Elon Musk says a lot of things that can upend the shares of any number of companies.
He did it again recently. But he wasn't talking about AI, power generation, and turbine blades. He was talking about rare earth metals.
Rare earths are a group of more than a dozen elements that aren't exactly rare, but they are difficult to process. Small amounts end up in everything from iPhones to fighter jets to electric vehicles, making them what UBS has called the spice of manufacturing.
Over the years, the Chinese have grown dominant in rare earth mining and production, using near-monopoly power to put other producers, including those in the U.S., out of business. China has also used its rare earth dominance as a geopolitical tool, which prompted the Trump administration to invest in domestic rare earth production.
The administration's July 2025 deal with MP Materials, the largest rare earth producer in the Western Hemisphere, included equity for expansion, a Chinese-proof price floor, and a guaranteed customer. It was a turning point for the U.S. rare earth industry.
Ensuring domestic supply is one way to break the Chinese rare earth stranglehold. Another way is to use less rare earth materials. That is one strategy Tesla is employing.
"The Cybercab motor uses no rare earth metals, but maintains the same range!" Musk tweeted on Thursday. "This was extremely hard to achieve."
It was hard to achieve mainly because rare earth magnets are better than the alternatives. Better, in this instance, translates into more miles per battery, which is a very important metric for EVs.
Musk tweeted that in conjunction with the launch of the Cybercab, Tesla's purpose-built robo-taxi, into its self-driving taxi fleet in Austin, Texas. It was a big, although uncharacteristically low-key, event for the company. Bullish investors and Wall Street believe AI-trained robo-taxis will one day be a trillion-dollar business for Tesla. (Bearish investors don't doubt that robo-taxis will work. They believe robo-taxi technology will be an automotive commodity, like air bags or adaptive cruise control.)
Bullish and bearish investors have been waiting for months for Tesla's robo-taxi business, launched in June 2025, to grow. Cybercab, which Tesla started producing earlier in 2026, is part of that process. It was a big deal. Still, Tesla chose not to livestream the introduction, and Musk, as he does at many Tesla events, didn't address investors directly.
As for MP, investors might have expected the stock to sell off on the revelation that the Cybercab's electric motor doesn't use rare earth magnets. (Magnets account for a majority of rare earth demand.)
It didn't. Shares rose on Friday and were up another 2.9% at $56.23 in midday trading on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 was down 0.5%.
It may be an instance of a circumspect approach by investors. That's rare. Shares of casting companies Howmet Aerospace and DPC fell recently after Musk suggested SpaceX would get into the casting business.
(Both stocks remain below pre-Musk comment levels.)
Musk believes power generation is a key bottleneck for AI growth. Power generation needs turbines, and turbines need highly engineered blades, many of which are cast, which means a liquid metal is poured into a mold. It sounds easy, but turbine blades are some of the most difficult parts U.S. industry makes.
Musk's comments mean the industry could have a new competitor. It also means that Musk sees high demand and high pricing for blades for years. Maybe that's how rare earth investors choose to read the tweet. Tesla is using less rare earth metals because it knows prices will be high as demand rises in the coming years.
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