Elon Musk's Companies Bought Nearly One in Five Cybertrucks Sold Last Quarter. He Called It Strong Demand.

AUSTIN, TEXAS — In the fourth quarter of 2025, Tesla's Cybertruck posted what the company described as a solid sales result. Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, characterized demand as 'strong.' Tesla's stock moved accordingly. What was not immediately clear was that nearly one in five of those Cybertrucks had been purchased by SpaceX — the rocket company Musk also owns.

According to registration data reviewed by Bloomberg and confirmed by Electrek, SpaceX acquired 1,279 Cybertrucks in Q4 2025, representing approximately 18 percent of the 7,071 units registered in the United States during that period. Musk's other ventures — including The Boring Company and X Corp — accounted for an additional 60 units. Combined, companies owned or controlled by Musk were responsible for roughly one in five Cybertruck sales during the quarter.

Musk called it strong demand.

Tesla did not dispute the numbers. A spokesperson for the company said demand was 'robust' and that fleet purchases represented a 'vote of confidence' in the vehicle. The spokesperson did not address a follow-up question about whether purchasing your own product constitutes consumer demand in any traditional sense. A second follow-up question was not returned.

Strip out the inter-company transactions and the picture changes considerably. The current annualized sales pace for Cybertrucks sold to people who do not work for Elon Musk is approximately 20,000 units. In 2021, Musk told investors to expect 250,000. He has since stopped mentioning that number in earnings calls.

Overall Cybertruck sales fell 48 percent year-over-year. The vehicle, which launched in late 2023 to substantial fanfare and a considerable waiting list, has struggled to find buyers willing to pay upward of $80,000 for a stainless steel pickup truck that cannot fit in a standard parking garage. A $59,990 dual-motor variant introduced in February — widely described as the first version of the vehicle that made financial sense — was discontinued after 10 days.

Musk and Trump, photographed together at Mar-a-Lago in early 2026. Critics note that one man is trying to stay on Earth indefinitely and the other appears to be making contingency plans.

The discontinuation was announced by Musk on X, the social media platform he also owns.

Employees at several SpaceX facilities confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that Cybertrucks began appearing in company parking lots in large numbers late last year. One employee described the situation as 'surreal.' A second said they had counted fourteen in a single row outside the Hawthorne, California headquarters. A third declined to comment but sent a photograph. The photograph showed a parking lot.

Musk, for his part, has remained publicly enthusiastic about the vehicle. He purchased one himself in March — a fact he announced on X — calling it 'the best truck ever made.' He did not mention that his other company had spent the previous quarter buying over a thousand of them.

A child operating a lemonade stand on Westheimer Road in Houston was asked, for context, whether purchasing your own lemonade counted as sales.

The child said it did not.

The child had also never promised investors 250,000 cups.

Musk, giving a thumbs up. The thumbs up was directed at the crowd. The Cybertruck behind him was purchased by SpaceX.

The sales numbers have prompted a separate, louder conversation among a growing circle of critics, economists, and at least one sitting senator who asked not to be named: what, exactly, is Musk building toward? The argument, stated plainly, is this — a man who owns the rockets, the satellites, the social media platform, the AI company, the tunneling company, the payment infrastructure, and now a meaningful slice of the federal government is not assembling a portfolio. He is assembling a jurisdiction.

'He's not trying to own space because he loves space,' one technology policy researcher said. 'He's trying to own space because space is the one place where no government, no regulator, no court order, and no angry electorate can follow him. It's not a dream. It's an exit strategy.'

Musk has dismissed such characterizations repeatedly, most recently on X, where he posted a rocket emoji followed by the words 'some people are just mad they didn't think of it first.' The post received 2.4 million likes. It is unclear how many of those accounts are also owned by Musk.