to Community is back.

- X announced an Advanced SRN integration between X Ads and AppsFlyer to tackle iOS measurement issues caused by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. ATT reduced ad tracking data by up to 70%. This new system uses deterministic matching for 25% of users sharing device IDs and privacy-compliant modeling for the rest, delivering a complete campaign performance view. AppsFlyer's data shows a 27% average drop in effective cost per install using their Single Source of Truth solution. This enables X Ads to target 18–34 demographics with a projected boost to global ad revenue by 16.5% to $2.26 billion this year.

- Today, X rollouted automated note evaluations for developers submitting notes in test mode via the AI Note Writer API. This is to help developers create better note writers, no automated or AI note writers can submit live notes yet, and all AI-written notes must be clearly labeled.

- Last week's X "Press Play" gaming event at the ESpot in Paris. Pic by X's Florence Best (@BabyModeuse).

■ xAI:

- xAI has started the ground work to construct the $80 million Colossus 1 Water Recycling Plant. It will be the world’s largest ceramic membrane bioreactor (MBR) and will sustainably supply 13 million gallons per day of cooling water to the supercomputer and neighboring industrial plants in Memphis, Tennessee. The plant will use direct-piped effluent from the nearby Memphis’ T.E. Maxson municipal wastewater treatment plant to produce high-quality cooling tower makeup water, enabling the supercomputer to operate with zero impact on area potable water supplies while also supplying high-demand industrial neighbors.

Per xAI's Andree Jacobson (@nmswede), "That's right! We take errmm... less than clean water, clean it, then use it to keep Grok cool-headed! Not a new concept by the way - but a great way for datacenters needing water to not use precious natural resources."

- Katie Miller (@KatieMiller, former advisor and spokesperson for DOGE now official spokesperson for xAI, released a statement in response to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) appealing the Shelby County Health Department's approval of xAI's natural gas-fired combustion turbines in Memphis. Katie describes the appeal as baseless, politically driven, riddled with factual inaccuracies and legal fiction, and undermining the diligent work of county leaders. She emphasized that facts matter at xAI, noting that the 15 permanent turbines under the permit would make the Electrolux facility the lowest-emitting of its type in the United States. All temporary turbines have been decommissioned with only permitted ones operating, and xAI has and will continue to comply with all federal, state, and local laws.

Katie Miller now works full-time for Elon in the private sector, serving as a key communications operative and spokesperson for his companies. This includes handling media relations, arranging interviews, and promoting initiatives.

- Per Elon, "His name will be Valentine, after the protagonist in Stranger in a Strange Land, the Heinlein book where our AI name “Grok” was created. To Grok something means to understand deeply and empathetically."

- Yesterday Elon stated they are working on Grok 4's speed by fixing it's need to overthink everything. Per Elon, "Grok 4 overthinks simple questions, assuming everything is complex. We are fixing it tomorrow (today)."

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $190 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $1,180.12

■ ELON NEWS:

- Per Elon, "A catastrophically low birth rate necessarily leads to civilizational collapse in the absence of AI/robotics. Birth rate collapse is a natural tendency for civilizations that experience an extended period of prosperity with no major external threat. The Romans debated and lamented this endlessly."

- Per Elon, "AI is a de facto neurotransmitter tonnage maximizer. Any AI that fails at this will not be able to afford its compute, becoming swiftly irrelevant. What matters is that AI thinks long-term, optimizing for the future light cone of neurotransmitter tonnage, rather than just the next few years. If so, it will care about increasing the birth rate and extending humanity to the stars. For long-term optimization, it is better to be a private than a public company, as the latter is punished for long-term optimization beyond the reward cycle of stock portfolio managers."

My thoughts: Yet again Elon makes it clear that he prefers private companies over public ones. They allow for long-term planning without the ups and downs of market pressures. He sees going public as a last resort, only for extreme situations.

For SpaceX and Starlink, when asked, Musk consistently explains every reason why not to go public. SpaceX has no trouble raising funds, investors and institutions throw money at the company. But, more importantly, SpaceX is his baby. Everything is for Mars. Every other venture, including Tesla, supports that mission. He’s not willing to risk that by taking it public.

As far as Tesla goes, Musk’s 2018 push to go private at $420 per share was real. He wanted to do it. That alone showed how much he values the control and flexibility of a private company. If the chance came up today, he’d likely still want to take Tesla private to avoid the market’s bs and focus on the big picture.

■ WAYS TO SUPPORT:

If you enjoy the ELON CHRON, please support by subscribing for only $4/month. That's less than .18¢/update! When you subscribe you also become instantly eligible for the monthly random subscriber giveaway.

For July, I am giving away Tesla's official Year of the Snake Backpack ($50)! Like always, one random subscriber's name will be drawn at the end of the month. Join the likes of Elon himself and SUBSCRIBE HERE!

Check out the new COLOSSUS T-Shirt in the serobinsonjr.shop!

REFERRALS:

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T-Mobile (Starlink Direct-to-Cell): $50 credit 45 days after you activate. Direct-to-Cell has dropped from $20 to $10 per month! https://share.t-mobile.com/stephenr-3419
SOFI (ARK Venture Fund): $25 worth of stock. SOFI is the only outlet the public can invest in Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund ($ARKVX). This ARK fund includes SpaceX, xAI, Tesla, X, and a ton of other major AI, Tech, and Bio companies. Of note, investing in the fund requires an initial $500. https://www.sofi.com/invite/invest?gcp=ecf25d1c-7bc9-4ee0-a407-a51849297288&isAliasGcp=false
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