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Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to break ground at the site of the electric vehicle maker's new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi on Monday.

Tesla plans to invest $375 million to build the facility on the Gulf coast that will help it secure a domestic supply of lithium hydroxide, a key ingredient used to make batteries for its electric vehicles, and its home- and utility-scale batteries.

Musk said that Tesla is aiming to produce enough battery-grade lithium at the refinery to manufacture one million vehicles per year, and to produce more lithium than the rest of North America's refining capacity combined there.

Mining company Albemarle announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in a new lithium processing facility in South Carolina in March.

According to filings with the Texas Comptroller's office, Tesla specifically plans to construct a "battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility," and other "facilities to support other types of battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing and ancillary manufacturing operations in support of Tesla's sustainable product line."

The company promised in its filings that "the process Tesla will use is innovative and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts compared to the conventional process."

On Monday, Musk claimed, "There's no toxic emissions or anything -- you could live right in the middle of the refinery and not suffer any ill effects."

Tesla's battery raw material and recycling leader, Turner Caldwell, said at the event that the company would find "beneficial use opportunities" for the byproduct of its lithium, which they expect to be mostly sand and limestone.

Typically, refining ore into battery-grade lithium requires an industrial process that includes crushing raw material, heating it at a high temperature, and mixing it in a slurry with acids. One of the acids used in lithium processing typically is hydrochloric acid, which is a hazardous air pollutant under the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Caldwell and Musk did not disclose the specific chemistry the company would rely upon for processing.

Last year in April, Musk said Tesla may need to get into lithium refiningbecause the cost of the metal had "gone to insane levels." Lithium prices have significantly declined since he made those remarks.

However, China still controls more than half of the world's lithium processing and refining capacity while the U.S. has recently controlled just 1%. Musk said the availability of battery-grade lithium was a "fundamental chokepoint" for the electric vehicle industry and others.

Governor Abbott, a Republican, praised Elon Musk as the greatest entrepreneur on Earth.

"Texas wants to be able to be self-reliant, not dependent upon any foreign hostile nation for what we need," he said.

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Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott break ground on Tesla lithium refinery - CNBC

Tesla, Inc. TSLA stock pulled back on Friday amid rumors that Elon Musk could give up the CEO role at the electric vehicle company.

What Happened: Musk rubbished the rumors and reiterated his commitment to Tesla. His comments came in response to a follower who tagged him and asked for confirmation to The Wall Street Journal that he isn't stepping down from Tesla.

See Also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks

For the unversed, the Journal carried a report that profiled Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, suggesting that he is the one calling the shots.

In reply, Musk said, "Obviously, bringing on Linda allows me to devote more time to Tesla, which is exactly what I will be doing!"

Musk was referring to handing over the reins of Twitter to Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal executive. This is widely expected to free up the tech entrepreneurs time so that he can focus on his other ventures, including Tesla.

When the billionaire confirmed in the late afternoon on Thursday, Tesla stock spiked higher. Friday's premarket movement in the stock also suggested strength. But as the WSJ report was quoted by other news sites and rumors spread around Musk easing out of the Tesla CEO role, the stock slid throughout the morning session on Friday and then went about a consolidation move at the depressed level in the afternoon.

Price Action: The stock ended Friday's session at $167.20, down 0.40%, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Check out more of Benzingas Future Of Mobility coverage byfollowing this link.

Read Next: Cathie Wood Unfazed By Autopilot Concerns, Calls Teslas FSD Most Impactful AI Project

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Tesla Investors, Relax! Elon Musk Says He Isn't Going Anywhere ... - Benzinga

Tesla, Inc. TSLA was hit with negative headlines on Friday, when reports revealed a massive recall of 1.1 million vehicles by Chinese regulators.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said that the recall was issued in response to a problem preventing drivers from choosing the regenerative braking system and the lack of a warning when the accelerator pedal is pressed hard for a long time.

According to the agency, both issues increase the risk of collision and pose a safety hazard.

SAMR also said in its release that Tesla China intends to execute over-the-air upgrades to resolve the recalled vehicles issues.

Media coverage of the recall has since appeared to enrage Tesla fans and, even, disappoint CEO Elon Musk.

On Friday, a Tesla influencer tweeted a Community Note or a note that Twitter contributors can leave on any tweet that called out a Bloomberg tweet on Tesla's response to the "recall. The note said that there was no physical recall involved and that the recall itself would be an over-the-air software update.

See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock

Musk replied to the influencers tweet, saying, "When will they learn sigh."

In response, the influencer said outlets would learn as soon as the "clickbait stops working."

Read Next: Will Elon Musk Heed This One Advice From Warren Buffett In An Effort To Lift Teslas Sagging Stock? If You Could Buy Dollar Bills For 80 Cents

Tesla closed Fridays session down 2.38% at $167.98, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Check out more of Benzingas Future Of Mobility coverage byfollowing this link.

Photo: NVIDIA Corporation via flickr

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Elon Musk Reacts To Media Coverage Of 1.1M Tesla China Recall ... - Benzinga

JPMorgan global market strategist Jack Manley and The Fitz-Gerald Group principal Keith Fitz-Gerald discuss Tesla's investor day and if now is the time for investors to get off the sidelines on 'The Claman Countdown.'

Billionaire Elon Musk slammed Meta's WhatsApp Messenger on Tuesday, saying the messenger "cannot be trusted."

The Twitter chief was responding to a Saturday tweet from the social media company's director of engineering Foad Dabiri.

"WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6 a.m. (and that's just a part of the timeline!) What's going on?" Dabiri tweeted, later noting for one user that he has a Google Pixel 7 Pro.

Musk initially replied that it was "weird," but retweeted the post two days later.

ELON MUSK MOCKS VICE PRESIDENT'S AI ROLE: 'MAYBE SOMEONE WHO CAN FIX THEIR OWN WIFI ROUTER'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk departs court in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2023. (Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"WhatsApp cannot be trusted," he said in a quote tweet.

WhatsApp did not respond to Musk directly, but did reply to Dabiri on Twitter. Meta pointed FOX Business to a series of tweets.

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"Over the last 24 hours weve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp. We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate," it said.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Signage outside Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on April 20, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"Users have full control over their mic settings. Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them," WhatsApp added.

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Meta also pointed to a tweet from WABetaInfo, an account that provides news and real-time updates about WhatsApp.

WABetaInfo said it had previously reported that "this is a false positive from the OS, and some users told it happened after a certain patch some other apps may experience the same issue."

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Elon Musk slams Meta's WhatsApp: 'Cannot be trusted' - Fox Business

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has spoken about details of his garage meeting with one of the worlds richest people, Elon Musk, at the Miami Grand Prix last weekend.

Musks early investment into all-electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla helped propel him to becoming one of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as put him at the forefront of electrification in road cars.

Musk was spotted speaking to the Red Bull team boss across the weekend in Miami as he visited the Formula 1 paddock, and Horner explained that he even challenged the reigning World Champions to a race in one of his electric cars, though there was something of a stumbling block to that being able to take place.

Well, it was great to see him coming to a Formula 1 race and embracing the combustion engine again, Horner quipped while in conversation with the Financial Times.

I think he was very impressed with the technology. Obviously, an incredibly bright guy, wanted to know all about the battery and so on, and the power and the output of the car, and then threw down the gauntlet of wanting to race us with one of his electrical vehicles but then realised that they could only do half the race.

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Musk was not the only billionaire present in the paddock last weekend, with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos also spotted on the McLaren pit wall in Miami.

But while Formula 1 has grown exponentially in recent seasons under the ownership of Liberty Media, Musk and Bezos would count themselves among the very few people who would be able to bid for an outright takeover of the sport if they should ever wish to.

While that is not on the cards at this moment in time, Horner explained the connection the Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter boss had with the sport, and believes attracting some kind of investment from him in future would only be of benefit to the sport.

Well, hes a partner with Larry Ellison from Oracle, who is our title partner, and its always great to meet people like that, Horner said. Theyre so involved in the tech and so forward thinking as well.

Formula 1 has a big regulation change in 2026 where the battery becomes ever more pertinent, and so it would obviously be great to attract talent like that to come and invest in Formula 1.

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Elon Musk reveals F1 interest to Christian Horner with Miami meeting - Planet F1