Akio Toyoda Makes Delicate Dig At Elon Musk As Toyota Invests In Rockets

So, automotive firm executives: Who’s received the larger rocket?

A refined however apparent dig at Tesla CEO Elon Musk got here from none apart from Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda at CES 2025 yesterday, amid his keynote speech about the Woven Metropolis undertaking in Japan. That growth is a part of Toyota’s purpose of transitioning from being a standard automotive firm to at least one targeted on “producing mobility and happiness for all,” as officers put it. 

However as a part of Toyota’s branching out into new areas, it is also investing ¥7 billion ($44 million) into the Japanese personal spaceflight firm Interstellar Applied sciences Inc. That funding comes from the automaker’s know-how division, Woven by Toyota, and as Bloomberg confirmed, Toyota will achieve a seat on Interstellar Applied sciences’ board of administrators. The 2 corporations have been collaborating in different methods since 2020.

“We consider that by combining our strengths with these from completely different industries, we will create new merchandise and new providers we may by no means obtain on our personal,” Toyoda mentioned in his speech. “The sky is the restrict.”

As a part of that, “We’re exploring rockets as a result of the way forward for mobility should not be restricted to only earth,” Toyoda mentioned, “or only one automotive firm, for that matter.” 

Picture by: InsideEVs

Toyota Woven Metropolis Briefing, CES 2025

However even when Interstellar Applied sciences’ flights take off—actually and figuratively—it has an extended solution to go to match the presence of Musk’s SpaceX. Final yr, SpaceX carried out 134 rocket launches, an almost 40% improve from the yr prior. SpaceX has carried out extra orbital launches than the remainder of the world mixed and is now basically the go-to firm for rocket missions.

Nevertheless, the demand for personal house launches—together with efforts like satellite tv for pc launches and finally even exploration—is predicted to rise considerably within the coming years and many years. Nevertheless, whereas the U.S. and China paved the way in launches, different international locations like Japan path far behind. 

Picture by: Toyota

“In distinction, Japan carried out simply three launches (in 2023), highlighting the necessity for progress in home launch capability,” Interstellar Applied sciences mentioned in a information launch concerning the Toyota funding. Apart from capital, the house firm mentioned it is going to use Toyota’s manufacturing experience “to transition rocket manufacturing right into a high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable course of.”

For Toyota’s half, the funding in Interstellar Applied sciences represents extra strikes by its Woven R&D unit, $800 million Woven Capital progress fund and Toyota Ventures early-stage capital agency to do extra than simply automobiles. These have included investments in aerial taxi firm Joby, New York-based electrical rideshare and charging firm Revel and robotic supply firm Nuro. Quickly, it desires so as to add as many as 2,000 residents, together with “inventors” and startup workers, to work and reside in Woven Metropolis close to Mount Fuji. 

As Tesla has confirmed already, no automotive firm desires to simply be a automotive firm sooner or later. And perhaps if this Toyota funding goes properly sufficient, Musk could have a bit competitors on the market among the many stars. 

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