Investor's Corner
Tesla continues Gigafactory 3 preparations with new hiring initiative, $145M real estate bid
Tesla’s preparations for Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, China are underway, with the company recently listing a number of new job postings for the upcoming facility. The new Shanghai Gigafactory 3 job openings come amidst reports that Tesla is also in the process of acquiring a site where the battery and electric car facility would be constructed on.
Tesla has posted job openings for the Shanghai Gigafactory in the past. That said, the electric car maker posted a new set of job listings for the upcoming facility on October 11, including positions for Senior Managers for Construction, Mechanical Design Engineers for Building Infrastructure, and Electrical Design Engineers. These postings were listed on Tesla’s Careers page on its website, as well as the company’s official WeChat account. Overall, the updated Gigafactory 3 job listings invoke the idea that Tesla is assembling the team it needs to break ground and start the construction of the facility.
From the official recruitment advertisement of Tesla, the Shanghai Gigafactory has entered the stage of preparation for construction. Thanks @congcongcui1 for the info $TSLA #TeslaChina pic.twitter.com/rtTmJHbNAa
— vincent (@vincent13031925) October 12, 2018
The ongoing hiring ramp for Gigafactory 3 goes in line with Tesla’s recent statement in its Q3 2018 vehicle production and deliveries report. When the electric car maker released its findings for the past quarter, the company mentioned that it was accelerating the construction of the Shanghai factory. The update augmented the company’s initial timeline for the project, which estimated vehicle production to start two years after initial construction begins. In its Q3 report, Tesla noted that it expects Gigafactory 3 to be capital efficient, considering the lessons that were learned with the Model 3 ramp.
“We are accelerating construction of our Shanghai factory, which we expect to be a capital efficient and rapid buildout, using many lessons learned from the Model 3 ramp in North America,” Tesla wrote.
Apart from an ongoing hiring ramp, Tesla is reportedly attempting to acquire land for Gigafactory 3. Reports citing individuals familiar with the proceedings have indicated that Tesla is bidding on a plot of land with an auction price of $145 million. If Tesla’s bid is successful, the Shanghai government could formally allocate the land to the electric car maker as early as this month.
Despite the company being faced with a stream of skepticism and controversies over the online actions of CEO Elon Musk, the progress of Gigafactory appears to have been consistent over the past months. Last September, for example, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily noted that around 30% of Gigafactory 3’s initial capital has been secured. Reports from China’s local media also suggested that the Shanghai government is assisting Tesla in obtaining loans from local banks to help fund the construction of the battery and electric car factory.
Gigafactory 3 would be Tesla’s first major facility that combines both battery and electric vehicle production. Despite its vehicle production capabilities, Elon Musk noted during the Q3 2018 earnings call that he expects Gigafactory 3’s cost to be “closer to $2 billion” at the 250,000 vehicle-per-year rate, making it less capital-intensive as Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, which is expected to cost $5 billion when complete. One done, Tesla expects Gigafactory 3 to produce up to 500,000 vehicles per year.
It should be noted that while Tesla’s targets for Gigafactory 3 are incredibly aggressive, the company’s timeline is not that farfetched. Gigafactory 3, after all, does not need to be fully completed before it begins vehicle production. This is exhibited by Gigafactory 1, which is less than 30% complete but is already operating and supporting the battery needs of the Model 3 production ramp. Gigafactory 3 is also being built in China, a country with a construction workforce that has earned Elon Musk’s approval for its near-surgical efficiency and quickness.
Tesla bear Michael Burry got blunt with his beliefs over the company’s valuation, which he called “ridiculously overvalued” in a newsletter to subscribers this past weekend.
“Tesla’s market capitalization is ridiculously overvalued today and has been for a good long time,” Burry, who was the inspiration for the movie The Big Short, and was portrayed by Christian Bale.
Burry went on to say, “As an aside, the Elon cult was all-in on electric cars until competition showed up, then all-in on autonomous driving until competition showed up, and now is all-in on robots — until competition shows up.”
Tesla bear Michael Burry ditches bet against $TSLA, says ‘media inflated’ the situation
For a long time, Burry has been skeptical of Tesla, its stock, and its CEO, Elon Musk, even placing a $530 million bet against shares several years ago. Eventually, Burry’s short position extended to other supporters of the company, including ARK Invest.
Tesla has long drawn skepticism from investors and more traditional analysts, who believe its valuation is overblown. However, the company is not traded as a traditional stock, something that other Wall Street firms have recognized.
While many believe the company has some serious pull as an automaker, an identity that helped it reach the valuation it has, Tesla has more than transformed into a robotics, AI, and self-driving play, pulling itself into the realm of some of the most recognizable stocks in tech.
Burry’s Scion Asset Management has put its money where its mouth is against Tesla stock on several occasions, but the firm has not yielded positive results, as shares have increased in value since 2020 by over 115 percent. The firm closed in May.
In 2020, it launched its short position, but by October 2021, it had ditched that position.
Tesla has had a tumultuous year on Wall Street, dipping significantly to around the $220 mark at one point. However, it rebounded significantly in September, climbing back up to the $400 region, as it currently trades at around $430.
It closed at $430.14 on Monday.
Investor's Corner
Mizuho keeps Tesla (TSLA) “Outperform” rating but lowers price target
As per the Mizuho analyst, upcoming changes to EV incentives in the U.S. and China could affect Tesla’s unit growth more than previously expected.
Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh lowered Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) price target to $475 from $485, citing potential 2026 EV subsidy cuts in the U.S. and China that could pressure deliveries. The firm maintained its Outperform rating for the electric vehicle maker, however.
As per the Mizuho analyst, upcoming changes to EV incentives in the U.S. and China could affect Tesla’s unit growth more than previously expected. The U.S. accounted for roughly 37% of Tesla’s third-quarter 2025 sales, while China represented about 34%, making both markets highly sensitive to policy shifts. Potential 50% cuts to Chinese subsidies and reduced U.S. incentives affected the firm’s outlook.
With those pressures factored in, the firm now expects Tesla to deliver 1.75 million vehicles in 2026 and 2 million in 2027, slightly below consensus estimates of 1.82 million and 2.15 million, respectively. The analyst was cautiously optimistic, as near-term pressure from subsidies is there, but the company’s long-term tech roadmap remains very compelling.
Despite the revised target, Mizuho remained optimistic on Tesla’s long-term technology roadmap. The firm highlighted three major growth drivers into 2027: the broader adoption of Full Self-Driving V14, the expansion of Tesla’s Robotaxi service, and the commercialization of Optimus, the company’s humanoid robot.
“We are lowering TSLA Ests/PT to $475 with Potential BEV headwinds in 2026E. We believe into 2026E, US (~37% of TSLA 3Q25 sales) EV subsidy cuts and China (34% of TSLA 3Q25 sales) potential 50% EV subsidy cuts could be a headwind to EV deliveries.
“We are now estimating TSLA deliveries for 2026/27E at 1.75M/2.00M (slightly below cons. 1.82M/2.15M). We see some LT drivers with FSD v14 adoption for autonomous, robotaxi launches, and humanoid robots into 2027 driving strength,” the analyst noted.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) has landed an elusive “must own” status from Wall Street firm Melius, according to a new note released early this week.
Analyst Rob Wertheimer said Tesla will lead the charge in world-changing tech, given the company’s focus on self-driving, autonomy, and Robotaxi. In a note to investors, Wertheimer said “the world is about to change, dramatically,” because of the advent of self-driving cars.
He looks at the industry and sees many potential players, but the firm says there will only be one true winner:
“Our point is not that Tesla is at risk, it’s that everybody else is.”
The major argument is that autonomy is nearing a tipping point where years of chipping away at the software and data needed to develop a sound, safe, and effective form of autonomous driving technology turn into an avalanche of progress.
Wertheimer believes autonomy is a $7 trillion sector,” and in the coming years, investors will see “hundreds of billions in value shift to Tesla.”
A lot of the major growth has to do with the all-too-common “butts in seats” strategy, as Wertheimer believes that only a fraction of people in the United States have ridden in a self-driving car. In Tesla’s regard, only “tens of thousands” have tried Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving (Supervised) version, which is v14.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2 – Full Review, the Good and the Bad
When it reaches a widespread rollout and more people are able to experience Tesla Full Self-Driving v14, he believes “it will shock most people.”
Citing things like Tesla’s massive data pool from its vehicles, as well as its shift to end-to-end neural nets in 2021 and 2022, as well as the upcoming AI5 chip, which will be put into a handful of vehicles next year, but will reach a wider rollout in 2027, Melius believes many investors are not aware of the pace of advancement in self-driving.
Tesla’s lead in its self-driving efforts is expanding, Wertheimer says. The company is making strategic choices on everything from hardware to software, manufacturing, and overall vehicle design. He says Tesla has left legacy automakers struggling to keep pace as they still rely on outdated architectures and fragmented supplier systems.
Tesla shares are up over 6 percent at 10:40 a.m. on the East Coast, trading at around $416.
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