The new leader of the ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ or DOGE, thinks he can cut $2 trillion from the current $6.75T federal budget.
Elon Musk, now officially a “special government employee” serving the White House, also has a few other jobs. He’s CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, executive chairman and CTO of X Corp. (X, formerly known as Twitter), owner of Neuralink, and head of xAI, which produces the Grok AI-powered assistant. Don’t forget the Starlink satellite network, which is operated by SpaceX.
Musk has been known to be tough with employees on budget cuts, as has been experienced by Tesla factory workers who previously tried to unionize. When Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he laid off more than 6,000 employees — about 80% of the company’s staff.
He just had his fourth child with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, for a total of 14 who range in age from just born to twins Griffin and Vivian who were born in 2004; and whose mother is ex-wife Justine Wilson. Musk’s 4-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, often called Lil X, went to the White House with him on Feb. 11 to meet with the president, as you can see in the photo above.
How could he possibly find time to do all of it? For one thing, other executives have been running his companies for years and they work very long hours, as does Musk. Most recently, he’s been assembling a team to carry out duties at DOGE; and that number has ranged from 40 to 100, according to Musk’s comments.
Questions and concerns have been floating across the internet and in Washington, D.C., about whether Musk will be getting any special deals for his companies due to campaign donations (about $250 million) and playing a high-level role in the Trump administration. One controversy that recently surfaced was that Musk posted comments on X criticizing Verizon for subpar work on a new communications system for the Federal Aviation Administration. He pitched his Starlink tech service as at least a temporary solution, according to Politico.
As for the latest developments beyond cutting staff from federal agencies, here are a few interesting ones……………
Latest on robotaxis: Tesla applied late last year for a permit with California regulators to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service, similar to what Waymo has been doing in San Francisco and Los Angeles through its Waymo One app. The automaker currently has the approval to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in California, but this application that was submitted to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) late last year, is seeking a transportation charter-party carrier permit. The company’s still waiting for the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a permit for autonomous vehicle testing or operations, which would be needed for Tesla to offer a robotaxi service in California, according to Bloomberg news.
Musk in January said Tesla would begin offering “autonomous ride-hailing for money” in Austin this June. Musk showed off Tesla’s Cybercab concept last October, which could be used for driverless rides in California; and he turned down an offer recently from the Uber CEO to jointly operate a robotaxi service.
Tesla is very committed to rolling out it fully autonomous vehicles as soon as it gains regulatory approval from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, state governments, and any other necessary government agencies. That will continue to be the subject of scrutiny over whether any special favors are granted to Musk by the feds.
Financial performance: Tesla’s revenue grew to nearly $98.68 billion in 2024, a slight percentage increase from the previous year. Net income for 2024 was $7.1 billion, a 53% decline from 2023.
The company sold 1,789,226 vehicles in 2024, which was a 1.1% decrease from 2023, said Axios.com. In the fourth quarter, the automaker produced approximately 459,000 vehicles, delivered over 495,000 vehicles and deployed 11.0 GWh of energy storage products – a record for both deliveries and deployments, the company said.
The Tesla Model Y was the best-selling model in 2024, selling 1.09 million copies worldwide. The U.S. is Tesla’s largest sales market. Tesla sold 63,238 units of its electric cars in January in China, down 11.5% from the 71.447 cars sold in the same month last year. The futuristic Cybertruck was the best-selling electric pickup truck in the U.S. in 2024. However, sales were lower than expected due to the truck’s high price and slowing demand. Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks last year, and the average transaction price in September was $116,706.
What’s up with Starlink? SpaceX, a space launch provider which Musk led prior to starting up with Tesla, has been staying very active; one analyst puts SpaceX’s sales at $13.3 billion in 2024, a more than 50% increase over the previous year. Its Starlink satellite network has been doing very well as a source of low-cost internet services ending up in remote locations. The company hopes to have about 42,000 satellites out in orbit eventually; as of February, on astronomer reported tracking 7,086 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Musk is always offering solutions from Starlink — such as the Verizon offer. Starlink assisted Ukraine in its defense system communications earlier in its war with Russia. That will probably be placed on hold as Trump continues engaging in verbal battles with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Protesters come to SpaceX HQ: Hundreds of protestors with signs on Saturday said Musk was “undermining democracy” with his actions as an unelected official. That took place outside SpaceX’s corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., in the Los Angeles area. They had plenty to say about the world’s wealthiest man, and his new boss, President Trump. Protesters and others want to see if Musk and Trump can stay in agreement on key issues. Musk may not get what he wants from the Trump administration on carbon-free energy and anything that could support his EV sales and solar power, batteries, and energy storage.
(Editor’s note: The word out there is that Musk is not the wealthiest individual in the world — just the wealthiest of those reporting their income).
