Investor's Corner
Elon Musk personally thanks Tesla owners and supporters amid Q3’s record profits
Tesla surprised Wall Street on Wednesday after revealing a $312 million profit and Model 3 margins of more than 20% for the third quarter. Amidst another earnings call that featured a controlled, calm Elon Musk, the market’s optimism with Tesla was palpable, as shown by TSLA shares’ rise in Wednesday’s after-hours and Thursday’s pre-market trading.
Musk was in light spirits on Twitter after the earnings call. Before he signed off, Musk expressed his sincere thanks to Tesla’s supporters, particularly electric car owners who pitched in to help the company deliver as many vehicles as possible before Q3 ended. In his Twitter post, Musk stated that Tesla would not be around if it weren’t for the support of its community.
Massive thanks to Tesla owners & supporters. We wouldn’t be here without you.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2018
Musk’s Twitter announcement came just hours after the CEO highlighted the help Tesla received from owners and supporters in the recent earnings call. As Tesla was facing what Elon Musk described as “delivery logistics hell” in September, owners volunteered to offer their help in delivering vehicles to reservation holders. While volunteers were unable to help with paperwork, they did conduct orientations so newcomers can familiarize themselves with the features and functions of their electric cars. All the way until the end of the month, Tesla’s volunteer-augmented delivery initiative was in full throttle, allowing the company to deliver a total of 83,500 vehicles, comprised of 55,840 Model 3, 14,470 Model S, and 13,190 Model X.
During his opening remarks in the recent earnings call, Elon Musk stated that Tesla’s impressive performance and figures were the results of efforts from employees across the board, as well as members of the Tesla community who paid it forward. His voice slightly breaking in the call, Musk admitted that the dedication of Tesla’s owners and supporters “chokes (him) up.”
“This quarter was made possible by the incredible execution of our employees across the Board from sales, production, delivery, service, energy engineering finance and all of our G&A teams, really every part of the business executing incredibly well. And when I think I want to gain probably incredibly hard work, especially I want to thank customers who helped — it’s like many of you haven’t heard of this, maybe this has happened before, but I’ve never heard of it a case where a company’s customers actually cared about the future of the company so much that they volunteered their time to help the company succeed. I think that’s amazing, just don’t see that anywhere. So, yeah, like really it chokes me up, actually.”
Tesla has only been in the auto business for 15 years, and as such, it is still a newcomer compared to automotive veterans like Ford and GM. Despite its short tenure, Tesla has developed a following that is almost comparable to some of the tech industry’s most iconic brands such as Apple, thanks to products that incite a certain level of dedication practically unheard of in the auto industry. As shown in its volunteer-boosted delivery weekends in September, Tesla had all but transformed itself into a movement, a company that inspires optimism and loyalty among its supporters.
Ultimately, Musk’s statements, both in the third quarter earnings call and on Twitter, show a CEO who, instead of doing an arguably well-deserved victory lap, opted instead to give credit where it is due. And that, at the end of the day, shows a great deal of maturity on the part of the visionary CEO.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.
In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:
“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”
This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.
The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.
The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.
This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX gets initial stock coverage from Tesla’s biggest bull
Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.
“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”
Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12
Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.
It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”
Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.
There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:
“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”
SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.
Elon Musk
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.