Investor's Corner
Elon Musk trolls Tesla short sellers and SEC anew as TSLA hits new highs
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in a good and playful mood on Thursday following the release of the company’s Q2 2020 vehicle production and delivery report. With Tesla reaching new all-time highs and breaking $1,200 per share, Musk opted to do something that he has not done in some time: he decided to do some trolling towards Tesla’s dedicated short sellers, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk’s series of tweets on Thursday were varied, with the CEO responding to a Twitter user who noted that TSLA stock’s recent rise due to its Q2 results is a “tsunami of hurt” for short sellers. Musk, for his part, noted that he “tried to warn them,” before adopting a lighter tone by calling The Royal Teens’ Short Shorts a “great song.” Musk followed this up playfully remarking that “sellers of medium height or above are fine” amidst Tesla’s rally.
With burns against TSLA shorts secured, Musk then shifted his trolling towards the SEC, urging his followers to post their own interpretation of the acronym, provided that the “E” in the middle stands of “Elon’s.” This prompted equally playful responses such as “Sell Elon’s Cars” or “Savage Elon’s Contempt,” as well as more serious warnings from TSLA bulls such as Gerber Kawasaki CEO Ross Gerber, who remarked that such tweets were “dangerous.” Musk acknowledged this, but he noted that the tweets were very satisfying.
Of course, no conversation about Tesla’s short sellers with Elon Musk would be complete without literal short shorts coming into the picture. This came in the form of Musk stating that Tesla will be making “fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim.” He also noted that Tesla would be sending some of the short shorts to the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” to “comfort them through these difficult times.” That said, Musk noted that flame accents on the Tesla short shorts would probably be a bit too much.
Inasmuch as Elon Musk’s recent Twitter troll storm may offend Tesla’s critics, the CEO did exhibit some of his usual self-deprecating humor. This came in the form of a post reminding Musk that he himself wore short shorts back in his days at Pretoria, as evidenced by a class picture from 1983. In it, a young Musk could be seen standing amongst his classmates, proudly donning some short shorts himself. To this, Musk sheepishly admitted that ultimately, he actually likes short shorts. “Busted! I secretly (love) short shorts,” Musk wrote.
Tesla’s second quarter results, which propelled the company’s stock past the $1,200 mark on Thursday, ultimately crushed the TSLA short seller narrative that the company has a demand problem. As noted by Loup Ventures Managing Partner Gene Munster, Tesla’s Q2 deliveries highlighted the widening gap between the electric car maker and traditional automakers such as GM, FCA, and Toyota, all of which were hit hard by the ongoing pandemic.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
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.
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.
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.
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
