TechCrunch Mobility: The great Tesla rebranding

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spent months — years? — trying to presumption his institution arsenic thing much than conscionable a shaper of electrical vehicles. When Tesla acquired Solar City successful 2016, helium (and his comms team) pitched it arsenic a sustainable vigor company. Over the past year, helium has pushed the thought of Tesla arsenic an AI and robotics company.

Musk’s aspirational branding has slammed close up against fiscal reality: The bulk of its gross comes from selling EVs. Its latest net enactment this.

The institution generated $94.8 cardinal successful gross successful 2025. Of that, $69.5 cardinal came from selling and leasing EVs arsenic good arsenic related regulatory credits. The remaining $25 cardinal is divided astir down the mediate betwixt its vigor procreation (solar) and retention concern and “services and other,” which see gross from its Superchargers, parts sales, and Full Self-Driving subscriptions. That reliance connected deliveries means that arsenic EV income person dipped, truthful has Tesla’s full equilibrium sheet. Its profits successful 2025 were 46% little year-over-year.

Tesla has tried to turn its non-EV businesses to compensate for the diminution successful sales, and its Q4 and full-year net study (and its accompanying call) signaled a displacement beyond the persistent AI-robotics speech and toward action. For now, that enactment involves spending money, not making it. Musk repeatedly stressed that 2026 would beryllium a immense CapEx year, much than doubling spending to $20 billion, which would enactment them successful negative-cash-flow territory.

For instance, Musk announced that Tesla is ending accumulation of the Model S and Model X, which is much symbolic than material. Those 2 models correspond astir 2% of Tesla’s income volume, a constituent that Barclays expert Dan Levy besides makes successful his astir caller note. Still, it is simply a notable end-of-an-era infinitesimal for Tesla and the broader automotive industry, which was everlastingly changed erstwhile the Model S went connected merchantability successful 2012.

The much worldly determination is what Tesla plans to bash now.

Tesla plans to capable the accumulation void near by the Model S and X with its Optimus humanoid robots, which volition beryllium made astatine its Fremont, California, factory. Musk besides intends to standard Tesla’s robotaxi operations to much cities successful 2026 and adjacent floated the request for Tesla to physique a TerraFab mill to enactment up spot supply.

But the point that truly stood retired to maine — and a existent Elon Inc circular system woody — was Tesla’s program to put $2 cardinal into different Musk company, xAI, and signaled plans to much intimately align those 2 companies. Meanwhile, different outlets are reporting talks are underway to perchance merge (in immoderate combination) 3 of Musk’s companies: SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI.