The Financial Times recently reported that Tesla had talks with Glencore about taking a stake in the Swiss mining giant. It seems that Tesla and Glencore held some sort of discussions starting as early as last year. Discussions apparently continued until March this year when Glencore’s chief executive Gary Eagle visited Tesla’s Fremont Factory.
According to the FT, Tesla supposedly planned to buy a minority equity stake of 10% to 20% in Glencore but both parties were unable to reach an agreement. Tesla had concerns over Glencore’s coal mining business which conflicted with the EV manufacturer’s environmental goals.
However, at an investor's conference today in New York, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla "never contemplated investing in Glencore." It's not clear what led the FT to think that Tesla was considering investing in Glencore, but there may have been conversations between Tesla and Glencore as Tesla tries to secure mining materials.
Glencore does plan to align itself with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and shrinking its coal portfolio over time.
Glencore is the world’s largest trading house and producer of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia, and Canada. A few years ago, Tesla secured a cobalt offtake agreement with the Swiss mining giant for Giga Shanghai and Giga Berlin.
Will Tesla invest in mining?
Although talks between Tesla and Glencore did not lead to Tesla considering an investment in the mining giant, the discussions hint that Tesla is interested in what's happening in the mining industry.
Elon has said in the past that he prefers not to enter the mining industry, although Tesla will if they have to. Mining could become more of a constraint as Tesla increases vehicle production and scales the 4680 battery assembly line.
At the Q3 2022 earnings call, Elon was asked about vertically integrating into mining, and he responded:
“We’ll do whatever we have to. Whatever the limiting factor is, we’ll do. We do not artificially constrain ourselves. We don’t vertically integrate just for the hell of vertically integrating,” Elon Musk replied to Jonas.
“Like if there was a great supplier who’s better than us or we think is at least very good, or even where the economics of comparative advantage suggests that we should use that supplier, even if we could beat them, but we could use our resources to do something else that will be more productive, then we would in source in that case. But if we have to go mine, we will mine,” Musk explained.
The rise of EVs has caused many carmakers to become more involved in the mining industry to secure raw materials such as cobalt, lithium and nickel that are needed to manufacture batteries.
These types of discussions will likely continue as the need for such raw materials increases. It is possible that Tesla's Master Plan Part 3 will involve the acquisition of a mining company so that Tesla can “scale to extreme size to shift humanity away from fossil fuels.”
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Tesla’s recent focus on expanding and vertically integrating its battery production is beginning to take global steps, starting with a battery recycling and service center in South Australia. In Marion, a suburb of Adelaide, the council recently voted in favor of a proposal that would see contaminated public land developed and leased to Tesla.
The move promises local jobs and environmental remediation but has garnered a lot of public debate focused on Elon’s moves outside his role as CEO.
The proposal involves a site that’s currently unusable for recreation due to chemical contamination. A local developer plans to acquire and remediate the land, constructing a new facility specifically for Tesla. This site would reportedly serve two purposes: recycling old lithium-ion batteries and serving as a Tesla Service Center.
Tesla’s Commitment to Recycling
Tesla recently announced its intention to ramp up its battery recycling and repurposing efforts. During the Q1 2025 Earnings Call, Tesla’s executives highlighted substantial progress. Tesla had recycled enough materials in Q1 2025 to build approximately 21,000 Model Y RWD vehicles, representing a 136% year-over-year increase from Q1 2024.
Dedicated regional hubs like this one would be a logical next step in expanding the recycling loop and furthering Tesla’s vertical integration while also reducing its reliance on new materials. In addition, local sources also mentioned that Tesla could be repurposing older lithium-ion batteries for other purposes, including their inclusion in stationary battery storage systems like Powerwall or Megapack.
Of course, the facility also has major benefits for the local community, including creating around 100 local jobs, as well as injecting approximately $56 million into the local economy. Further, developing the contaminated land as a renewable facility is one of the safest ways to use the land that’s been sealed off from the public for nearly a decade.
Elon’s Image
The proposal isn’t without its critics. Local opposition was voiced during community consultations, with most of the negative sentiment directed towards Elon rather than the facility itself. Despite these complaints, the local council elected to proceed, arguing that tangible economic and environmental benefits far outweigh any perceived geopolitical or symbolic harm that shutting down the project could cause.
With the council’s endorsement on record, the proposal now moves to the South Australian state government for approvals regarding the change in land classification.
Tesla’s software updates often hide some undocumented features alongside the official release notes, and software update 2025.20 is no exception. With this update, Tesla has introduced a welcome quality-of-life improvement for the in-vehicle Dashcam Viewer. Users now have the ability to select and delete multiple clips at once (thanks, Max!). However, this addition is limited to the updated Dashcam Viewer for Ryzen-based vehicles.
While it may seem a small change, if you wanted to clear out your Dashcam clips, you’d have to either delete them one by one in the vehicle or remove your Dashcam USB drive and take it to a computer to erase all the clips at once. For those who frequently see Sentry Mode notifications or often record clips with their Dashcam, this is a useful addition.
This feature is currently limited to vehicles that have received the updated Dashcam viewer - which means vehicles equipped with AMD Ryzen processors (how to tell if you have Intel or AMD). This includes all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with AMD Ryzen, as well as the 2021+ Model S and Model X vehicles.
Unfortunately, since the Cybertruck does not yet have access to the updated Dashcam viewer or support for the additional two cameras in Sentry Mode, it has not received this feature yet either.
This undocumented feature is a very welcomed addition for many users who carefully manage their Dashcam and Sentry Mode videos.
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