🚗 Tesla bets $1B on robots + Swiggy’s new ₹100 meal app

🌞 Good Morning, Chai Fam — Happy Tuesday!

The week has barely started, and the headlines are already overflowing. Swiggy wants to feed you budget-friendly thalis, Tesla is moonwalking into the robot age, and India’s tax portal is testing everyone’s patience (again). Buckle up — today’s brew is frothy, flavorful, and full of bite.

📰 Chai Shots

• 🧾 Tax deadline stretched (again!): For the second time, the government has pushed the ITR filing deadline for AY 2025–26 — this time to Sept 16. The cause? Portal meltdowns during peak filing hours, login failures, and even payments getting debited without challans.

• 🍲 Swiggy launches Toing for ₹100–₹150 meals: Swiggy is taking affordability seriously with Toing, its seventh standalone app, starting in Pune. Targeting students and early jobbers with tight budgets, the app will list eateries offering full meals at pocket-friendly prices. Unlike the main app’s ₹99 store, Toing aims to scale with a wider menu, directly competing with Rapido’s Ownly. With Swiggy’s user base already at 16.3M MTUs, this move is about pulling in the next wave of cost-conscious diners.

• 🚘 Mercedes-Benz CEO urges India to cut car tariffs: Ola Källenius, the global chief, says India’s auto ecosystem no longer needs tariff “protection.” Despite India selling 4.3M passenger vehicles last year, luxury cars barely crossed 51,000 units — just over 1% of the market.

• ⚡ Tesla bounces back with Musk’s $1B buy-in: Elon Musk scooped up 2.6M Tesla shares, his first purchase since 2020, signaling confidence just as investors were nervous about falling EV sales and BYD’s dominance. Shares jumped 5%, flipping Tesla positive for 2025. More in the Big Brew 👇

📊 Market Masala

• 📉 Sensex cools off after recent rally: The index dropped 119 points as traders locked in profits and waited for the U.S. Fed’s policy update later this week. Broader market sentiment stayed cautious, with investors balancing hopes of Fed rate cuts against fears of lingering inflation.

• 🏍️ Bike taxis get green light in Maharashtra: Ola, Uber, and Rapido have secured provisional licences under the state’s new Bike Taxi Rules 2025, finally bringing legitimacy to the service. Fares will start at ₹15 for 1.5 km and ₹10.27/km after, making it a cheaper rival to autos and kaali-peeli cabs. The catch? Operators must apply for permanent licences within a month, and fares will be reviewed annually.

• 🛒 GST Bachat Utsav kicks off Sept 22: The government has roped in e-commerce majors like Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, Zepto, Paytm, and Blinkit for a 100-day “GST Bachat Utsav”, where platforms must clearly show GST-linked discounts on invoices. The campaign is designed to spread awareness of GST 2.0 rate cuts across electronics, apparel, packaged food, and more — and it couldn’t come at a better time, with festive-season sales just around the corner.

• 🇮🇳🇺🇸 India–US trade talks reboot: After Trump’s 50% tariffs stalled discussions, negotiators are back at the table in Delhi. A U.S. team arrived Monday night, and both sides say they’re “not far apart.” The thaw follows warm public statements between Modi and Trump, raising hopes of a deal that could stabilize supply chains and give India leverage in global trade.

• 📈 Groww preps ₹80,000 Cr IPO: India’s biggest stockbroker will refile IPO papers this week, with a likely November debut. With FY25 profits tripling to ₹1,819 Cr and margins nearing 45%, Groww could list at a $6–8B valuation.

🌏 Global Masala

• 🚀 Alphabet joins the $3T club: Google’s parent hit a $3T market cap after shares surged 4%, thanks to a favorable antitrust ruling that spared Chrome and Android from being carved out. Investors also cheered Alphabet’s AI-powered Gemini models, YouTube’s monetization push, and 32% cloud revenue growth. It’s the fourth company after Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia to cross the mark — proof that Big Tech’s AI bets are reshaping valuations.

• 📱 TikTok deal framework struck: The U.S. and China have agreed on broad terms to shift TikTok’s U.S. unit into American-controlled ownership. Trump and Xi will finalize details on Friday, just before the Sept 17 divestment deadline. Potential buyers range from Oracle to Elon Musk, while ByteDance faces the choice of selling or being shut out of app stores.

☕ The Big Brew: Tesla’s Robot Dreams & Musk’s $1B Bet

Tesla has been fighting multiple headwinds this year — from losing market share to BYD, to U.S. tax credits drying up, to questions about Musk’s political distractions. But Musk’s $1B stock buy sent a loud message: he’s betting Tesla’s future lies far beyond EVs.

• 📈 Market boost: His 2.6M share purchase wiped Tesla’s year-to-date losses and added ~$50B to its market cap in one day.

• 🚖 Robotaxis on the road: Tesla’s self-driving cabs debuted in Austin in June and could soon test in Nevada. If scaled, this could rival Uber and Lyft while slashing Tesla’s reliance on traditional EV sales.

• 🤖 The Optimus push: Musk says humanoid robots could one day contribute 80% of Tesla’s value. Optimus is pitched as an all-purpose helper — from cooking to childcare — with Morgan Stanley estimating just 1% U.S. adoption could add $320B to Tesla’s valuation.

• 💰 Board’s mega pay plan: Tesla’s board has proposed a $1T compensation package for Musk tied to reaching a staggering $8.5T market cap over the next decade.

What does this mean?

Tesla is shifting its identity from a carmaker to a potential robotics and AI powerhouse. Musk’s buy-in reassures investors, but also sets sky-high expectations. If robotaxis and Optimus succeed, Tesla could redefine multiple industries; if not, it risks being seen as overpromising. Either way, the stakes — and the hype — have never been higher.

🚀 Startup Scoop

• 🤖 Pascal AI nets $3.1M: The Bengaluru startup, backed by Kalaari and Info Edge, is building autonomous investment research tools. Funds will support U.S. expansion and data partnerships, as demand for vertical AI in fintech accelerates.

• 🔮 MyNaksh secures ₹7.5 Cr: The AI astrology startup, backed by Eximius and Gemba, blends AI-driven personalization with human astrologers to offer subscription-based insights. It’s among the largest pre-seed rounds in India’s online astrology space.

• 🛺 MyPickup shuts down: Subscription-based EV startup MyPickup, backed by Inflection Point Ventures, closed after struggling with scale, product pivots, and funding gaps. At peak, it ran just 19 vehicles with ~100 subscribers.

🎲 Chai Break Trivia

🎲 Did you know The BSE Sensex is one of the oldest stock indexes in Asia, launched in 1986 with just 30 companies — some of which like Reliance and TCS are still part of it today. 📊🏛️

🔮 What’s Brewing Next

• 🍺 Carlsberg weighs India IPO: Danish brewer Carlsberg is exploring a listing of its India arm, inviting pitches from banks like BofA, Citi, and JPMorgan

☕ That’s a wrap for Tuesday!

From Swiggy’s budget experiment and Tesla’s humanoid hype to Groww’s blockbuster IPO plans, the day was packed with big swings across tech, startups, and policy. Stay sharp, sip slow, and we’ll be back tomorrow with another hot pour of business masala.