Tesla earned over $500M from xAI and SpaceX sales last year
Tesla generated over $573 million in revenue last year by supplying products to other companies within Elon Musk's business empire, specifically SpaceX and xAI. According to a regulatory filing released on Thursday, the automaker sold Megapack battery systems to xAI, the artificial intelligence developer behind the Grok chatbot, for approximately $430 million. Additionally, Tesla earned about $143 million, primarily from selling vehicles to SpaceX, the rocket manufacturer. While the filing detailed the total figures, the specific breakdown for sales to SpaceX was not initially disclosed in the version of the annual report uploaded in January. Beyond direct product sales, the document highlighted further financial interdependence among the companies. Tesla invested $2 billion into SpaceX and xAI and paid them for commercial and consulting services, including $11.4 million to SpaceX and $4 million to xAI. These transactions underscore the increasingly blurred lines between Musk's various enterprises. Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired xAI, further consolidating the group's structure. Collaboration has extended to personnel and technology; Tesla employees have previously been assigned to improve coding at X, Musk's social media platform. Furthermore, the Grok AI model is now integrated into Tesla vehicles and Optimus robots, and Musk has announced future collaboration on the Tesla Roadster with SpaceX. This web of internal deals has raised concerns among investors and market analysts regarding potential conflicts of interest. Critics worry that Musk may be diverting resources, talent, and innovations from the publicly traded Tesla to his private companies. There is also an ongoing discussion about whether the distinct entities might eventually merge into a single mega-enterprise. Despite these concerns, the significant revenue flow from Tesla to its fellow Musk companies illustrates the depth of their current operational overlap and financial reliance on one another. The filing serves as the first detailed public accounting of the scale of these inter-company transactions, quantifying the half-billion-dollar exchange that has been occurring behind the scenes of Musk's diversified industrial portfolio.
