Investor's Corner
Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 is encouraging China’s local EV makers to be more competitive
Within the next few months, Tesla would begin exporting the Model 3 Performance and Long Range Model 3 AWD to the Chinese market. By the end of the year, the electric car maker aims to have the first Model 3 produced in Gigafactory 3, which will be equipped with both battery and electric car assembly lines.
There is a very good reason why the automotive industry is putting a lot of effort into saturating China. The country, after all, is the largest automobile market globally, both in terms of demand and supply. In 2017 alone, the country produced almost 25 million passenger cars and roughly 4 million commercial vehicles. The country is also a large market for electric vehicles, with sales of EVs hitting the 1 million mark in 2018, and estimates indicating that up to 2 million EVs could be sold in China by 2020.
Amidst this competitive car market lies Tesla and the upcoming Gigafactory 3. So far, Tesla’s electric cars — the Model S and Model X — have been competing in the Chinese market as higher-priced, premium alternatives to locally-made EVs. Tesla has been pretty successful in this sense, becoming a brand largely associated with status and quality, similar to other premium products such as the Apple iPhone. With Gigafactory 3, though, Tesla is stepping away from this strategy, as the facility is looking to produce the Model 3 and Model Y — affordable electric cars that can attack the much-larger, lower-end of the market.
While the presence of Tesla’s massive facility in Shanghai could result in more intense competition, though, some of the country’s local electric car companies have stated that they welcome the arrival of the Silicon Valley-based company nonetheless. In a statement to Xinhua News, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, noted that the arrival of Gigafactory 3 would likely encourage local carmakers to step up their game. This, of course, benefits consumers.
“Tesla’s China production will have a ‘catfish effect’ in the country’s auto industry, pushing domestic carmakers to speed up their technological upgrading,” Cui said.
Jin Guoqing, deputy director of Chang’an Automobile, an automotive dynamics research institute, stated that his company would push its efforts even further now that Tesla has arrived in China, particularly as his firm targets a different price bracket and demographic compared to the American carmaker.
“We shall amplify our advantages to the most,” Jin said.
-
Legacy carmakers that are also attempting to breach the country’s lucrative and growing auto market are raising the stakes for their competition as well. Mercedes-Benz Parts Manufacturing & Service Ltd., for one, also inaugurated its first factory outside Europe last October. Just like Gigafactory 3, Mercedes-Benz’ factory is being built on the Lingang Area. BMW, on the other hand, also announced last October that it would be increasing its stake in BMW Brilliance Automotive, a joint venture located in in the northeastern city of Shenyang.
Ultimately, the arrival of Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 would likely boost the country’s electric car initiatives. Thus, apart from allowing Tesla to tap into what could very well be a lucrative market, Gigafactory 3 could also be the trigger that pushes even more innovation forward in the country. With vehicles such as the Model 3 and the Model Y saturating China, after all, competitors would be wise to come up with vehicles that are just as good or even better than Tesla’s electric cars.
Elon Musk, for his part, has expressed his high hopes for the facility. During an interview after the groundbreaking event, Musk stated that he has been very impressed with the construction capabilities of China so far. In his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony, Musk urged the country’s most driven workers to apply for a post in Gigafactory 3, even noting that maybe, just maybe, someone working in Gigafactory 3 could succeed him someday.
“I do want to emphasize that there’s no limit on the potential. One day, somebody could join us — a junior engineer here at Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory — and ultimately, maybe have my job someday,” Musk said.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) got an absolutely crazy price target rating from Raymond James after the company experienced a tough first few weeks following its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Despite the tumultuous start, SpaceX has plenty of believers, and the company’s massively successful Starship launch last Friday, its 13th test flight of the massive rocket, went so smoothly that Raymond James analysts pushed its price target on the company to roughly 7 times its current trading level.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
The firm officially put a “Strong Buy” rating and an $800 price target on the stock. It currently trades at around $113. Its all-time high is $225.64, reaching this trading level shortly after shares first went public.
Raymond James’ price target is tied to the firm’s confidence after Starship’s 13th test flight. Analysts at the firm said it was an incremental step that reduces engineering risks, citing the widely successful heat shield test that CEO Elon Musk recently detailed, the smooth deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, and a successful in-space engine relight.
SpaceX also managed to see Starship splash down safely in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy Booster fell down to the Gulf of America with no incidents.
It is interesting to see these launches have such a tremendous impact on the stock and what investors think of it. After SpaceX initially delayed the Starship launch last week, shares fell tremendously. Most probably did not realize that the stand-down is a standard practice, especially if everything is not perfect.
-
The mission was initially aborted due to an issue with Raptor engines. This was resolved, and Starship launched last Friday after another delay on Thursday, which was caused by weather.
Now that analysts have seen what SpaceX launches are capable of and how impressive the feat is, firms are adjusting their price targets accordingly, making it known that they have high expectations for the space exploration company.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
SpaceX’s Starship flew successfully Friday, landing both stages and deploying its first Starlink V3 satellites.
Starship’s thirteenth test flight delivered exactly what SpaceX needed with a clean liftoff, two successful stage recoveries, and the first real payload the vehicle has ever carried to space. Booster 20 and Ship 40 lifted off at 5:51 p.m. CT from Starbase, and by the time the mission wrapped roughly an hour later, both halves of the rocket had done exactly what they were supposed to do.
Booster 20 separated from Ship 40 a few minutes into the flight and stuck a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about six minutes after liftoff. That is a meaningful turnaround from Flight 12 in May, when the booster lost several engines during its boostback burn before a hard water landing attempt.
Starship as seen from Starlink satellites pic.twitter.com/e2hvfmnewh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
Starship 40’s performance was arguably the bigger win. The vehicle deployed the first 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever carried, then flew a suborbital arc to a landing in the Indian Ocean that SpaceX commentator Dan Huot called the company’s softest splashdown yet. “This is a dream scenario for this team that’s trying to get this heat shield data,” Huot said on the live broadcast, according to Space.com’s live coverage. “I’m a little over the moon right now. Wow. Lucky number 13.”
Unlike the mass simulators SpaceX flew on Flight 12, these were production Starlink V3 satellites, meant to extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to link with the broader constellation before reentering minutes later. Getting real hardware through a full deploy sequence on only the second flight of the V3 generation keeps Starship on schedule for the payload work NASA is counting on for future Artemis lunar landings.
What an awesome launch, really seems like everything went super well and it was all incredibly smooth.
SpaceX is awesome. Very interested to see how the market will respond on Monday pic.twitter.com/KSHmyBfV55
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026
-
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026
The flight also arrives at a moment when SpaceX needed a win. SPCX has traded below its $135 IPO price since mid-July, as Teslarati reported when the mission slipped to Friday, and short interest has climbed to roughly a third of the tradable float. A clean flight will not fix a balance sheet, but it does answer the one question SpaceX absolutely needed answered this week: whether the fixes made after the July 16 abort would hold up under real flight conditions. They did, on both stages, on the first try after the redesign.
SpaceX has not set a target date for Flight 14, though the company has said it wants to push toward an orbital attempt on the next mission. After Friday, that goal looks a lot more within reach.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
-
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch
Elon Musk updates the SpaceX timeline for Mars
