Investor's Corner
Tesla Earnings: Wedbush expects AI, EV demand, Presidency to take focus in Q2 call
Tesla Earnings is today, and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has plenty of expectations for the automaker’s Q2 call.
Tesla beat expectations for deliveries and solidified a solid quarter for the Energy division with its biggest deployment to date, giving it a chance to run on Wall Street as the past month the stock is up over 36 percent.
However, there are plenty of things that need to be talked about on today’s call, especially Artificial Intelligence and Robotaxi, demand for Tesla’s EVs, and potentially some talk on the U.S. Presidential Election. Wedbush expects to hear from CEO Elon Musk on each of these topics:
AI, FSD, and Robotaxi
Wedbush said in a note to investors ahead of the call that there are plenty of things that need to be confronted on the AI, FSD, and Robotaxi subjects.
Tesla and Musk stand to benefit from a Trump presidency, Ives writes, stating that if he were to win another term, regulatory hurdles may be no more than a simple hop instead of a full-fledged jump for the automaker:
“The Street view is also that a Trump White House potential win could help Musk/Tesla on the FSD regulatory path down the road.”
Tesla will also need to bring more closure to investors regarding the delay and new timing of the Robotaxi unveiling event, which was originally scheduled for August 8.
Tesla delayed the event, Musk confirmed earlier this month, as changes to the vehicle needed to be made:
“The Street will be focused on Musk addressing the timing of Robotaxi Day, which appears to have moved from August 8th to early/mid-October. Addressing the delay in Robotaxi Day and the new timing will be important to hear on the conference call as we believe a linchpin to Tesla reaching $1 trillion+ valuation and ultimately higher over the next year is contingent on the AI/FSD story materializing into a monetization path over the coming years.”
Tesla Demand and Margins
Some analysts have already outlined their concern for margins on this call, especially as Tesla continues to spend in order to get the Cybertruck ramped up.
Ives believes Tesla should “march towards 2 million units annual trajectory” as “clear momentum” has pushed the automaker into a strong position moving forward.
He also commented on the “sweet spot” for margins:
“Auto gross margins (ex credits) in the 16.5%-17% range would be the sweet spot and should mark the beginning of an upward climb into the next few quarters as price cuts appear to be mostly done with price increases in some regions/models seen the last few weeks. A major focus of the conference call will be the overall demand environment, China growth in a competitive/price cut backdrop, and the outlook for the rest of the year.”
U.S. Presidential Election
Ives believes Musk will comment on the U.S. Presidential election as the race has major implications not only for Tesla specifically, but for the EV sector in general.
Musk has publicly supported former President Donald Trump, and although rumors of a $45 million a month donation to the Trump campaign circulated, Musk denied the claims.
However, he has stated explicitly that Trump will get his vote in November.
Ives explains the importance of this being talked about during the call this evening:
“We also expect Musk to address the US Presidential Election with his firm backing for Trump and now a Harris nomination likely for the Democrats heading into November. We continue to believe in the scenario of a Trump win this would be negative for the EV industry but positive for Tesla as removing the tax rebates/incentives would give Musk and Tesla an advantage. The Street view is also that a Trump White House potential win could help Musk/Tesla on the FSD regulatory path down the road. On the other hand a Harris ticket would be a positive for Detroit (GM, Ford, Stellantis) and the EV industry and in theory also help Tesla, although this all remains up for debate among investors. We expect Musk to discuss some of his thoughts around this hot button topic on the conference call tomorrow.”
You can read what investors and analysts want to know on the call here:
Tesla Earnings is tomorrow – Here’s what analysts think you should be looking for
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Featured
Tesla Cybercab is coming to Asia this month as US service officially begins
Tesla Asia says Cybercab will be on display in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai this month.
Tesla’s Cybercab is heading to Asia. The official Tesla Asia account posted on X Thursday, inviting Cybercab fans to “Come experience the future of autonomy in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing & Shanghai.” The post went up within hours of Tesla’s own Cybercab milestone in Texas, where the company said Thursday it had begun offering rides in across Austin.
Exact dates and venues for the Asia tour haven’t been released yet, though Tesla Hong Kong replied to the announcement with “Cybercab will be on display in Hong Kong soon,” while Tesla Japan’s response pointed fans to a sign up page for updates. Neither post mentions test rides or a service area, and nothing so far suggests Tesla is launching Robotaxi operations in any of the four cities. Based on how Tesla has run past Cybercab tours, in Europe in late 2024 and at US shopping centers that same December, the Asia stops are almost certainly static displays at Tesla stores or public venues as a means to stimulate buzz for its future driverless ride-hailing service in the big cities.
Cybercab will be on display in Asia this month!
Come experience the future of autonomy in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing & Shanghai. pic.twitter.com/wGmmEastfX— Tesla Asia (@Tesla_Asia) September 4, 2026
The timing lines up with Tesla’s only prior Cybercab appearance in the region, a booth at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai last November, which Teslarati covered at the time. At that event, Tesla’s regional general manager for Shanghai framed the car as evidence of the company’s broader mission, a message Tesla has since formalized in its Master Plan Part IV, which states that “autonomous vehicles have the capacity to dramatically improve the affordability, availability and safety of transportation while reducing pollution, particularly in our increasingly dense global cities.” The same document is where Tesla lays out its “sustainable abundance” framing for Cybercab and Optimus alike, describing the two as the hardware behind an AI driven push to cut the cost of transportation and labor at scale.
Whether Cybercab actually operates as a robotaxi anywhere in Asia remains an open question, considering China has already pushed an autonomous ride-hailing market that’s run on homegrown players like Baidu’s Apollo Go and Pony AI. For now, the four city tour reads as a marketing push timed to Austin’s momentum.
Elon Musk
OpenAI cites distrust of SpaceX in decision to drop Cursor partnership
OpenAI will cut SpaceX-owned Cursor’s model access in November, citing Musk’s history of broken contracts.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced late Friday that it is ending its partnership with Cursor, cutting off the coding tool’s access to its models on November 12. The move comes two weeks after SpaceX completed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor’s parent company, Anysphere, folding the popular AI coding assistant into Elon Musk’s growing SpaceXAI division.
In a post on its website, OpenAI said the decision came down to trust, not technology. “We cannot be confident that SpaceX will use our technology within our terms of service, based on our experience with Elon Musk’s companies violating contracts,” the company wrote. OpenAI pointed to two specific incidents: X, now part of SpaceX, allegedly breaking the terms of an existing OpenAI contract after Musk bought Twitter.
That lawsuit is the backdrop for all of this. Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015, left the board in 2018, and sued Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in 2024, arguing they abandoned the company’s nonprofit mission for profit. A federal jury sided with OpenAI in May, finding Musk waited too long to sue rather than ruling on the merits of his claims. Musk said at the time he would appeal to the Ninth Circuit, calling the outcome a “calendar technicality” rather than a real judgment.
SpaceX’s interest in Cursor predates that verdict by weeks. The company first struck a deal with Cursor in April, securing an option to acquire it for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for joint development work instead. As Teslarati reported at the time, the logic was straightforward: Cursor was paying retail prices to Anthropic and OpenAI, two of its most direct competitors, every time a developer used its product, while SpaceX had idle capacity on its Colossus supercomputer, roughly the equivalent of a million Nvidia H100 GPUs, that Cursor could use to train its own models instead. SpaceX exercised the option in June, days after its own IPO, and the deal closed in mid-August.
Once it closed, Musk moved fast. On an all-hands call with more than 1,000 Cursor employees, he reportedly told staff that SpaceXAI’s Grok was playing catchup in the AI race, unlike Tesla and SpaceX in their own markets, and singled out Anthropic as the company to catch. Cursor CEO Michael Truell now reports directly to Musk inside SpaceXAI.
Losing OpenAI’s models leaves Cursor leaning harder on Anthropic’s Claude, which has its own compute agreement with SpaceX, and on Cursor’s in-house Composer model, the one SpaceX’s compute was supposed to accelerate in the first place. OpenAI framed the November deadline as maximum notice under its contract, and said it wants to “go above and beyond” to help developers through the transition. Whether Anthropic makes the same call is now the open question in AI coding.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Robotaxi gets a massive upgrade in Nevada
Nevada regulators just approved a massive expansion of Tesla’s robotaxi fleet across the entire county.
Tesla’s robotaxi footprint in Nevada just grew by roughly 500 times in a single regulatory vote.
The Nevada Transportation Authority approved Tesla’s full Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit on Thursday, clearing the way for the company to deploy up to 5,000 driverless vehicles across Clark County over the next 12 months. The decision came during a four hour general session meeting that Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt watched live and reported on X, noting the vote replaces the interim order that had limited Tesla to just 10 robotaxis on a narrow stretch of the Las Vegas Strip.
EXCLUSIVE: Tesla has just officially received approval for its full Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit in Nevada, clearing the way for Tesla to launch a paid public Robotaxi service in Las Vegas.
This officially allows @Tesla to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis over the next… pic.twitter.com/DPs5UtUlrE
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 20, 2026
That earlier cap, covered here after it surfaced on August 13, came with restrictions that looked stricter than what Tesla runs in Austin: a 45 mph speed ceiling, no airport pickups, and a geofence confined to the Strip corridor. The new approval extends Tesla’s operating authority to all of Clark County, with room to request an even wider geofence across the state.
Tesla representatives at the meeting said they have no intention of putting 5,000 cars on the road right away. Commercial rides are expected to start within 30 days, pending vehicle inspections, insurance filings, and fare approval, the standard steps every robotaxi operator in Nevada has had to clear.
Tesla’s own Robotaxi account replied to the news with a short line, The golden future is upon us.
The timing lines up with Tesla’s broader robotaxi push this month. The company is preparing to open Cybercab rides to the public in Austin as soon as this month, and it opened a sweepstakes for riders to win a seat at the launch event. Tesla filed its original application for a 5,000 vehicle Nevada fleet back in June, a request regulators trimmed to 10 vehicles when they issued the interim order in July. Thursday’s vote effectively grants the number Tesla asked for from the start.
Zoox, the Amazon owned robotaxi operator, has run in Nevada since 2025 and was capped at 100 vehicles before Thursday’s decision. Tesla’s new ceiling puts it well ahead of that comparison on paper, though the company has said its actual fleet size will depend on how quickly FSD v15 rolls out, the software update executives have called the gateway to scaling unsupervised robotaxi operations nationwide.
Tesla Cybercab launch catches NHTSA’s attention who wants to know more
Tesla Cybercab is coming to Asia this month as US service officially begins
