Free Republic

For generations, the conventional wisdom went something like this: serious money lives in New York. The serious decisions about who gets capital, who gets to list on an exchange, who gets to participate in the grand machinery of American finance—all of it emanated from a few square miles of lower Manhattan, governed by institutions so entrenched they seemed geological. Wall-Street wasn’t just an address. It was a statement about where power lived and who held it. That era is ending. And the remarkable thing isn’t simply that it’s ending — it’s why it’s ending, and what that tells us about...

In 2002, a part-time single mother at a small rocketry consultancy was driving on an LA freeway when she decided she was being an idiot for not taking a job at a startup with zero successful launches and seven employees. Gwynne Shotwell joined SpaceX as employee number seven. Her job: convince governments and corporations to buy rides on rockets that didn't exist yet. The Falcon 1 failed three times. On the fourth attempt, September 2008, it reached orbit. Two months later, Shotwell negotiated a $1.6 billion NASA contract that saved the company from bankruptcy. She was promoted to President the...

Fortune has named Tesla to its America’s Most Innovative Companies 2026 list, and the timing could not carry more weight. With Cybercab production ramping at Gigafactory Texas and a driverless Robotaxi service expanding to key cities in the US, Tesla’s inclusion is a direct reflection of the future of innovation happening right now. Fortune’s list, produced annually in partnership with Statista, evaluates 300 companies across three dimensions: product innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture. This year’s cohort of 300 generated over $12.5 trillion in combined revenue, and Tesla’s entry places it alongside Rivian, which made the list for the first...

public offering prospectus with regulators later this week ​or next week, ​The Information reported on Tuesday. Advisers involved in the preparation predict the company could ​try to raise more ​than $75 billion in the IPO, ‌the ⁠report said, citing a person ​with direct knowledge of the ​plans. The individual investor portion might exceed 20%, but the percentage has ​yet ​to ⁠be finalized, as per the report. In February, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was considering a dual listing to give CEO Elon Musk greater control. A dual listing would enable Musk to

WSJ: Tesla Finally Has Its First Semi-Truck and It’s Already a Hit With Truckers. "Truckers who drove it in pilot tests say they loved features including a centered driving position, faster charging and longer range for about $100,000 less than other battery-electric trucks. Angel Rodriguez, a 56-year-old truck driver for Hight Logistics in Long Beach, Calif., recently swapped out a 13-gear diesel truck for a Tesla Semi, which is automatic, for a one-month pilot test. “It’s just easier on your body. It’s less stressful because you’re not really having to engage the clutch and the stick shift.” Big F Transport...

A woman was arrested after deputies said she used a board with nails to damage a man’s Tesla Cybertruck on Sunday in Caldwell County. Records show 67-year-old Karen Lewis was charged with misdemeanor damage to property. She was jailed on a $1,000 secured bond. Deputies said the investigation began after the owner reported damage to his car on Sunday, March 15, in Collettsville. No specific street or location was provided. Investigators said the Cybertruck’s onboard cameras captured video of Lewis allegedly using a board with nails to scratch the vehicle, and she was quickly identified as the suspect.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is ditching his longtime residence in Seattle for Florida, just as Washington Democrats are nearing the finish line on a proposed "millionaires tax." Schultz, who served as board director of the coffee chain until 2023, said in a statement on social media that he and his wife are moving to Miami as part of the "retirement phase" of their lives. Schultz, who has lived in Seattle for more than four decades, purchased a $44 million penthouse in Surfside, Fla., according to reports, and will relocate his private family office to Miami. Schultz, who owns roughly...

A state employee who admitted vandalizing several Teslas in Minneapolis over a brief span last year received a one-day unpaid suspension from his job for his actions after he was spared prosecution in favor of a diversion program. -snip “Your behavior, as substantiated by the investigation, constitutes a violation of DHS’ and [the Minnesota Management and Budget’s] policies,” read the disciplinary letter sent to Adams on Jan. 21, one day before he served his suspension. The letter to Adams noted that state policy required he be “held to the highest standard of honesty, integrity, and ethical trust.” -snip. Adams explained...

Elon didn’t reverse that through inspiration. He reversed it by building companies that required understanding manufacturing or failing completely. SpaceX and Tesla forced engineers to learn how metal fractures, how tolerances cascade through systems, how physical iteration costs months and millions per failure. No debugging. No patches. Just physics that doesn’t negotiate. Boyle: “Training two generations of engineers.” The product isn’t the cars. It’s the people. Look at who’s founding America’s critical hard-tech companies now. The common thread isn’t Stanford or MIT. It’s time on factory floors at SpaceX or Tesla. They learned welding. They learned that “impossible” just means...

The Tesla Model Y was Europe’s most popular electric car in 2025, leading all EV models by a wide margin despite a year marked by production transition, intensifying competition, and anti-Elon Musk sentiments. The result highlights the Model Y’s continued strength in the region even as Volkswagen overtook Tesla as the top-selling EV brand overall. As per data compiled by JATO Dynamics and reported by Swedish outlet Allt om Elbil, the Tesla Model Y recorded 149,805 registrations across Europe in 2025. That figure placed it comfortably at No. 1 among all electric car models in the region. The Model Y’s...

Tesla engineers deflected calls from Apple on a daily basis while the tech giant was developing its now-defunct electric vehicle program, which was known as “Project Titan.” Back in 2022 and 2023, Apple was developing an EV in a top-secret internal fashion, hoping to launch it by 2028 with a fully autonomous driving suite. However, Apple bailed on the project in early 2024, as Project Titan abandoned the project in an email to over 2,000 employees. The company had backtracked its expectations for the vehicle on several occasions, initially hoping to launch it with no human driving controls and only...

Elon Musk just became the first person ever worth $800 billion or more after his rocket maker SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company xAI. Forbes estimates that the deal, which values the combined company at $1.25 trillion, boosted Musk’s fortune by $84 billion, to a record $852 billion. Before the deal, Musk owned an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX worth $336 billion, based on a tender offer launched in December that valued the privately-held rocket maker at $800 billion. He also owned an estimated 49% stake in xAI worth $122 billion, based on a private fundraising round...

China has banned hidden door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), making it the first country to stop the use of the controversial designs that were made popular by multi-billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla. It comes as EVs are facing scrutiny from safety watchdogs around the world after a number of deadly incidents, including two fatal crashes in China involving Xiaomi EVs in which power failures were suspected to have prevented doors from being opened. Under the new regulations, cars will only be allowed to be sold if they have a mechanical release both on the inside and outside of their doors,...

SpaceX is considering a potential merger with either Tesla or xAI, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg's Loren Grush and Kiel Porter break down what this possible consolidation of Elon Musk's empire could mean with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Tech." SpaceX Said to Consider Merger With Tesla or xAI | 4:57 Bloomberg Technology | 715K subscribers | 10,262 views | January 30, 2026

Key Points On Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said the company is ending production of its Model S and X vehicles. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said. Tesla beat estimates for the quarter but still wrapped up its first annual sales decline on record. SNIP Tesla is developing Optimus with the aim of someday selling it as a bipedal, intelligent robot capable of everything from factory work to babysitting. The company said in the release that it plans to unveil the third generation of...

Tesla has landed a massive deal to expand its charging infrastructure for heavy-duty electric trucks — and not just theirs, but all manufacturers. Tesla entered an agreement with Pilot Travel Centers, the largest operator of travel centers in the United States. Tesla’s Semi Chargers, which are used to charge Class 8 electric trucks, will be responsible for providing energy to various vehicles from a variety of manufacturers. The first sites are expected to open later this Summer, and will be built at select locations along I-5 and I-10, major routes for commercial vehicles and significant logistics companies. The chargers will...

Tesla has officially launched public Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas, without a Safety Monitor in the vehicle, marking the first time the company has removed anyone from the vehicle other than the rider. The Safety Monitor has been present in Tesla Robotaxis in Austin since its launch last June, maintaining safety for passengers and other vehicles, and was placed in the passenger’s seat. Tesla planned to remove the Safety Monitor at the end of 2025, but it was not quite ready to do so. Now, in January, riders are officially reporting that they are able to hail a ride from...

This is more advanced than you think Tesla’s Texas lithium refinery is the first in North America to convert raw spodumene ore directly into battery-grade lithium hydroxide, skipping the intermediate steps the rest of the industry relies on It went from groundbreaking to first production in just 19 months, an unheard-of timeline at this scale The process is cleaner too: no hazardous sodium sulfate waste, and a useful byproduct that can be turned into concrete This single refinery can supply lithium for over 500,000 EVs per year and directly challenges China’s ~60% grip on global lithium refining One of the...

China's BYD has overtaken Elon Musk's Tesla as the world's biggest seller of electric vehicles (EVs), marking the first time it has outpaced its American rival in annual sales. Tesla car sales dropped by nearly 9% in 2025 to 1.64 million vehicles sold worldwide, the carmaker said on Friday - its second consecutive year of falling car deliveries. Those figures placed Tesla behind BYD, which said on Thursday that sales of its battery-powered cars rose last year by almost 28% to more than 2.25 million. The US firm has faced a tough year with a mixed reception to new offerings,...