What Elon SaidAn archive of questions answered

Subjects / Tesla

Tesla

121 answers

Opinion

What will make up most of Tesla's value?

“Optimus and Cybercab will be the vast majority of Tesla’s value. The only things that will scale to incredible size (K2 and beyond) economically are super intelligence, robots, solar power and mass to space. And, of course, if you have the first two, the rest will follow.”

— Elon Musk, 18 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Fact

What is the new Roadster?

“Success is not certain, but excitement is The new Tesla Roadster is a candidate for greatest product demo of all time… New Roadster is beyond movies, beyond imagination, beyond human, yet still made by humans on Earth”

— Elon Musk, 16 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build your own chips (AI5, Terafab)?

“We cut our RAM in half for the Tesla AI5 chip (now 72GB of LP5) and 1/3 for AI6 (now 144GB of LP6). This was the only way to get enough volume for Optimus production and greatly reduces cost. As it turns out, we think this will have a negligible effect on Optimus performance, as memory bandwidth is a bigger limiting factor than total memory storage (bandwidth was held constant).”

— Elon Musk, 1 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do you keep so much of your wealth?

“I mean, I, like, I need to have sufficient voting control in the companies to, you know, still be in charge. So it’s the, you know, my sort of so-called wealth is simply a percentage ownership in the, in the, in SpaceX and Tesla essentially, and this is going to be taxed quite heavily, and there’s not some magical way to avoid taxes. If, if it were, I would know about it. So, you know, at the end of the day, the, this will get whittled down, and a few generations from now, so if money still matters, which I don’t think it will, you know, my descendants would have a tiny fraction of what I have.”

— Elon Musk, 6 August 2026 · Watch: YouTube (22:05) ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When will AI be smarter than any human (AGI/ASI)?

“Just started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car. Congrats to the @teslasi team! If you’re interested in solving real-world AI, which is likely to lead to AGI imo, join Tesla AI. Solving real-world AI for Optimus will be 100X harder than cars.”

— Elon Musk, 22 January 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build your own chips (AI5, Terafab)?

“Solving AI5 was existential to Tesla, which is why I had to focus both the teams on that chip and I’ve personally spent every Saturday for several months working on it. This will be a very capable chip. Roughly Hopper class as single SoC and Blackwell as dual, but it costs peanuts and uses much less power. Now that AI5 is looking good, we have some headroom to work on Dojo3 too.”

— Elon Musk, 19 January 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

Why build your own chips (AI5, Terafab)?

“Slightly different versions of the Tesla AI5 chip will be made at TSMC and Samsung simply because they translate designs to physical form differently, but the goal is that our AI software works identically. We will have samples and maybe a small number of units in 2026, but high volume production is only possible in 2027. AI6 will use the same fabs, but achieve roughly 2X performance. Aiming for a fast follow to AI5, so hopefully mid 2028 for volume production of AI6. AI7 will need different fabs, as it is more adventurous.”

— Elon Musk, 4 November 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When is FSD coming to Europe?

“FSD in Europe will save lives of people in the car, as well as vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and pets. Please let your government know that you want approval. First (supervised) FSD approval in Europe! Congratulations to the Tesla team and thank you to the regulatory authorities in the Netherlands for all the hard work required to make this happen.”

— Elon Musk, 12 June 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

Why do you need the Tesla pay package / more voting control?

“I should note that the Tesla board is great. The reason for no new “compensation plan” is that we are still waiting for a decision in my Delaware compensation case. The trial for that was held in 2022, but a verdict has yet to be made. I put “compensation plan” in quotes, because, from my standpoint, this is primarily about ensuring the right amount of voting influence at Tesla. If I have 25%, it means I am influential, but can be overridden if twice as many shareholders vote against me vs for me. At 15% or lower, the for/against ratio to override me makes a takeover by dubious interests too easy. I would be fine with a dual class voting structure to achieve this, but am told it is impossible to achieve post-IPO in Delaware.”

— Elon Musk, 15 January 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do you need the Tesla pay package / more voting control?

“I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned. Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand that Tesla is not one startup, but a dozen. Simply look at the delta between what Tesla does and GM. As for stock ownership itself being enough motivation, Fidelity and other own similar stakes to me. Why don’t they show up for work?”

— Elon Musk, 15 January 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why let other car brands use Tesla Superchargers?

“Tesla aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies. We made all our patents freely available several years ago. Now, we are enabling other companies to use our Supercharger network. Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology.”

— Elon Musk, 5 June 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build a humanoid robot?

“It needs to be able to do things that people do… It needs to be able to work with tools, carry a bag, that kind of thing. Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels…”

— Elon Musk, 19 August 2021 · Watch: Tesla video (2:08:00) ↗ · In the archive

Fact

What video game do you play?

“These days, I mostly just play Polytopia, which comes free with every Tesla! You will lose… It will hurt the first fifty times. When you get used to losing, you will play each game with less emotion.”

— Elon Musk, 2 July 2021 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Fact

What did you do after PayPal?

“Felt I had done enough on the Internet (Zip2 & PayPal) that my work would be useful to others. Needed to get going on accelerating sustainable energy & making life multiplanetary. Started Zip2 with ~$2k & ~$100k of student debt, rolled proceeds into X/PayPal, rolled proceeds again into SpaceX/Tesla…”

— Elon Musk, 19 September 2020 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

Why hasn't Tesla accelerated Semi production?

“…that's part of the reason why we have not, for example, really accelerated production of the Tesla semi because it does use a lot of cells. And unless we've got a lot of battery cells available, then say, like accelerating production of the Tesla semi would then necessarily mean making fewer Model 3 or Model Y cars.”

— Elon Musk, 29 January 2020 · Watch: Tesla Q4 and full year 2019 earnings call (2020) · 39:22 ↗ · In the archive

Fact

Who do you want working on manufacturing?

“Anyone who’s interested in working on cutting edge manufacturing — designing & building the machine that makes the machine — please consider working at Tesla or SpaceX. We’re gonna take this to a whole new level!”

— Elon Musk, 15 October 2019 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why haven't Tesla's Fremont workers unionized?

“Also, UAW did nada for job security in last recession. Dropped Fremont like a hot potato to protect their core base in Detroit. UAW *chose* to exit this plant before Tesla even arrived. We had nothing to do with UAW leaving, but everything to do with why people here have jobs.”

— Elon Musk, 21 May 2018 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Fact

What happened at Christmas 2008?

“I remember waking up the Sunday before Christmas in 2008, and thinking to myself, ‘Man, I never thought I was someone who could ever be capable of a nervous breakdown,’ but I felt, ‘This is the closest I’ve ever come.’… I couldn’t even hold the phone, I just blurted out, ‘I love you guys.’…”

— Elon Musk, March 2014 · Watch: 60 Minutes video (8:25) ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why doesn't Tesla sell through dealerships?

“By the time most people decide to head to their local dealer, they have already pretty much decided what car they want to buy, which is usually the same make as their old car. Tesla, as a new carmaker, would therefore rarely have the opportunity to educate potential customers about Model S if we were positioned in typical auto dealer locations.”

— Elon Musk, 22 October 2012 · Archived copy ↗ · In the archive