Elon Musk’s Tesla doubles down on China investment

Tesla is developing a plant in Shanghai to manufacture its Megapack battery as tensions grow between the U.S. and China, the company and its CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter Sunday.

This expansion is occurring as tensions between Washington, D.C. are rising and China experiences economic unpredictability, according to The Wall Street Journal. The “Megafactory” will be able to make 10,000 Megapacks each year, according to the official Tesla Twitter account, which will “supplement” production of Tesla’s Megapack plant in California, according to Musk’s quoted tweet.

These factors are leading to hesitancy from U.S. businesses considering new investments in China, according to the WSJ. Tesla already has a car factory in Shanghai that produces approximately 50% of its worldwide auto deliveries.

Tesla’s new factory is planning to begin production in the second quarter of 2024, Chinese outlet Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday, and each Megapack can hold sufficient energy to power an average of 3,600 homes for an hour, according to Tesla. China is the company’s second-largest market and made up almost 25% of the company’s revenue in 2022, according to the WSJ.

The Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the U.S. in February successfully collected information from American military sites, NBC reported last Monday.

China and the U.S. are also currently engaged in an AI (artificial intelligence) arms race. Chinese AI startups are striving to create their own versions of America’s OpenAI, The Information reported.

Beijing-based ByteDance is pushing a new social media app called Lemon8, which could be a potential national security risk due to Chinese law enabling the government to collect data from companies based there for national security purposes, according to CNBC. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, has reportedly used the popular video app to spy on American journalists in 2022, according to Forbes.

Tesla did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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