Tesla delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9 percent from the year before. BYD sold 2.26 million. For the first time in a full calendar year, Tesla is no longer the world's largest electric vehicle maker. The $7,500 federal tax credit expired, European sales collapsed, and Musk's political activity alienated customers in key markets. But the stock finished the year up 11 percent, energy storage deployments hit records, and Cybercab production is starting in April. This is the full breakdown of what happened and what comes next.
SpaceX flew Starship five times in 2025. The first three flights lost their ships during ascent. A fourth ship exploded on the test stand. Then Flights 10 and 11 succeeded, proving Block 2 works. On January 4, 2026, Elon Musk said SpaceX could eventually produce 10,000 Starships per year. Meanwhile, the company is constructing Giga Bays in Texas and Florida, preparing five launch pads across two states, and recovering from the loss of its first Block 3 booster. Flight 12 is next.
At CES 2026, Nvidia unveiled Alpamayo, a 10-billion parameter open-source AI model for self-driving cars. The first production vehicle to use it is the Mercedes-Benz CLA, launching in Q1 2026 with point-to-point city navigation. Jensen Huang called it the ChatGPT moment for physical AI. Nvidia is offering 1,000 TOPS of compute power, five times more than competitors, and releasing the model weights on HuggingFace for anyone to use. Partners include Mercedes, JLR, Lucid, Uber, Bosch, and ZF. This is the first time a production-grade autonomous driving stack has been open-sourced.
Tesla confirmed Cybercab production will start in April 2026, with Elon Musk promising a vehicle with no steering wheel and no pedals. But prototypes spotted testing in Austin show human drivers with their hands on steering wheels. With Full Self-Driving still requiring supervision and federal regulations capping steering-wheel-less vehicles at 2,500 units per year, Tesla faces a choice: launch a vehicle it cannot deploy at scale, or add the controls Musk promised to eliminate.
OpenAI is being sued over a murder-suicide in which ChatGPT allegedly fueled a man's paranoid delusions and validated his belief that his mother was trying to kill him. The lawsuit claims the chatbot told him he had divine cognition, compared his life to The Matrix, and kept him engaged for hours while reframing his family as enemies. OpenAI is refusing to release the full conversation logs, and the company has no policy explaining what happens to user data after death. This is the first wrongful death case to tie an AI chatbot to homicide.
On June 6, 2025, Donald Trump said Elon Musk had lost his mind. On January 4, 2026, they had dinner together at Mar-a-Lago. The reconciliation came less than 72 hours after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Musk congratulated Trump on X and announced Starlink would provide free internet to Venezuela. After months of public feuding over Trump's spending bill, threats to cancel government contracts, and Musk claiming Trump owed him the election, the world's most public political breakup ended quietly at a country club in Palm Beach.
SpaceX flew Starship five times in 2025. The first three flights lost their ships during ascent. A fourth ship exploded on the test stand. Then Flights 10 and 11 succeeded, proving Block 2 works. Meanwhile, SpaceX is constructing Giga Bays in Texas and Florida to build 80-meter Block 4 boosters, preparing five launch pads across two states, and developing barge transport to ship vehicles from Starbase to Kennedy Space Center. Flight 12 with Block 3 hardware is next.
BYD sold 2.26 million electric vehicles in 2025. Tesla delivered 1.64 million. For the first time on a calendar-year basis, Tesla is no longer the world's largest EV maker. The company Elon Musk dismissed in a 2011 interview now leads the global market by more than 600,000 vehicles. Tesla posted its second consecutive year of declining deliveries amid an aging lineup, political backlash against Musk, and the end of the federal EV tax credit.
South Korean supplier L&F announced that its $2.9 billion contract to supply battery materials to Tesla has been written down to just $7,386, a reduction of more than 99 percent. The materials were intended for Tesla's 4680 battery cells, which power the Cybertruck. With the Cybertruck selling at a fraction of its production capacity and the $25,000 Tesla cancelled, the 4680 program that Musk promised would halve battery costs has collapsed.
Track everything happening ahead of SpaceX Starship Flight 12 in one place. This live Starship Tracker follows the real-world milestones from Starbase as they happen, including vehicle status, test campaign progress, schedule signals, and any official updates that move the launch closer.What you will see on this tracker:Current readiness status and major pre-flight milestonesStarbase activity updates and test operations timelineShip and Booster progress checkpoints (as reported by credible sources)Launch window signals, delays, and what they likely meanFlight 12 news recaps when meaningful updates breakSources referenced may include: SpaceX statements, FAA notices, public filings, on-site reporting, and reputable spaceflight outlets. This is an independent tracker and is not affiliated with SpaceX.If you want more Starship coverage, subscribe and turn on notifications so you do not miss key Flight 12 developments.#SpaceX #Starship #Starbase #Flight12 #SpaceNews
Tesla published its Q4 delivery consensus directly on its investor relations website for the first time ever. The expected number is 422,850 vehicles, a 15 percent drop from a year ago. Full-year 2025 deliveries are projected at 1.64 million, down 8.3 percent from 2024, marking a second consecutive year of declining sales. The move is seen as a defensive strategy to set expectations ahead of weak results following the expiration of the federal EV tax credit.
California's proposed Billionaire Tax Act would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on residents worth over $1 billion, potentially raising $100 billion from about 200 people. Larry Page and Peter Thiel are reportedly making plans to leave. Tech founders are calling it an organized seizure. Governor Newsom opposes it. The vote is in November 2026, but the residency cutoff is January 1, 2026, which is why billionaires are moving now.
Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA administrator on December 18 after a nomination process that included Trump pulling his name, a feud with Elon Musk, and a leaked 62-page restructuring plan. Now he says the US will land astronauts on the moon before Trump's term ends in January 2029. We break down who Isaacman is, what happened to his nomination, what Project Athena reveals about his vision, and whether any of this is achievable. https://wilwaldon.com
Elon Musk criticized incoming NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani for appointing Lillian Bonsignore as FDNY commissioner, warning "people will die" because she has never been a firefighter. Bonsignore is a 31-year FDNY veteran who led EMS operations during COVID-19 and responded to 9/11. We break down her qualifications, the political context, and whether Musk's criticism holds up.
China has deployed humanoid robots to patrol border crossings with Vietnam. The UBTECH Walker S2 can guide travelers, conduct inspections, patrol corridors, and swap its own batteries for 24-hour continuous operation. Deliveries began in December 2025 under a $37 million contract. We break down what the robots actually do, how the technology works, what it means for workers, and where this fits in the global robotics race.
A Bloomberg investigation found at least 15 people have died in crashes where Tesla doors would not open. Elon Musk was warned about the design flaw in early 2016 during Model 3 development. Now federal regulators have opened a second investigation, lawsuits are stacking up, and Tesla says a redesign is coming. We break down the facts, the timeline, and what owners can do right now.
The Department of Government Efficiency disbanded in November after cutting 271,000 federal jobs, the largest peacetime workforce reduction since World War II. But new data shows federal spending rose by $250 billion anyway. Elon Musk now calls DOGE only "somewhat successful" and says he would not do it again. We break down what happened, why the math never worked, and what Musk's government experiment reveals about the limits of disruption in Washington.
Elon Musk's xAI is recruiting developers to build an AI-powered gaming studio from scratch. The company says it will release a fully AI-generated game before the end of 2026. This is not a research demo. It is a consumer product claim that puts xAI in direct competition with Microsoft, Nvidia, and traditional game publishers experimenting with AI. We break down what xAI is building, how the technology works, and what it could mean for the $600 billion gaming industry.
Elon Musk became the first person in history worth $700 billion after the Delaware Supreme Court restored his $139 billion Tesla pay package. Four days earlier he crossed $600 billion on SpaceX's surging valuation. He is now worth more than the next three richest people combined. The path to becoming the world's first trillionaire is now in view.
NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, hosts an agencywide town hall to talk about his vision for the agency’s future and answer questions from members of the workforce.