Investor's Corner
Tesla’s 3rd-largest shareholder discusses legacy auto’s ‘Kodak moment’
Amidst Tesla’s continuous rise, its disruption of the car industry is becoming more prevalent. This point was reiterated recently by a major Tesla shareholder, who noted that legacy automakers, with their decades of experience, might be facing their very own “Kodak moment.”
In a recent statement to Morningstar UK, Baillie Gifford manager Iain McCombie remarked that Tesla’s immense growth and potential remains remarkable. McCombie noted that despite short-term noise about Model 3 production, volume is beginning to come through, as evidenced by the company’s pleasantly surprising third-quarter results. The Baillie Gifford executive added that Tesla had already surpassed Daimler’s car sales in the US — a feat that seemed impossible just a few years ago.
“Now, Daimler’s been in the market for 100-plus years and here’s this upstart and they’re outselling them in the US. If you’d said that a few years ago, you’d probably have been locked up, but that’s happening,” he said.
While McCombie admitted that Baillie Gifford might be wrong about its optimistic outlook on Tesla, the finance veteran stated that at this point, it is legacy automakers that are currently feeling the pressure. With the success of Tesla and the apparent strong demand for electric vehicles, veteran carmakers are at risk of losing a core part of their business — the internal combustion engine. McCombie noted that this is reminiscent of what Kodak faced during the advent of the digital camera.
“They spent hundreds of years building up their know-how in industrial combustion engines, and they do a great job with that, but what happens if all of us are suddenly saying ‘oh, I want an electric car’? Suddenly, that know-how is useless. What happened with Kodak is they actually discovered the digital camera, but they buried it because it was too frightening for them. They thought it would kill their film business. But the fact that they didn’t innovate killed Kodak,” he said.
Faced with their very own “Kodak moment,” the Baillie Gifford manager stated that veteran carmakers, at least for now, remain centered on their legacy products. Amidst a market that is changing its preference, though, traditional auto is running the risk of being pushed out during the transition.
“Maybe they are launching electric vehicles, but the bulk of their sales are still coming from legacy products. They’ve built wonderful businesses for themselves, but what happens when the business is changing? That’s why your Tesla is exciting, because they don’t have those legacy issues,” McCombie said.
Baillie Gifford is among Tesla’s largest shareholders, third only to Elon Musk and T. Rowe Price. As of September, Baillie Gifford held a 7.8% stake at the electric car maker.
The absence of compelling electric vehicles from Tesla’s competitors was a key driver for some skeptics when they changed their stance on the company. Ahead of Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, for one, Andrew Left of Citron Research, one of the electric car maker’s most vocal critics, turned bullish on the company, citing the dominance of the Model 3 in the US passenger car market. Left also noted that there is no “Tesla Killer” coming from rival automakers.
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- The Jaguar I-PACE.
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- The new Mercedes-Benz EQC – the first Mercedes-Benz under the product and technology brand EQ. With its seamless, clear design, the EQC is a pioneer for an avant-garde electric look with trailblazing design details and colour highlights typical of the brand both inside and out. [Credit: Mercedes-Benz]
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- The Audi e-tron. (Credit: Audi)
Brad Cornell, a hedge fund manager who believes that Tesla is overvalued, recently admitted that he had overestimated the company’s competition as well. Cornell admitted that in his past analyses and forecasts, he did not expect Tesla’s competition to roll out electric vehicles in such a slow manner. Apart from this, Cornell noted that legacy auto’s entries into the zero-emissions market have been largely uninspired. As such, vehicles like Teslas, which are green, attractive, and powerful, are becoming the EVs of choice for customers looking to buy an electric car.
“One thing I did not evaluate accurately when I began constructing valuation models for Tesla in early 2014 was how slow the competition would be to produce electric cars that people would want to drive. Tesla competitors, to the extent that any appeared, seemed to be saying that the point of an electric car was to be green and efficient, not sexy or exciting. Only Tesla had the design, the pizzazz, and the performance to make driving special and not a chore.
“My mistake in 2014 was thinking that competition for Tesla was just around the corner. Now, at the end of 2018, it is still just around the corner. Although Jaguar has been promising the I-PACE for some time, my visits to dealers have been rewarded only with promises. The same is true for the Porsche Taycan. There is not a meaningful Tesla competitor available today or in the near future,” Cornell said.
Tesla, for its part, continues to move forward. In Elon Musk’s recent interview with Kara Swisher at the Recode Decode podcast, the Tesla CEO stated that Tesla would be cash-flow positive in all quarters moving forward. Musk was also optimistic about Model 3 production, stating that Tesla is currently capable of producing 6,000-6,500 units of the electric sedan per week, though it would require employees to do a lot of overtime.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just filed for the IPO everyone was waiting for
SpaceX filed its public S-1, revealing $18.7 billion in revenue and billions in losses.
SpaceX publicly filed its S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2026, making its financial details available to the public for the first time ahead of what could be the largest IPO in history.
An S-1 is the formal document a company must submit to the SEC before going public. It includes audited financials, risk factors, business descriptions, and how the company plans to use the money it raises. Companies are required to file one before selling shares to the public, and it must be published at least 15 days before the investor roadshow begins. SpaceX had already submitted a confidential draft to the SEC in April, which allowed regulators to review the filing privately before it went public.
The S-1 reveals that SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in consolidated revenue in 2025, driven largely by its Starlink satellite internet division, which posted $11.4 billion in revenue, growing nearly 50% year over year. Despite that growth, the company lost about $4.9 billion in 2025 and has burned through more than $37 billion since its founding.
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
A significant portion of those losses trace back to xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, which was recently merged into SpaceX. SpaceX directed roughly 60% of its capital spending in 2025 to its AI division, totaling around $20 billion, yet that division lost billions and grew revenue by only about 22%.
SpaceX plans to list its Class A common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America leading the offering. The dual-class share structure means going public will not meaningfully reduce Musk’s control, as Class B shares he holds carry 10 votes per share compared to one vote for public Class A shares.
The company is targeting a raise of around $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO ever. The investor roadshow is reportedly planned for June 5.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon just joined forces for one reason: Starlink is winning.
America’s three largest wireless carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, announced on On May 14, 2026 that they had agreed in principle to form a joint venture aimed at pooling their spectrum resources to expand satellite-based direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity across the United States in what can be seen as a direct response to SpaceX’s Starlink initiative. D2D, in plain terms, is technology that lets a standard smartphone connect directly to a satellite in orbit, the same way it connects to a cell tower, with no extra hardware required.
The alliance is widely seen as a means to slow Starlink’s rapid expansion in the satellite internet and mobile markets. SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile service launched commercially in July 2025 through a partnership with T-Mobile, starting with messaging before expanding to broadband data. SpaceX secured access to valuable wireless spectrum through its $17 billion deal with EchoStar, paving the way for significantly faster satellite-to-phone speeds.
SpaceX was not shy about its reaction. SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell responded on X: “Weeeelllll, I guess Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David.” SpaceX’s VP of Satellite Policy David Goldman went further, flagging potential antitrust concerns and asking whether the DOJ would even allow three dominant competitors to coordinate in a market where a new rival is actively entering.
Weeeelllll, I guess @Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David 🙂 https://t.co/5GzS752mxL
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) May 14, 2026
Financial analysts at LightShed Partners were blunt, saying the announcement showed the three carriers are “nervous,” and pointed to the timing: “You announce an agreement in principle when the point is the announcement, not the deal. The timing, weeks ahead of the SpaceX roadshow, was the point.”
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX’s next generation Starlink V2 satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current system, with custom silicon and phased array antennas enabling around 20 times the throughput of the first generation. The carriers’ JV, which has no definitive agreement, no financial structure, and no deployment timeline yet, will need to move quickly to matter.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is targeting a Nasdaq listing as early as June 12, aiming for what would be the largest IPO in history. With Starlink now serving over 9 million subscribers across 155 countries, holding 59 carrier partnerships globally, and now powering Air Force One, the carriers’ joint venture announcement landed at exactly the wrong time to look like anything other than a defensive move.
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