Musk reportedly shuttered Starlink in Ukraine to aid Russia

The Starlink map with Ukraine is displayed on a mobile phone (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A new bombshell report reveals that Elon Musk personally intervened to prevent the Armed Forces of Ukraine from accessing SpaceX's Starlink internet service during a major counteroffensive in September 2022. The AFU has relied on Starlink for battlefield communications since the early days of the Russian invasion.

From Reuters:

According to three people familiar with the command, Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of SpaceX, the Musk venture that controls Starlink, to cut coverage in areas including Kherson, a strategic region north of the Black Sea that Ukraine was trying to reclaim.

“We have to do this,” Michael Nicolls, the Starlink engineer, told colleagues upon receiving the order, one of these people said. Staffers complied, the three people told Reuters, deactivating at least a hundred Starlink terminals, their hexagon-shaped cells going dark on an internal map of the company’s coverage. The move also affected other areas seized by Russia, including some of Donetsk province further east.

Upon Musk’s order, Ukrainian troops suddenly faced a communications blackout, according to a Ukrainian military official, an advisor to the armed forces, and two others who experienced Starlink failure near the front lines. Soldiers panicked, drones surveilling Russian forces went dark, and long-range artillery units, reliant on Starlink to aim their fire, struggled to hit targets.

As a result, the Ukrainian military official and the military advisor said, troops failed to surround a Russian position in the town of Beryslav, east of Kherson, the administrative center of the region of the same name. “The encirclement stalled entirely,” said the military official in an interview. “It failed.”

While SpaceX denied Reuters' reporting, calling it "inaccurate," the company did not take issue with any of the story's particulars.

It isn't clear why Musk had the Starlink connection interrupted. But it may have had something to do with his fear that Vladimir Putin would initiate nuclear armageddon if he felt threatened by Russian losses on the battlefield.

If this story sounds familiar, that's because Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson, wrote in 2023 that the billionaire cited similar fears when he shut off Starlink to prevent Ukrainian drones from striking Russian naval assets near Crimea. However, Isaacson later corrected his telling of that incident, writing, "The Ukrainians THOUGHT [Starlink] coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that [the attack] would cause a major war."

The Reuters report also found that the British Armed Forces uses Starlink for "welfare purposes," e.g., allowing soldiers to communicate remotely with loved ones, while the Spanish Navy provides the service to sailors for recreation.

In other SpaceX news:

• As an incentive from SpaceX in its deal to land Falcon 9 rocket boosters in the Bahamas, Reuters found that the company offered to equip the Bahamian navy with free Starlink terminals. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force only has about a dozen ships, so the offer wasn't exactly extravagant. In any case, the deal was suspended in April after an unrelated SpaceX Starship rocket exploded over the island nation. "While no toxic materials were detected and no significant environmental impact was reported, the incident prompted a reevaluation of our engagement with SpaceX," the Civil Aviation Authority of the Bahamas said.

• Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to pay a fee to SpaceX to break its $68 million contract for Starlink internet service. The amount of the cancellation fee is unclear, but a government spokesperson told Global News that it was substantially less than the value of the contract.

• A former SpaceX supervisor, Robert Markert, is suing the company in federal court for alleged safety violations. Markert, who led a rocket retrieval team, claimed that SpaceX's aggressive and economical launch schedule led to overworked technicians and understaffed crews.

• Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan called on Musk to prevent criminal gangs from using Starlink to operate online scam compounds based in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Scam centers in the region are often run on slave labor.

• SpaceX said the global Starlink outage last week was caused by a network upgrade.

Boring Company agrees to build a 10-mile tunnel in Nashville

The Boring Company (TBC), Musk's struggling tunneling and transit startup, plans to build a 10-mile-long "innovative underground Loop system" connecting Nashville International Airport with the city's downtown area and convention center. A press release from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announcing the "Music City Loop" said it will be built "at zero cost to taxpayers." Instead, the project will be funded by TBC and its undisclosed "private partners," allowing the company to own and operate the tunnel system.

The goal of the Nashville project is to ensure a "transit time of approximately 8 minutes, utilizing underground tunnels beneath state-owned roadways," according to the governor's office. "The Boring Company intends to begin construction immediately following the approvals process, with the first segment of the Loop system expected to be operational as early as fall of 2026."

While Tesla was not mentioned by name, the announcement stated that passengers will be transported using zero-emission vehicles. In Las Vegas, where TBC operates its only commercial enterprise, Teslas are used to transport passengers through narrow concrete tunnels. The Vegas Loop was also primarily funded by TBC, which purports to have completed 3 million rides thus far. Despite beginning construction of the Vegas Loop in 2019, TBC has completed just four miles of functional tunnels. TBC has also faced numerous fines for environmental and safety violations in Nevada and Texas.

Tennessee's U.S. senators, both Republicans, have praised the Nashville project, along with U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who said it will "help usher in a golden age of transportation."

However, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell, a Democrat, told CNBC that he has "a number of operational questions to understand the potential impacts" of the project. Despite these concerns, a "no cost/mutual benefit" lease agreement between the state and TBC was unanimously approved on Thursday following an emergency meeting.

TBC has previously explored projects with cities and states across the U.S. that failed to materialize, including in Chicago, the D.C.-Maryland area, and Los Angeles.

Tesla signs major procurement deals with LG and Samsung

In a move meant to insulate Tesla's North American manufacturing from the U.S.-China trade war, the company agreed to a three-year, $4.3 billion deal to procure batteries from LG Energy Solution (LGES). The deal, first reported by Reuters, will supply lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for Tesla Energy, which builds energy storage products for home and industrial use. While LG is a South Korean company, the LFP batteries supplied to Tesla will be sourced from a newly operational LGES factory in Michigan.

Tesla has previously said that the Trump administration's tariffs have had an "outsized" impact on Tesla Energy, as the division imports its LFP batteries from China. Chinese manufacturers produce the vast majority of LFP batteries.

Separately, Musk announced on X Monday that Tesla had agreed to $16.5 billion deal with Samsung to source chips that power its driver-assistance products. "Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency," wrote Musk, who noted that the chips will be built at the Samsung factory near Austin, Texas. "This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house."

The deal is for Tesla's AI6 chips, which could be years away from production. Samsung is currently building AI4 chips for Tesla. For its next-generation AI5 chips, the automaker plans to start sourcing them from Taiwan Semiconductor by the end of next year. The AI6 chips, meanwhile, are not expected to enter production until 2027 or 2028, per analyst predictions.

Tesla launches California ride-hailing service with human drivers

On Thursday, Tesla launched a new ride-hailing service in the Bay Area. But unlike its demonstration in Austin, Texas, Tesla has been careful not to market the service under its Robotaxi brand following warnings from state regulators. The company lacks the permits necessary to operate an autonomous car service in California, with or without safety drivers in its vehicles.

However, that hasn't stopped Musk from equating Tesla's Bay Area service with the Robotaxi brand.

"You can now ride-hail a Tesla in the SF Bay Area, in addition to Austin," he wrote on X. Musk also shared a post from one Tesla fan saying they had experienced "My first Tesla Robotaxi ride in the Bay Area, CA!"

The fan was among an undisclosed number of invitees that Tesla has asked to join its commercial ride-hailing demonstration in the Bay Area. The demonstration requires a human driver with both of their hands on the steering wheel while Tesla's Full Self-Driving Supervised software is engaged. (Despite what the software's name suggests, Full-Self Driving requires full human engagement.)

In Austin, Tesla's so-called Robotaxi service features a "safety monitor" seated in the front passenger seat who can take over the car at any time, while human teleoperators also have the ability to control the vehicle. But in California, the company is only authorized to run a traditional transportation service.

In more Tesla news:

• Tesla is not on pace to meet Musk's self-imposed goal of producing 5,000 Optimus robots by the end of the year, according to an in-depth investigation of the project by The Information.

• CNN found that contractors in Texas have filed liens worth more than $110 million against Tesla over the last five years. Tesla and SpaceX have a lengthy history of failing to pay contractors.

• Following a plunge in demand, Tesla is no longer taking orders for its Model S and Model X luxury vehicles in Europe.

• Tesla said that the first builds of its upcoming "affordable" model, a stripped-down variant of the Model Y platform, were produced in June.

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Musk Minutes

On X, Musk shared a post from another user that stated, "Women are built to be traded to another tribe (or captured) and slide seamlessly into their new culture. That keeps them safe, even though they are physically weak. 20 years after they are captured, they are the matriarchs who enforce that culture. That is why women conform to the dominant culture, and thereby amplify that culture. IMO, that is why Western women, raised in anti-white culture, are now amplifying anti-white culture, even though they are white. They think that keeps them safe, and they are correct, but only in the sort [sic] term. In the long term, they will be forced to remember they are white. Better they are reminded of that by white men, because the alternative is not so gentle." Musk reposted the misogynistic screed shortly after he wrote that liberal white women have been "programmed" to hate other white people "by their teachers and the media." (X)

XAI plans to release a feature that would allow Grok users to generate videos, including explicit content. "Create instant videos with sound from text prompts. Download the standalone Grok app, subscribe to SuperGrok, and join the waitlist for early access in October," an official xAI account on X wrote. Mati Roy, an xAI employee, said in a post that "Grok Imagine videos have a spicy mode that can do nudity." Roy's since-deleted post included a photo of a half-naked woman. (NBC News)

XAI said that it will sign onto a voluntary artificial intelligence safety chapter put forward by the European Union's code of practice. "XAI supports AI safety and will be signing the EU AI Act’s Code of Practice Chapter on Safety and Security," the company said on X. "While the AI Act and the Code have a portion that promotes AI safety, its other parts contain requirements that are profoundly detrimental to innovation and its copyright provisions are clearly over-reach." (Reuters)

In a review of the Tesla Diner, Rolling Stone's Miles Klee shared several interesting details about the hybrid charging lot, drive-in theater, and restaurant that Musk launched in Los Angeles last week. Apparently, the Optimus robots serving popcorn to customers are operated remotely by humans. The detail casts doubt on Musk's prediction that the humanoids will be able to deliver food to parked customers by next year. As for the theater aspect, the vast majority of parking spots do not face the two outdoor screens, making the drive-in element largely moot. Also, the celebrity chef behind the diner's menu, Eric Greenspan, helped create the controversial MrBeast Burger and was a pioneer in the world of app-based food delivery "ghost kitchens." (Rolling Stone)

In other Tesla Diner news, TMZ reported that an outdoor patio covering became untethered and struck a woman who was eating at the restaurant, causing her to lose consciousness briefly. The woman's husband said they plan to sue Tesla. (TMZ)

Neuralink, Musk's brain implant company, is joining a clinical trial sponsored by the University of California at Santa Barbara to "address fundamental questions that will allow the development of a Smart Bionic Eye." It's unclear how Neuralink will help the research, but a description of the trial states that the company's patients will join the trial when available. Neuralink is also developing a brain implant meant to restore vision in people who are blind. (Bloomberg)