Investor's Corner
GM reports strong Q1 Earnings, prepares to navigate semiconductor shortage
General Motors (NYSE: GM) reported its Q1 2021 Earnings on Wednesday morning, showing a well-performing financial spreadsheet that was supported by the automaker’s ability to beat Wall Street’s expectations. GM is working on expanding its fleet of all-electric vehicles and has several models planned for release in the coming years, but it will first have to prepare to navigate through a global semiconductor shortage that has caused delays and closures across the automotive industry.
GM reported an adjusted Earnings per Share of $2.25, handily beating the $1.04 that Wall Street analysts estimated according to Refinitiv. Additionally, its Revenue figures fell just short of the analyst expectations. GM reported $32.47 billion, while Wall Street expected $32.67 billion. The company solidified its expectations for the rest of 2021, forecasting $10 billion to $11 billion, or $4.50 to $5.25 per share in adjusted pretax profits. Additionally, the company expects the adjusted free cash flow to be between $1 billion and $2 billion for the year. These expectations and predictions already had the global semiconductor chip shortage factored in and included an expected decrease in earnings of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. GM also anticipates a decrease of between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion in free cash flow.
Shares of GM were up 3.3%, trading at $57.19 at 10:54 EST.
“The speed and agility of our team are front and center as we move from managing through a pandemic to managing the global semiconductor shortage,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders. “This remains a challenging period for the company as we emerge from 2020, but the team continues to demonstrate its ability to manage complex situations.”
Despite the factored decreases in some financial statistics, Barra still expects a strong first half of 2021. The company expects about $5.5 billion in pretax and adjusted earnings, according to the shareholder letter.
“These strong results demonstrate once again the underlying strength of our business, especially in North America and China, and at GM Financial. We continue to execute our strategy and make significant progress on our transition to an all-electric future with the growth opportunities it creates,” Barra added.
GM is beginning to transition its product line to more electric cars while beginning a slow phase-out of gas-powered vehicles. The company has already committed to an all-electric lineup and a stoppage of gas-powered engine production in 2035. Barra’s letter to shareholders outlined the company’s “significant strides” that include:
- We are preparing to launch the redesigned Chevrolet Bolt EV and new Bolt EUV this summer, and we confirmed a high-volume battery-electric Silverado for both fleet and retail customers, with a GM-estimated 400 miles of range on a full charge for certain configurations.
- We unveiled the stunning production version of the Cadillac LYRIQ nine months earlier than planned because of our virtual engineering and software expertise.
- We unveiled a second GMC HUMMER EV model – the GMC HUMMER EV SUV – which will feature in-house developed, software-driven technologies, including CrabWalk, Extract Mode, and many more industry-leading features.
- We continue to expand the availability and capabilities of Super Cruise, the industry’s first true hands-free driver-assistance system.
- We introduced BrightDrop, a business created to help commercial delivery fleets maximize productivity, improve safety and reduce their carbon footprint. We are on track to begin delivering EV600 vans to our first customer, FedEx Express, later this year.
- We announced that Ultium Cells LLC, our joint venture with LG Energy Solution, will begin construction of a new battery cell plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. It will open in 2023, a year after our Lordstown, Ohio cell plant.
- We signed a joint development agreement and increased our investment in SolidEnergy Systems, one of several companies we are working with to help commercialize lithium-metal batteries, which have incredible potential to deliver even better EV performance, more range, and lower costs for customers.
- We joined new investors Microsoft and Walmart in a $2.75-billion fundraising round for Cruise,
which also announced an agreement with Dubai to deploy up to 4,000 self-driving Cruise Origin
taxis by 2030. - We will build two large EVs for Honda using our Ultium technology – one SUV for the Honda
brand, and one for the Acura brand. - We revealed Ultium Charge 360, an innovative and holistic approach that integrates charging
networks with our mobile apps and other products and services to simplify the charging experience for our EV customers.
GM’s net income was $3 billion in Q1, a huge increase compared to the same quarter in 2020, where the automaker only reported a $294 million income. The large increase in income can be attributed to GM’s strategy to control the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Q1 2020, where some of the company’s factories were shuttered, CNBC said.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
In a striking revelation that underscores the lucrative crossover between Big Tech and space exploration, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, disclosed a massive $94.1 billion equity stake in SpaceX following the rocket company’s blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year.
The disclosure came in Alphabet’s quarterly filing, marking the first time the long-held private investment has been publicly valued at market prices. Google was an early backer, investing alongside Fidelity in 2015 with roughly $500-900 million at a time when SpaceX was valued around $12 billion.
That bet has delivered extraordinary returns, roughly a hundredfold, transforming a strategic play on satellite internet and launch capabilities into one of Alphabet’s largest assets.
Google, $GOOGL, has said they hold $94 billion in SpaceX, $SPCX, shares after IPO.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 23, 2026
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
Analysts view the disclosure as validation of Alphabet’s venture strategy beyond its core search and cloud businesses. The investment aligns with deeper ties, including reported multi-billion-dollar deals for AI computing capacity on SpaceX infrastructure. As SpaceX advances Starship flights, Starlink expansion, and ambitious Mars goals under Elon Musk, Google’s stake positions it to benefit from the commercialization of space.
For Alphabet, the windfall highlights how patient, forward-looking bets in transformative sectors can yield outsized rewards. While lockups temper short-term impact, the holding cements SpaceX as a cornerstone of Alphabet’s diversified portfolio in an era where aerospace, AI, and connectivity increasingly intersect. Investors will watch closely as restrictions lift and SpaceX’s public performance unfolds.
Elon Musk
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
Elon Musk told investors Semi self-driving should start working by early 2027, per today’s earnings.
During Wednesday’s’ Tesla Q2 earnings call, an analyst asked Elon Musk when Tesla would look at autonomy for the Semi. His answer set a real timeline for the first time, noting that self-driving on the Tesla Semi is expected to start working “around the end of this year or early next year”.
Musk framed the delay as a matter of priority, not capability. Tesla’s self-driving team is currently focused on Model 3, Model Y, and Cybercab, the vehicles that make up the overwhelming majority of Tesla’s fleet. Since Semi trucks on the road remain a small fraction of that total even after the recent Nevada factory ramp, Musk said it made more sense to keep the software team’s attention on what he called “the march of nines of safety” for the higher volume vehicles first. Autonomous Semi development is “taking a bit of a backseat for the next six months or so,” he said, before adding that it “will definitely be working next year and in time for the scale-up to high production of the Tesla Semi.”
Tesla Semi’s official battery capacity leaked by California regulators
The timeline lines up with what’s already been showing up on public roads. In June, a Tesla Semi was spotted in Sunnyvale wearing a full validation rig, the same rooftop sensor array Tesla mounts on vehicles ahead of an FSD milestone.
A second unit was seen near Fremont days later with a matching camera suite and lens washers. Separately, Tesla analyst Nic Cruz Patane posted video this month of the production Semi’s exterior camera array, ten AI4 based units built directly into the truck rather than added later.
Tesla Semi AI4 cameras. The production version has 10 cameras on its exterior.
These trucks are designed to be autonomous. pic.twitter.com/GH3BamxIBQ
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) April 14, 2026
Musk also gave the reason autonomy on the Semi matters in the first place, a persistent shortage of qualified truck drivers. “There is a really serious shortage of truckers,” he said on the call, framing a self-driving Semi as important both for addressing that shortage and for improving safety and comfort for the drivers running the truck today.
The timing also tracks with the Semi’s production reality. Tesla’s Q2 shareholder letter, dropped language promising the Semi would reach volume production this year. Musk pointed to 4680 battery cell output as the near-term constraint on Semi and Cybercab production. A software timeline landing in early 2027 gives Tesla’s autonomy team room to work while the hardware ramp catches up behind it.
It’s worth nothing that this isn’t necessarily a promise the Semi ships driverless next year. Musk’s own language, self-driving “working” by early 2027, describes internal validation catching up to hardware already riding on every production truck, not a public unsupervised rollout.
Tesla stock tumbles after earnings, one of its sharpest single-day declines
Elon Musk is not happy about this Tesla Full Self-Driving approval delay
