Investor's Corner
Insight Into How Elon Musk Funds His Business Ventures
Elon Musk does not follow the herd. Even though most executives do not use their private wealth to fund business ventures, Musk believes it is important to to show that he personally has skin in the game.
More than almost any other entrepreneur, Elon Musk finances his three primary business ventures — Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX — by leveraging his own personal assets. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) says those three companies are valued at close to $50 billion, largely because of Musk’s “voracious appetite for risk and unyielding optimism.”
A study in February by ISS QuickScore found that just 13% of executives or directors at the 3,000 largest companies have pledged shares they own in those companies as collateral for personal loans.
Of the $105 million in bonds sold by SolarCity since October, 2014, SpaceX has purchased $90 million. Musk has taken out $475 million in personal loans at various times to help out one or another of his business interests when they needed cash injections. Those loans are secured by $2.5 billion worth of shares he owns in Tesla Motors and SolarCity, based on market values from this week.
WSJ says few top executives use their personal funds to support their business ventures because it can place them in conflict with other shareholders. It could also subject them to a margin call that could disrupt normal trading in company shares. “As an analyst, it is often a red flag for me when companies and management direct loans between entities they have personal or financial interests in,” says Nathan Weiss, founder and senior analyst at independent research firm Unit Economics LLC in East Greenwich, RI.
“There are a few cases where one company was doing considerably better than another and I borrowed money,” Musk says via WSJ. “If I ask investors to put money in, then I feel morally I should put money in as well […] I should not ask people to eat from the fruit bowl if I have not myself been willing to eat from the fruit bowl.” In other words, he thinks it’s important for others to see that he has skin in the game.
Musk says the odds of him not being able to handle a margin call are “almost zero.” That’s because his exposure is less than 5% of his total worth. He says he has “made it clear to shareholders that I subscribe to the notion that the captain is the last person off the ship.”
Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, a major early investor in all of Musk’s companies, says he is not concerned that Musk has pledged his own shares. As long as the total is less than 5% of Musk’s total net worth, “you don’t have much to talk about.” Jurvetson raves about Musk, saying “his passion is breathtaking.”
Republicans in Congress are less in awe of Elon, however. Now that SpaceX has signed contracts worth billions of dollars with NASA, they are proposing legislation that would prohibit Musk from using his stake in SpaceX as collateral for other loans, particularly to SolarCity. The solar power company has recently had a loud and contentious spat with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, which voted to impose a monthly fee on all rooftop solar installations in the state.
In response, SolarCity has shuttered his operations in Nevada and laid off hundreds of employees. How that plays out as the Gigafactory comes online should be interesting, since the same utility company (owned by Warren Buffett) that imposed its will on the Nevada PUC will also be the energy supplier to that gigantic manufacturing process. Tesla intends to sell excess power back to the utility, a process that started the whole controversy in Nevada in the first place.
Representative Douglas Lamborn, Republican from Colorado, says the proposed legislation is intended to send a message to Musk that his moves are being watched and monitored. A SpaceX spokesman retorts that SpaceX’s “cash balances are not government money’.”
Elon keeps his political leanings well out of public view. But it is clear his propensity for disrupting the established order has made a few enemies along the way.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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 (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) will report its earnings for the second quarter of 2026 this evening after market close, and investors and analysts are waiting anxiously to see what the company will report for the second three-month span of the year.
Analysts have already put out their expectations from a financial standpoint for the company’s second quarter, but what’s unknown is what Tesla plans to discuss during the call.
Financial Expectations
Wall Street consensus expectations put Tesla’s Earnings Per Share (EPS) at $0.53, while revenues are expected to come in around $26.4 billion.
This would compare to an EPS of $0.39 and $22.19 billion compared to Tesla’s Q2 2025. Last quarter, EPS came in at $0.41 on $22.387 billion of revenue. Additionally in Q1, Tesla beat analyst expectations, but shares dropped over 3 percent the following trading day.
What We Expect
In terms of discussions, Tesla earnings are pretty sporadic and depend on a handful of things, including current events, investor questions, and more.
Tesla uses a platform called Say to field questions from investors and analysts. These questions are what will be used during the call. Here are the top 5 from the Retail side and top 3 from the Institutional side:
Retail:
“Tesla has missed short-term guidance on robotaxi 3 earnings reports in a row, from 50% coverage of USA by end of 2025 to most recently 7 new cities in 1H26. What is keeping Tesla back from accomplishing these short term goals that they’ve set for themselves?”
“What are the main constraints to expanding robotaxi operations faster, and how do you see that lining up with Cybercab production?”
“What’s the current status of Optimus Gen 3 production ramp, initial deployment in factories, and external sales timeline/volume for 2027? What tasks can we expect the Optimus to perform by end of 2027?”
“To reward long-term Tesla retail shareholders for their loyalty, can you commit to achieving at least half of the goals outlined in your 2025 compensation plan before considering any offers to acquire or merge Tesla?”
“Why has growth of robotaxi vehicles stalled? When will we see cybercab start customer rides?”
Institutional
“Previously, you’ve said Tesla would lead the R&D while SpaceX would lead production for Terafab. Can you provide an update on how that division of responsibilities is evolving, and any additional clarity on the expected capital contributions from Tesla and SpaceX?”
“For autonomous driving, Tesla’s fleet created a huge data advantage by collecting billions of real-world miles. That advantage doesn’t yet exist for Optimus. How should we think about data availability and its impact on Optimus development?”
“Why is it necessary to limit robotaxi operations within specific zones within cities to start? Will every city have to be rolled out this way?”
Tesla will report earnings for Q2 this evening with the Shareholder Deck at 4 p.m. ET, with the call starting around 5:30 p.m. ET.
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
