Musk is buying his own Tesla Cybertrucks
New registration data suggests Elon Musk’s own companies accounted for a substantial share of Tesla Cybertruck demand in late 2025. The move kept the factory busy, helped preserve an impression of momentum and, more sharply than ever, exposed the Cybertruck’s central problem: it grabs attention, but still has not built a genuine mass market.
According to S&P Global Mobility registration data, SpaceX bought 1,279 Cybertrucks in the fourth quarter of 2025, while Musk’s other companies added roughly 60 more. All told, that amounted to about 19 per cent of all Cybertrucks registered in the United States during the quarter. Total volume reached 7,071 vehicles.
When nearly a fifth of a model’s quarterly volume comes from companies controlled by the same owner, the market signal starts to blur. Sales may still be moving, but the quality of that demand becomes harder to trust, because outside customers are no longer carrying the load. That is exactly what several international reports have pointed out: without purchases from Musk’s own companies, Cybertruck registrations for the quarter would have fallen by more than 50 per cent.
From Tesla’s point of view, though, the logic is clear enough. The Cybertruck production line needs volume to avoid a sharp rise in unit costs, swelling inventory and further pressure on margins. If SpaceX, xAI or The Boring Company swap their support vehicles for Cybertrucks, Tesla secures three wins at once. The factory keeps running, stock levels fall and the market gets a signal that the model is still moving. SpaceX and Tesla are replacing parts of their support fleets with Cybertrucks, which makes these internal purchases look strategic rather than accidental.
At the same time, the move lays bare the Cybertruck’s positioning problem. Musk once forecast annual sales of 250,000 units for the model, but later sales and registration figures sit nowhere near that territory. Analysts and trade media have repeatedly pointed to the same obstacles: a high price, a design with obvious niche appeal, quality concerns and the simple fact that traditional pick up buyers still prefer more conservative options.
There are two clear takeaways for investors. First, Musk’s corporate empire has enough internal buying power to plug demand gaps in the short term. Second, the very existence of that strategy confirms that the Cybertruck has not become a self sustaining hit in the way the Model Y did at its peak. The distinction matters. A niche product builds brand effect, but a volume car builds profit effect. Right now, the Cybertruck delivers more of the first than the second.
Tesla is pushing ever harder towards artificial intelligence, robotaxis and humanoid robots, while the old measures of the car business still demand something less glamorous: steady demand, pricing power and efficient production. Insider sales of the Cybertruck may help a quarter’s numbers, but they do not answer the model’s core market question. The real strategic test is whether Tesla can turn the Cybertruck into a vehicle people buy outside Musk’s ecosystem with the same conviction as those inside it.
