Elon Musk Says, “I Initiated The Dozen Or So Startups That Constitute Tesla With An X Post. Tesla has Made Very Few Acquisitions. Our Growth is ~90% Organic”

Elon Musk has pointed out how he launched some of Tesla's biggest projects with a simple online post.

Announcing a major project that will cost billions of dollars on Twitter (now X) might not seem very serious at first glance; however, Musk shares that his tweets have actually played a significant role in shaping some of Tesla's biggest initiatives.

Musk shared this fact in response to Tesla investor Whole Mars Catalog, who reposted a 2015 tweet from Elon Musk about launching the full self-driving program.

At the time Musk wrote…

“Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact [email protected].”

Fast forward a decade, and now much of Tesla’s $1.4 trillion valuation is based on the autonomy effort and that simple tweet from November 2015.

However, Musk says not only did he start the FSD program on X, but he also staffed his autopilot team directly from Twitter.

Tesla’s current head of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, was the first person to respond to Elon Musk’s tweet announcing the autopilot team, and Musk says he hired him directly from Twitter.

Musk also adds that it’s not only the FSD program that has been started and staffed on X, but that many of Tesla’s major projects were similarly initiated online.

Musk writes…

“A tweet/post is how I initiated the dozen or so startups that constitute Tesla.

Tesla has made very few acquisitions. Our growth is ~90% organic.

We didn’t ‘play to our core strengths,’ we created core strengths from nothing.”

Here, Musk shares his long-held belief that Tesla is not a single company but a conglomeration of about a dozen startups.

Tesla Startups

Tesla is currently the most vertically integrated automaker in the world. Unlike many legacy automakers, Tesla not only assembles cars but also produces many of the 10,000-plus components that go into a vehicle.

The biggest of these Tesla startups is the full self-driving effort. Unlike most automakers, Tesla has a large and talented artificial intelligence team.

This team is composed of some of the brightest minds in AI and is based in Silicon Valley at Tesla’s engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

This is already impressive; however, similar to Apple, Google, and Samsung, Tesla also builds its own AI hardware in-house.

Tesla’s AI hardware team was led by people like Jim Keller, who has worked at AMD and Apple and contributed to major breakthroughs in microprocessors, including 64-bit processing in the x86 architecture.

Tesla also had individuals like Pete Bannon, who helped design Apple’s A-series processors for iPhones, later evolving into the M-series processors for other Apple products like the MacBook and iPad.

Tesla Battery

Unlike most EV makers, Tesla not only manufactures its battery packs in-house but also produces its own 4680 cells from scratch.

If that wasn’t enough, Tesla also refines its own lithium and has proprietary nickel-based cathodes and silicon-based anodes.

This means Tesla manages the whole process from mining to refining, cell production, testing, and pack assembly.

All of this is very exciting; however, one caveat is that Tesla’s supposedly revolutionary 4680 cells have fallen short of the company’s lofty goals.

Tesla has yet to incorporate key breakthroughs into the 4680 cells, including pure nickel (cobalt-free) cathodes, silicon anodes, and the tabless design.

Tesla Powertrain & Vehicle Controls

Tesla, similar to batteries, AI computers, and software, largely designs and produces its powertrain and vehicle controls internally.

This approach ensures that every part of the vehicle—such as seats, lights, windows, and doors—is managed by a single, unified system rather than multiple firmwares from various suppliers. Tesla retains complete control over this "brain."

This configuration enables Tesla to easily roll out over-the-air updates, allowing for vehicle improvements even after purchase.

Overall, Elon Musk seems happy to have built a vertically integrated company with various capabilities; however, it is now time for these dozen-plus startups to start showing results.

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For more information, check out: Tesla Cybertruck Owners Are Reporting Vandalism Incidents Involving ‘Invisible Paint,’ But It Turns Out to Be a Factory Defect

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.