Stories by Sarah Lee-Jones

SpaceXAI is giving creators a new way to earn rewards from custom Grok Bots, with a limited pilot program now tying payments to Bot usage. X Corp's Grok Bot Template Rewards Pilot Program Terms, effective September 25, 2026, outline a system that provides discretionary payments to creators whose public Bot templates drive user activity. The...

Grok Bots are moving from separate services toward a shared XChat experience as SpaceXAI and X continue testing a connection between Grok products. X's Chris Park confirmed the news by quote-posting the report from @blankspeaker, whose profile bio identifies them as SpaceXAI's Grok Community Mod. Park replied "True," adding "Grok Bot to XChat coming soon."...

A future Super Heavy booster could fly with fewer grid fins as SpaceX continues refining its Starship hardware. Elon Musk said on September 25, 2026 that the company "might be able to reduce to 2 grid fins and use S-turns for the third axis of control." The comment came in a reply to SpaceX commentator...

Elon Musk has revealed the scale of SpaceXAI's computing ambitions, outlining a Colossus expansion that could reach 1.44 million GPUs by the end of December. Musk said Thursday that Colossus 1 operates with 150,000 H100, 50,000 H200 and 30,000 GB200 chips, while Colossus 2 contains 110,000 GB200 and 440,000 GB300 chips. He added that another...

China's electric vehicle price war is cooling into autumn, with Tesla adjusting its incentives. The discounts will continue into October, but the Model Y reduction is becoming smaller. Tesla China has extended its limited-time tail-payment discount on the Model 3 and Model Y through October 31, 2026, according to the company's official promotions page. The...

Starlink will double peak download speeds for maritime customers using its $2,000 Performance Gen 3 terminal by the end of December, bringing shipboard throughput close to 1 Gbps. The speed increase was revealed in a message Starlink sent to enterprise customers Thursday morning. The company said maritime users on Performance Gen 3 hardware will receive...

After nine years of delays since its 2017 reveal, Tesla's Class 8 electric truck finally has a dedicated factory. On Thursday night in Sparks, Nevada, the Semi moved from pilot builds to high-volume production. Tesla announced that the Semi has entered high-volume production at its first dedicated Semi factory, a 1.8-million-square-foot plant in Sparks designed...

Three flags, one Dragon, and an International Space Station waiting for its next crew. NASA is already planning the next chapter of its long-running partnership with SpaceX. The announcement came Thursday, when NASA named the four astronauts who will fly the SpaceX Crew-14 mission to the International Space Station, with liftoff targeted no earlier than...

Prime Minister Mark Carney told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that Canada will reduce its reliance on Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, saying, "Starlink, we will diversify away from, no question." The prime minister described the move as part of a broader effort to reduce Canada's...

Elon Musk said Wednesday that SpaceXAI's Grok @Bot is getting a major set of new features, including voice calls, a 1Password vault, inline forms and inline drafts for email and Slack. Grok @Bot is SpaceXAI's assistant that lives inside X, where anyone can summon it from posts and direct messages to answer questions, draft text...

Airtel Uganda has launched Airtel Starlink, a satellite connectivity service designed to keep phones connected outside the reach of traditional cell towers. Announced in a post on X on September 24, the service is available to customers who opt in through the MyAirtel App, with 30 days free until October 23. The carrier describes Airtel...

Belgian road-safety group Johanna.be says Tesla's Full Self-Driving software exceeded speed limits throughout much of its three-day test program around Brussels, violating local rules in 55% of the 30 km/h road segments it examined. The group tested FSD Supervised across roughly 400 kilometres of Belgian roads in July, with a focus on 30 km/h zones,...

Elon Musk says SpaceX will reach "pole position" in AI within about six months if its current pace of development continues, pushing back against a critic who claimed the company had already fallen behind in the AI race. The exchange took place Thursday morning after Musk said he was "cautiously optimistic" that SpaceX will have...

Elon Musk called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "great leader" in interviews with Chinese state media Wednesday, one day before he is expected to join tech executives at a White House state dinner for Xi and President Donald Trump. Speaking to CGTN, Musk said China had "prospered immensely" under Xi's tenure, adding that he had...

SpaceX said Wednesday it is targeting Monday, September 28 for the launch of Starship Flight 14, the first company-confirmed date for a mission expected to make the program's first orbital attempt. The target date follows a fast-moving campaign at Starbase. SpaceX rolled Booster 21 out to the launch pad, and Ship 41 has since been...