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Tesla Offloads Cybertrucks to SpaceX and xAI · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
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  Tesla has started off loading unsold cyber trucks to Elon's
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  other companies, and this is a big problem with the demand for
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  the cyber truck and also an internal solution that raises
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  some questions here. How does Elon Musk's empire
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  manage its inventory? Tesla has sold fewer than 5400
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  cyber trucks in the US last quarter.
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  Now that brings total 2025 sales to around 16,000, according to
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  Cox Automotive data. And Tesla once projected annual
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  cyber truck deliveries in the hundreds of thousands.
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  Now it's not even on track to sell 25,000 by the end of the
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  year. But at the same time, Tesla
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  overall just had its best quarter ever, helped by A rush
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  of EV buyers trying to beat the expiration of the $7500 federal
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  tax credit. Now that disconnect signals A
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  deeper problem for the truck then for the brand.
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  A shop drop is not just a slowdown.
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  You could say it's a 63% decline compared to the same quarter
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  last year. This level of attrition raises
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  some serious doubt about cyber trucks long term viability as a
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  mass market product. Now I know from first half
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  knowledge of people in the industry, second hand cyber
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  trucks, they're for resale. They are not flying off the
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  shelves. People are not that interested
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  in a cyber truck. I know somebody who's had a
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  cyber truck at Perfectly Fine Cyber truck, great price,
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  sitting on their lot for months and months and months.
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  Usually Tesla's fly off their shelves, fly off their
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  showrooms, fly off the yards, and this one sits there.
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  They don't buy cyber trucks anymore.
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  There's no reason. Do they sell a bunch of model
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  threes, Model YS, some Model S S, some model XS, but the cyber
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  trucks, they just cannot sell them and the Tesla dealer nearby
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  for first hand experience. And I know this is a you know,
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  this isn't data that's been collected from a broad range.
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  I haven't seen a cyber truck sold from their lot.
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  They don't move. And it's, it's a, it's a shame
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  because Tesla makes some great things.
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  And, you know, the, the ambition was hundreds of thousands of
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  cyber trucks per year. Well, that's not happening now.
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  Tesla had to scale back production of Gigafactory Texas.
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  But even with lower output inventory piled up, Musk's other
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  companies are now stepping in as the buyers.
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  If they can't sell them to the general public, sell them to
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  SpaceX, sell them to XAI. Both of those companies have
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  begun taking delivery of those excess cyber trucks.
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  Tesla has shipped several loads of the vehicles to both
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  companies in recent weeks, and it's SpaceX.
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  Cyber trucks are being used to replace internal combustion
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  vehicles at launch and research sites.
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  Has been cyber truck spottings at Starbase, and they've been
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  hauling around engines. They've been hauling around all
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  sorts of things down there. It's a heavy load, basically.
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  The cyber truck seems to be keeping up with it now.
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  XAI is receiving them for internal use, although the scope
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  of deployment remains kind of unclear.
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  It's an AI company. Why do they need trucks?
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  Unless they're training the trucks with something?
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  I'm not sure what's going on with that, but X AI bought some
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  of them. They help absorb production
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  overflow from Tesla though. That's what they do because they
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  can't sell them to the public. Nobody wants a cyber truck now.
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  They're cool, they're unique, but nobody really wants it.
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  It's not practical for a lot of people now.
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  This setup creates an internal loop of capital in product that
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  keeps unsold inventory from turning into a liability.
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  Also raises questions about how much demand for Cybertruck
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  exists outside of like this tight knit group of Tesla
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  supervans or people that are interested in new technology.
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  Tesla has not disclosed how many Cybertrucks each entity has
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  taken or whether those deals are booked as full revenue.
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  Without that detail, it's impossible to assess the real
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  financial value of these transactions.
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  The vehicle themselves are around $60,000 to start and can
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  climb much higher with add-ons. Over 100,000 means in internal
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  purchase. All of these could rack up
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  sizable internal expenditures. Tesla, SpaceX, XAI share board
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  members, engineers, and logistics teams.
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  They're part of a big umbrella. They operate more like an
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  intrepid conglomeration as opposed to separate companies,
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  and transactions between them can seem like operational
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  necessity and also a balance sheet strategy.
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  A Tesla just has to offload those cyber trucks.
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  Who's going to buy them? I don't know.
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  Elon knows a bunch of people, or he finds A use for them in one
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  of his companies, or finds the use for them temporarily, so it
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  looks good on the Tesla sheets for investors.
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  The next month, Tesla shareholders will vote on
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  whether to invest directly in XAI.
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  That vote could formalize a financial relationship between
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  the companies, locking in shared incentives, and if passed, it
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  will mean Tesla, a publicly traded company, will have a
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  direct ownership stake in Musk's private AI firm.
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  That has another layer to how resources like vehicles,
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  infrastructure and even personnel are moved between
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  these businesses now. The cyber truck itself has
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  struggled to find a stable audience, though.
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  At launch, Musk called it an apocalypse proof vehicle with
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  unmatched specs, but real world feedback has been mixed.
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  Owners have reported issues with range, visibility and
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  serviceability. It's massive size.
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  It's made out of steel, so stainless steel.
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  If it gets hot outside, stainless steel gets extremely
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  hot too. You don't want your kids around
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  that thing. It's sharp angles.
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  It's and also those sharp angles can become sharp metal.
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  Stainless steel build made it stand out.
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  It looks different, but it's not always in a way that translates
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  to sales. So you went driving down the
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  highway, you're like, whoa, look at that thing.
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  But is that what everybody needs?
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  It's very niche sort of product. Now, this design has also boxed
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  Tesla into a smaller addressable market than expected.
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  Doesn't fit easily into most garages.
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  It's bulky that lacks the towing capacity of traditional full
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  size trucks, and it remains expensive even in a market
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  flooded with EV incentives. And the hyper on the truck
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  reveal hasn't converted into long term momentum.
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  Without internal consumption, Tesla would be sitting on far
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  more excess units. What makes this move strategic
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  more strategic than a typical fleet sale is the context.
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  AI labs like XAI need specialized hardware and mobile
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  platforms for real world deployment of robotics and
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  sensors. SpaceX runs operations in remote
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  or extreme environments like Starbase.
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  Cybertruck with its off road capabilities and large battery
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  could make sense in both scenarios.
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  But that justification doesn't really change the fact that
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  these are still intra company buys.
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  They're not consumers, they're just Elon unloading things to
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  his other companies that he thinks they could use, or
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  somebody in the company thinks they could use somebody in
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  Tesla. The Musk is often used one
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  company's assets to support another.
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  Tesla engineers help design hardware for Neuralink.
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  SpaceX resources supported Starlink's early Build X AI runs
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  inference using Tesla's compute infrastructure.
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  The Cybertruck transfers continue that pattern with A
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  twist. This time, the products involved
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  were underperforming in the open market, and if Tesla can't
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  generate real consumer demand for Cybertruck, internal
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  transfers won't fit the core issue.
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  They may prop up short term numbers, but they don't expand
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  the customer base or prove that the vehicle works in public
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  markets. These sales are useful for
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  optics and to nudge up the price of the stock a little bit, but
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  it's not a substitute for actual consumer traction.
• 8:58
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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• 9:01
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