Dave Hanson

Shifting narratives and the Terawatt distraction Elon Musk's latest ambitious project, the Terawatt chip building initiative, is generating significant buzz, but seasoned analysts view it as a tactical diversion. While Elon Musk frames this collaboration between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI as the most epic hardware project in history, the move appears to be a pivot away from immediate delivery failures. By planting seeds of an "imaginary future" involving a terawatt of annual AI compute—twice the current U.S. electricity market—the leadership creates a valuation narrative that is impossible to disprove in the short term. Optimus and Robo Taxi hit timing hurdles The fundamental issue for Tesla remains the gap between visionary promises and tangible execution. Internal reports suggest the Optimus robotics team is struggling, with skepticism mounting regarding the viability of a Version 3 prototype. Simultaneously, the Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Robo Taxi timelines remain opaque. As global competitors like Nvidia accelerate their own autonomous solutions, Tesla faces the very real risk of capturing a significantly smaller market share than previously anticipated. Platform decay and the xAI struggle The deterioration of the X platform—formerly Twitter—presents a cautionary tale for the broader ecosystem. Power users report a surge in fraud and impersonation scams, reflecting a management focus that has drifted. This lack of polish extends to xAI; despite the technical promise of its Grok chatbot, the venture is currently "falling flat" in terms of enterprise and consumer market share. Even Elon Musk has conceded that the platform requires a ground-up rework, a concerning admission for a company competing against established giants like OpenAI. Finding a cleaner path through SK Telecom For investors seeking AI exposure without the "noise" and execution risk of the Musk ecosystem, SK Telecom offers a compelling alternative. Through its strategic $100 million investment in Anthropic, SK Telecom provides a liquid, publicly traded vehicle to participate in the upcoming Anthropic IPO. This trade allows retail investors to sidestep the high fees and lock-up periods of private equity while maintaining high-conviction exposure to what many consider a more stable and focused AI leader.