Investor's Corner
Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 is starting to attract the interest of China’s workforce
Tesla’s upcoming Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai appears to be attracting a lot of interest among China’s workers, with a recent recruitment day for the facility attracting a larger-than-expected number of applicants. Videos taken of the job fair show long lines of interested candidates waiting their turn to submit their applications for the factory.
Local media reports noted that Tesla’s job fair, which was held at the Lingang Industrial Zone, was initially set to end at 3:30 p.m. local time. To accommodate the number of candidates applying for a post in Gigafactory 3, though, Tesla ended up extending its hiring hours. Several applicants interviewed by local media also pointed out that they took the effort of traveling to Shanghai to apply for a job in the upcoming Tesla facility.
Update (Video) about:
Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory held a job fair in the Lingang Industrial Zone. As you can see from the video provided by Chinese media https://t.co/CmnfB7Cj1u ，huge amount candidates are interested to join $TSLA for GF3 development.#Tesla #China #TeslaChina pic.twitter.com/mSZxyf5S5w
— vincent (@vincent13031925) November 30, 2018
The warm reception to Tesla’s recent job fair in Shanghai bodes well for Gigafactory 3’s development. Tesla, after all, announced in its third-quarter vehicle delivery and production report that it is expediting the construction of the factory, which is expected to be capable of producing both battery packs and electric vehicles. In its report, Tesla noted that it expects Gigafactory 3’s buildout to be quick and efficient, particularly as the company would be applying the lessons it learned during the Model 3 production ramp on the facility.
Tesla’s business in China has been challenged this year due to additional import tariffs placed by the government against vehicles imported abroad. Despite this, though, Tesla’s brand has remained strong in the country, partly due to its reputation as the manufacturer of some of the most desirable electric vehicles in the market. Amidst China’s aggressive plan of adopting electric cars in its key cities, Tesla’s place as one of the first movers in the EV industry appears to be valued by the country as well.
The development and progress of Gigafactory 3 has been remarkable so far, thanks in part to the Chinese government’s support for the project. Over the past months, state media has run multiple segments about how the state fully supports the construction of the factory. This support became quite evident when China made the rare decision to allow Tesla to become the sole owner of Gigafactory 3. The electric car maker’s bid for the 864,885-square meter plot of land in Shanghai’s Lingang area went unchallenged by any rival bidders as well. Apart from these, low-interest loans from local banks were also secured quickly, with local news site Beijing Business Daily noting that around 30% of the facility’s funds have been ready since October.
China has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S. Currently the tariff is 40%.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
Apart from the apparent high interest among job applicants for Gigafactory 3, Tesla’s business would likely see a notable boost this quarter, thanks to changing headwinds in the ongoing US-China trade war. In a recent tweet, US President Donald Trump suggested that China has agreed to “reduce and remove” import tariffs on vehicles coming in from the United States. Considering that Tesla’s electric cars are weighed down by a 40% tariff, the reduction or removal of the duties would likely result in better Q4 figures.
Tesla has ambitious plans for Gigafactory 3, with the company aiming to produce up to 500,000 electric vehicles every year once construction is complete. Two of the company’s high-volume vehicles, the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y SUV, are expected to be produced in the upcoming facility, which would specifically cater to the Chinese market.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Investor's Corner
Tesla analyst realizes one big thing about the stock: deliveries are losing importance
Tesla analyst Dan Levy of Barclays realized one big thing about the stock moving into 2026: vehicle deliveries are losing importance.
As a new era of Tesla seems to be on the horizon, the concern about vehicle deliveries and annual growth seems to be fading, at least according to many investors.
Even CEO Elon Musk has implied at times that the automotive side, as a whole, will only make up a small percentage of Tesla’s total valuation, as Optimus and AI begin to shine with importance.
He said in April:
“The future of the company is fundamentally based on large-scale autonomous cars and large-scale and large volume, vast numbers of autonomous humanoid robots.”
Almost all of Tesla’s value long-term will be from AI & robots, both vehicle & humanoid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2023
Levy wrote in a note to investors that Tesla’s Q4 delivery figures “likely won’t matter for the stock.” Barclays said in the note that it expects deliveries to be “soft” for the quarter.
In years past, Tesla analysts, investors, and fans were focused on automotive growth.
Cars were truly the biggest thing the stock had to offer: Tesla was a growing automotive company with a lot of prowess in AI and software, but deliveries held the most impact, along with vehicle pricing. These types of things had huge impacts on the stock years ago.
In fact, several large swings occurred because of Tesla either beating or missing delivery estimates:
- January 3, 2022: +13.53%, record deliveries at the time
- January 3, 2023: -12.24%, missed deliveries
- July 2, 2024: +10.20%, beat delivery expectations
- October 3, 2022: -8.61%, sharp miss due to Shanghai factory shutdown
- July 2, 2020: +7.95%, topped low COVID-era expectations with sizeable beat on deliveries
It has become more apparent over the past few quarters that delivery estimates have significantly less focus from investors, who are instead looking for progress in AI, Optimus, Cybercab, and other projects.
These things are the future of the company, and although Tesla will always sell cars, the stock is more impacted by the software the vehicle is running, and not necessarily the vehicle itself.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.
Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.
It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.
Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.
He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.
Musk replied, basically confirming it:
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.
AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.
It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.
The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.
But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Tesla Model Y L is gaining momentum in China’s premium segment
