Tesla Files Trademark for Megapod Modular AI Data Center Hardware

Tesla has filed a trademark application for a product called "Megapod," signaling a potential move into selling modular AI data center hardware. The filing, serial number 99893717, was submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this month through Tesla's longtime intellectual property counsel.

The intent-to-use application describes Megapod as a complete, self-contained computing system for artificial intelligence workloads. It covers "modular data center hardware systems for artificial intelligence computing, comprised of computer servers, computer hardware for artificial intelligence data processing, networking equipment, power distribution units, and cooling systems."

What Megapod Includes

The trademark filing is unusually specific for an intent-to-use application. It also covers "self-contained modular computing hardware systems for artificial intelligence workloads" sold as a single integrated platform. That platform bundles compute, power distribution, and cooling into one enclosure, along with downloadable software to monitor, manage, and optimize the system.

• Servers and AI data processing hardware
• Networking equipment
• Power distribution units
• Cooling systems
• Management software for monitoring and optimization

Tesla's own AI training cluster, called Cortex at Gigafactory Texas, runs on roughly 67,000 Nvidia H100-equivalent GPUs. That makes Tesla a major Nvidia customer, not a merchant chip seller. The company has no existing merchant compute hardware business to build on.

Energy Storage as a Foundation

Where Tesla does have a real AI data center business is in power, not compute. Its Megapack and newer Megablock energy storage products are already selling into AI data centers as grid buffers. Elon Musk's own AI company, xAI, has bought roughly $1 billion of Megapacks to keep its training runs powered.

A Megapod that bundles Tesla's power electronics, thermal management, and the enclosure around the chips would sit adjacent to that existing energy storage business. The product would compete with Nvidia's liquid-cooled, rack-scale systems that simulate a giant GPU. But Tesla's offering would likely focus on the shell and infrastructure rather than the processors themselves.

The trademark is an intent-to-use application, meaning Tesla has not yet launched Megapod. The company is claiming the name for a product it plans to bring to market. Whether that product will include Tesla's own AI5 processor, currently manufactured by Samsung and TSMC, or rely on third-party chips remains unclear. For now, the filing signals that Tesla sees an opportunity in selling turnkey AI data center building blocks, leveraging its strengths in power and thermal management.