Elon Musk explains reason for Nvidia chip re-route from Tesla to X

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly pushed for shipments of Nvidia AI processors that were originally meant for the EV maker to be redirected to X, the social media platform he purchased nearly two years ago, emails obtained by CNBC showed.

However, Musk responded to the story, explaining why Tesla would have had trouble handling the shipment.

Musk revealed that Tesla was looking to increase an order of Nvidia’s H100 chip from 35,000 to 85,000 units by the end of the year as part of a massive $10 billion expenditure plan that would help with “combined training and inference AI.”

However, emails seen by CNBC reportedly showed Nvidia senior staffers talking about Musk wanting chips originally meant for Tesla to get to X instead.

The email read:

“Elon prioritizing X H100 GPU cluster deployment at X versus Tesla by redirecting 12k of shipped H100 GPUs originally slated for Tesla to X instead. In exchange, original X orders of 12k H100 slated for Jan and June to be redirected to Tesla.”

The email was written in December.

Another email from late April showed Musk’s comments regarding the uptick in orders from 35,000 to 85,000, as well as his X communication regarding $10 billion in AI spending would “conflict with bookings and FY 2025 forecasts,” the article said.

Musk responded to the story, stating that Tesla “had no place to turn the Nvidia chips on” and that Giga Texas’s expansion will house 50,000 H100 chips for Full Self-Driving training:

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has kept a good relationship with Tesla and Musk and recently admitted the company is the leader in self-driving:

“Tesla is far ahead in self-driving cars. But every single car, someday, will have to have autonomous capability. It’s safer. It’s more convenient. It’s more fun to drive.”

The communication’s surfacing comes just as Musk’s $56 billion pay package is set to be voted on once again at the upcoming Tesla Shareholder Meeting. Many shareholders want to ratify Musk’s massive payout, while others are conflicted with his commitment to the automaker.

This has led some Tesla and Musk fans to question his commitment to the automaker. With the Shareholder Vote coming soon, Tesla has pulled out all the stops to make sure Musk gets paid, especially as he has threatened to stop growing the company to be “a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control.”

Musk said if he cannot get to that ownership point, he “would prefer to build products outside of Tesla.”

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Elon Musk explains reasoning for Nvidia chip re-route from Tesla to X





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Tesla board member claims talking house sale with Musk: Reuters

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A Tesla board of directors member who departed from a committee position in March has alleged that he discussed selling a house to CEO Elon Musk, according to one publication this week.

Airbnb co-founder and Tesla board of directors member Joe Gebbia allegedly discussed having Musk purchase a house from his start-up, as stated to Reuters in a report on Monday. Gebbia departed from a board committee in March that played a key role in Tesla’s future, and he told the publication that he had been worried he and Musk’s friendship could be weaponized to criticize the committee’s independence.

Tesla board responds to ISS in four-page shareholder letter

Gebbia was one of just two directors on the board who was considered indendent enough to be apart of the special committee, which has reportedly played a key role in the board’s decision to propose moving incorporation from Delaware to Texas—after Musk’s 2018 compensation package was struck down by a judge in the state in January.

The board member owns the start-up Samara, which manufactures tiny pre-fab homes and has apparently discussed building one for Musk. Following the board’s expandsion of the upcoming proposals from the re-incorporation measure to also include the vote on Musk’s compensation plan, Gebbia stepped down from the committee, as shown in a regulatory filing.

Gebbia was also joined by former Walgreens Boots Alliance Chief of Human Resources Kathleen Wilson-Thompson on the special committee, according to the filing. In it, Gebbia also wrote that he departed from the committee “out of an abundance of caution,” noting that the “potential business transaction” was also “currently on hold,” at the time of the filing.

“I did not want Elon’s status as a potential customer of Samara to be used against the committee, so I disclosed that I had put that potential business transaction on hold,” Gebbia said.

“I believed I was and am independent, but decided to step down because I did not want my relationship with Elon to be used to unfairly attack the committee,” he added.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla board member Joe Gebbia on house sale talks with Musk: Reuters





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Canada makes Tesla revert U.S. recall fix with another update

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The top Canadian auto regulator has asked Tesla to revert brake and parking indicator lights in its vehicles, after the company issued a software update that changed certain icons to text following a recall in the U.S.

In February, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a recall requiring Tesla to change the original indicator icons for the “Brake,” “Park,” and “ABS” lights to text, which the automaker fixed with an over-the-air (OTA) software update. As a follow-up, Transport Canada last month issued a recall noting that some Tesla vehicles needed to revert the now-text indicator lights back to icons, in following with Canadian regulations.

Like with many software-based recalls in both the U.S. and Canada, Tesla has already issued an OTA software update to fix the issue. Transport Canada also says that no further action is needed for those with Tesla software versions 2024.3.25, 2024.14.5, or releases later than 2024.14.5.

“While there is a low risk to safety, Canadian regulations require visual warnings to use common symbols, instead of words, to avoid driver confusion,” writes the agency in the recall notice.

You can see the difference between the required U.S. text and symbols for the three systems below, courtesy of Not a Tesla App.

Credit: Not a Tesla App

While many Transport Canada policies are similar to those issued by the NHTSA, this is one example where each regulatory agency has slightly differing requirements.

In December, the NHTSA required Tesla to issue an update to two million Tesla vehicles to increase the prominence of certain text and visual alerts in the company’s Autopilot advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). Just a day after the initial recall was issued in the U.S., Transport Canada picked it up as well.

Tesla addressed both issues with an immediate OTA software update deployed to all of its vehicles.

Many in the Tesla community, including CEO Elon Musk himself, have called for safety regulators to change the language surrounding safety recalls that are fixed with an OTA update, rather than requiring service from a mechanic. The NHTSA has responded to these calls by saying that these issues still pose a safety risk, requiring a formal recall, whether they are fixed with software updates or not.

“Manufacturers are required to initiate a recall for any repair, including a software update, that remedies an unreasonable risk to safety,” wrote a spokesperson from the agency in an email to Teslarati in February.

“NHTSA recalls can include any required repair, which includes a software update, to remedy a potential safety risk. Manufacturers are also required to submit any communications to owners, dealers, and others about any software updates that address a defect, whether it is safety related or not.”

Tesla to fix seat belt warning system recall through OTA software update

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla reverts brake, park indicator lights in Canada following U.S. recall





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