Connect with us

Lifestyle

Who Wears Short Shorts: David Einhorn’s Ghost Hunt for Tesla’s Weakness

Credit: Twitter | David Einhorn

Published

on

Death, Taxes, and David Einhorn complaining about Tesla being successful.

Those are the three certainties in life. And like clockwork, after Tesla announced yet another successful quarter in the books yesterday during its Q1 2020 Earnings Call, Einhorn was right there trying to accuse Elon Musk or Zachary Kirkhorn of fraudulent behavior. But, let’s face it, a guy who lost 21.5% for his clients in Q1 2020 has to cast stones at someone, and it might as well be someone who is doing well, right?

I know those first two tidbits of information sound harsh; they are honestly supposed to. But I will admit, I wasn’t always an Einhorn skeptic. In my spare time, I’m a poker player, and Einhorn is too, and he’s a successful one. And it is hard for a poker player not to like him, considering all of his winnings get donated to charity. With over $5.2 million in live cashes, a majority of that coming from a massive cash at the $1 million buy-in One Drop tournament at the World Series of Poker. That’s a lot of money to a good cause.

So I admit, David Einhorn is not all that bad of a guy. But he continues to play the villain in Tesla’s successful string of quarters, continually accusing the company and its executives of not playing by the rules. But hey, to each his own.

Advertisement

—————————————————–

This is a preview from our weekly newsletter. Each week I go ‘Beyond the News’ and handcraft a special edition that includes my thoughts on the biggest stories, why it matters, and how it could impact the future. 

A big thanks to our long-time supporters and new subscribers! Thank you.

Subscribe for free.

Advertisement

—————————————————–

Every single time Tesla has a successful quarter, Einhorn seems to be stalking the company’s Update Letter like a tiger waiting for its prey. However, tigers usually are successful when they see potential food, and Einhorn just continues to sit there and look more like the prey at this point.

On the 30th of April, Einhorn tweeted another note toward Elon, asking him to justify Tesla’s accounts receivable. “Tesla’s claim for why there are so many for a product where the customers pay upfront, was that sales are crazily concentrated in the last days of the month–so much so that it matters if the month ends on a weekend. This quarter ended on a Tuesday,” he wrote.

Einhorn continues to come off like an obsessed ex-girlfriend, always worried about what Elon puts online, and makes extended digs toward the CEO of Tesla and his employees. But I guess what do you have to say for yourself when the stock you notoriously short continues to rise and your investors continue to lose money on your behalf.

Advertisement

Is it not all possible that Tesla experienced minimal financial loss even though Fremont was shut down for about a month at the tail end of the quarter? Is it at all possible that the most successful Q1 in company history had something to do with the fact that Tesla’s production rates are higher than they were a quarter ago? That another factory in the biggest auto market in the world is also churning out electric vehicles and selling them at higher numbers than any other vehicle in the market? That the same exact factory in that auto market is producing a car that had a 450% increase in registrations from February to March, despite the entire car industry falling?

This, to me, looks like Einhorn is using a typical case of what is called confirmation bias. He accused Tesla, in his brief note on Twitter, of fudging the numbers. But the problem is, the information is readily available out there on basically any site that covers electric vehicles.

Let me break it down for you this way, Einhorn. I’ll even use poker terms! Tesla is experiencing an upswing in China, and the rest of the market is experiencing a downswing. Every other company is managing to lose money because nobody is buying their cars, even though production is continuing. Tesla is making money because they continue to sell the Model 3 in astoundingly high numbers.

Not only has Tesla made the Model 3 one of the most appealing cars in all of China, but they’re beginning to offer different variants. Before it was just the SR+, now there’s a Long Range and a Performance variant. Tesla even announced that the white interior is available for the Model 3 now, which could be a big deal for some.

Advertisement

Tesla’s Q2 might be a little bit rougher than Q1, especially if Fremont’s shut down continues until June, as reports have suggested. Perhaps Einhorn should have just taken Q1 on the chin, gotten rid of his “TSLAQ” title, and left the likes of other short sellers Jim Chanos in his rearview mirror. After all, David, it is not too late to get your hands on some beautiful TSLA stock. I hear its lovely to own some!

Part of me hopes that one day, Einhorn heads out to Silicon Valley, meets up with Elon for lunch and a tour, and switches sides, all in those short shorts that Musk sent him a few months back. After all, Tesla is fighting for the future of our planet, and short selling the stock is primarily environmental terrorism considering the company’s goal is to keep the Earth going.

Maybe one day, I’ll get to sit across from Einhorn at a poker table. If I do, I promise to ask him when he’s going to stop shorting TSLA and begin to believe the Master Plan. But if I don’t, I surely won’t lose sleep over it.

After all, I won’t be the one wearing vintage short shorts.

Advertisement
Credit: Twitter

—————————————————–

If you made it this far, thank you :), and please consider Subscribing and joining me next week as I go ‘Beyond the News’

—————————————————-

Advertisement

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

Lifestyle

Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel

A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.

Published

on

By

Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris

On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”

Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.

Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group

The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.

Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation

Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next

NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.

Published

on

By

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.

The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.

Elon Musk pivots SpaceX plans to Moon base before Mars

As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.

The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”

Advertisement

The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.

Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions

Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.

Published

on

By

Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]

Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.

The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.


But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.

Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved  hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”

That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.

Continue Reading