Investor's Corner
Polestar’s Q3 revenue and gross profit skyrocket, operating loss trims by 33%
Polestar’s (NASDAQ: PSNY) position as one of two global, pure electric vehicle makers was solidified with a strong Q3 earnings report that featured skyrocketing revenue and gross profit figures and an operating loss that was reduced by one-third. The Swedish automaker reiterated its 50,000-vehicle delivery goal, expecting Q4 to be its strongest three-month showing in company history.
Polestar’s revenue skyrocketed in Q3 from $748 million in 2021 to $1.477 billion this year. The growth was mainly driven by higher Polestar 2 sales and continued commercial expansion across markets. Revenue per vehicle decreased slightly, Polestar said, attributing the slight reduction to product and market mix.
Polestar is currently recognizing its active markets as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, South Korea, Kuwait, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, U.K., and the USA.
Gross profit also grew considerably compared to the same quarter in 2021. Polestar reported a $57 million gross profit in Q3 2022, up from just $1 million last year. This was a result of higher Polestar 2 sales and lower manufacturing costs, which come as companies scale the production of their vehicles. The gross profit growth was slightly offset by “the continued deterioration of the Swedish Krona versus Chinese Renminbi which led to higher cost of sales,” the automaker said.
Polestar accomplished five feats in Q3, including the launch of the Polestar 3, which was met with mixed reviews due to its stylish and competitive design that also features less-than-admirable efficiency. The event provided a spike to the company’s website, only succeeded by user visits following the Superbowl ad the company ran in February.
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- (Credit: Polestar)
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- Credit: Polestar
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- Credit: Polestar
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- Credit: Polestar
Polestar is reaching its 100,000-vehicle production milestone for the Polestar 2 in the near future. The company expects to meet this threshold in Q4 as it expects to deliver at least 19,500 vehicles in 2022’s final quarter. Polestar said it expects Q4 to be its biggest quarter to date as manufacturing growth continues to help the company solidify itself as a major player in the market.
The company’s $1.48 billion in revenues through the first nine months of 2022 only transitions into the $2.4 billion that Polestar expects to deliver for the full year. This is an estimated increase of 80 percent compared to 2021. It also obtained an additional $1.6 billion in financing and liquidity packages from major shareholders, which will, in addition to other potential financing activities, provide Polestar will sufficient funds to operate through 2023.
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Polestar reduced SG&A expenses by 10 percent compared to Q3 2021, from a loss of $199 million to $179 million, and R&D expenses by 51 percent, from a loss of $51 million to a loss of $25 million. It also trimmed its operating loss by one-third compared to Q3 2021. These numbers tell a different story from the first nine months of 2021 compared to the same period this year.
SG&A was up 31 percent for the first nine months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. This was due to “rapid commercial expansion and significantly increased global presence.” R&D expenses were down 22 percent due to lower amortization. Meanwhile, operating loss was up 64 percent, “reflecting investment in the business growth and a $372 million non-recurring, non-cash listing expense.”
Polestar has launched production of the Polestar 3 and plans to start deliveries sometime early next year. It will also launch the Polestar 4 in early 2023, it said.
Polestar shares were up nearly 20 percent at the time of publishing, trading at $5.44 per share.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is not a Polestar investor or shareholder.
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SpaceX stock did the opposite of what most of Wall Street expected this week, when the day designed to be its most dangerous turned into a rally, and the rally kept going.
Thursday marked the first major lockup expiration since SpaceX’s June IPO, making roughly 911.5 million insider held shares eligible to trade for the first time, more than doubling the company’s public float. Analysts and short sellers had spent weeks bracing for a flood of selling, especially after the stock fell 13 percent following its first earnings report as a public company on Tuesday. Instead, shares rose 6.1 percent Thursday to close at $114.92, and by Friday they were trading near $129, up more than another 12 percent on the day.
SpaceX shorts get warned by Musk ally, echoing Tesla’s early struggles
The setup made the outcome notable. Short interest had climbed to roughly 34 percent of the float heading into earnings, among the highest of any large cap stock, with about 95 percent of available shares to borrow already on loan. CEO Elon Musk warned short sellers twice in the weeks before the lockup, writing on X that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” then following up on the morning of earnings with “I try to warn them, but they just double down.”
When the newly unlocked shares hit the market and the selloff never showed up, some of that short position appears to have started unwinding. TipRanks reported that options activity shifted toward bullish strategies like put selling and risk reversals following the rally, with roughly $600 million in options premium trading Thursday alone. Retail buyers also stepped in during the earnings dip, according to Vanda Research.
The fundamentals behind the stock have not changed much in a week. SpaceX’s revenue nearly doubled year over year to $7.8 billion, with Starlink subscribers doubling to 12 million and the company’s AI segment growing 247 percent. What spooked investors on Tuesday was the spending side. Capital expenditures jumped to more than $18 billion for the quarter, up from $2.8 billion a year earlier, with AI investment alone rising from $749 million to $15.8 billion. Wall Street remains split on whether that spending is building infrastructure SpaceX needs or outrunning what the business can currently support, a debate Teslarati has tracked since shares first came under pressure.
None of that resolves the bigger question hanging over the stock. Thursday’s release was only the first of nine staggered lockup tranches, with roughly $800 billion worth of additional shares scheduled to become eligible through October, and Musk’s own stake stays locked until next June. If this week is any indication, the market is treating that supply as something it can absorb rather than something to fear, at least for now.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck production snaps back after ugly supplier fight
Cybertrucks are piling up again at Giga Texas after Tesla’s court win against a parts supplier.
Cybertruck production at Giga Texas is showing its first visible recovery since Tesla sued a supplier last month over withheld manufacturing tooling.
Aerial observer Joe Tegtmeyer flew over the Austin factory Wednesday morning and counted roughly 100 or more Cybertrucks filling the outbound lot, a sharp jump from the thin numbers seen in recent weeks. The flyover came a day after a judge granted Tesla a temporary restraining order against Angstrom Automotive Group, the parts supplier at the center of the dispute.
Tesla filed an emergency lawsuit in late July after Angstrom told the automaker it planned to close the Troy, Texas facility where Tesla’s die-cast tools, trim dies and other Cybertruck stamping equipment were housed. According to Tesla’s complaint, a shipment of 700 finished parts never left the building, and when Tesla sent representatives to retrieve its equipment, accompanied by law enforcement, they were turned away. Angstrom allegedly then asked for an extra $250,000 a week to keep operating, which Tesla’s filing described as holding its own property for ransom.
TESLA: U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Wolfe of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division granted Tesla a Temporary Restraining Order and Writ of Replevin in its dispute with Angstrom Automotive (Case No. 6:26-cv-00477).
The order authorizes… https://t.co/E1DKcQSxMn pic.twitter.com/LR8aAiV2Og
— S.E. Robinson, Jr. (@SERobinsonJr) August 5, 2026
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The restraining order gives Tesla immediate right of entry to Angstrom’s facility to recover the tooling. It is temporary, with a fuller hearing still to come, but the speed of Wednesday’s rebound suggests the Angstrom shortage was indeed the main bottleneck limiting Cybertruck output. Outbound lot counts are an imperfect measure of actual production, since finished trucks can sit for days before shipping, but a lot that full after a lean stretch is a meaningful signal.
Cybertruck output at Giga Texas has fluctuated all year as Tesla worked through supply issues and introduced new trims, including a cheaper Dual Motor AWD version that drew strong early demand.
Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya has cautioned investors shorting SpaceX shares, drawing a direct parallel to the intense short-selling pressure Tesla faced in its early public years.
Responding to reports of elevated short interest in the newly public rocket, satellite, and AI company, Palihapitiya noted that similar dynamics played out with Tesla, where aggressive short sellers ultimately “went broke.”
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public on June 12, 2026, in the largest IPO on record, pricing at $135 per share. Shares quickly surged to an all-time high of $225.64 just days later, briefly implying a valuation exceeding $2 trillion. The stock has since retreated sharply amid valuation concerns, lockup expiration fears, and broader market dynamics.
By early August, it traded near $108–$125, representing a roughly 50 percent decline from the peak and bringing the market capitalization closer to the $1.5–1.7 trillion range. On August 4, shares closed up more than 9 percent at $125.33 ahead of earnings before facing pressure in after-hours and premarket trading.
Short interest has climbed dramatically. According to S3 Partners data widely cited in market reports, short positions reached approximately 219.3 million shares by late July, about 34 percent of the limited public float of roughly 640 million shares, and represented a notional value of around $24.6 billion.
Utilization of shares available to borrow hit 95 percent, with borrow fees rising. This level of shorting exceeded the dollar value of short bets against Tesla at the time and built rapidly ahead of two catalysts: the company’s first post-IPO earnings and an August 6 lockup expiration that could free up to 911.5 million additional shares.
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CEO Elon Musk has issued warnings of his own. In mid-July, as short interest approached one-third of the float, he posted that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” reiterating his view that the company could ultimately be worth more than Earth if it achieves its goals.
On August 4, just before earnings, Musk responded to the latest short-interest data by saying, “I try to warn them, but they just double down.”
SpaceX delivered its first quarterly results as a public company after the close on August 4. Second-quarter revenue rose 92 percent year-over-year to $7.8 billion, beating consensus estimates near $6.8–6.9 billion.
The net loss narrowed to $541 million, or 9 cents per share, better than the roughly 23–24 cent loss expected. Starlink/connectivity contributed about $4.3 billion (up 66 percent), while the AI business generated $2.6 billion (up roughly 250 percent). Capital expenditures were heavy at $18.4 billion, largely tied to AI infrastructure. Management projected a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by year-end 2026 and outlined a path toward $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030.
The combination of Chamath’s historical reminder, Musk’s repeated alerts, and the company’s ambitious growth targets underscores the high-stakes debate surrounding SPCX. Short sellers are positioned for near-term supply pressure from the lockup, while long-term bulls point to Starlink scale, Starship progress, and AI compute expansion as reasons the bears may ultimately face the same fate as many early Tesla skeptics.
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